There’s an old football adage attributable to one-time Steelers owner Bert Bell. “On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team.” Unfortunately that saying proved out in reverse for our Penguins yesterday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.
With a golden opportunity to secure two points and control our postseason destiny, we fumbled the ball…or the puck as the case may be…en route to a disquieting 4-1 loss to the Flyers.
The last-place Flyers. The Flyers who only recently lost six games in a row and 11 of 13. The Flyers who hadn’t won at home in over a month.
Those Flyers.
Yes, I know. The Pens were playing the second of back-to-back games and their third game in four days. And I’m not unsympathetic. Circumstances compelled me to work out Friday evening, and again on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Cardio, too. By game-time yesterday I was running on fumes. Perhaps being an older team, our Pens were, too.
Yet you’d hope they’d find a way, especially with so much at stake. Teams of destiny do.
Yesterday our boys didn’t. They looked decidedly stale and lifeless. No jump. No sizzle. Precious little puck support in the offensive zone, to the extent that we made journeyman goalie Martin Jones look like a Vezina Trophy candidate. It was almost as if our guys viewed the slot as a foreign country that required a special passport to visit.
Our “effort” (or lack of) brings to mind another quote, this one by former Pens coach Bob Berry. Frustrated with his team’s up-and-down play, he railed, “Win one 8-1, lose one 7-2. Easy come, easy go. That’s the attitude. Good show, bad show…doesn’t matter.”
Or as present Pens skipper Mike Sullivan angrily and emphatically stated, “We just weren’t good enough. We didn’t play well enough to win.”
While I hardly think any team captained by Sidney Crosby doesn’t care, the Pens lack consistency from game to game. It’s almost like watching a sine wave on an oscilloscope display. Up and down. Up and down.
The playoffs are a grind. Coast and pick your spots as the Pens are wont to do?
We’ll be scheduling early tee times.
Puckpourri
The Pens held the edge in shot attempts (71-65) and scoring chances (37-27). Philly had the advantage in shots on goal (43-38) and high-danger chances (16-11), not to mention hits (24-12) and passion.
Crosby scored with 3:33 remaining to spoil Jones’s shutout bid. Noah Cates (two goals), Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny (an empty-netter) scored for the orange-and-black.
A convoluted bright spot? Cates and Frost are former Ron Hextall draft picks. Fueling hope that GMRH knows what he’s doing when it comes to young talent.
Louis Domingue stopped 39 of 42 shots in his second start for the Pens, good for a .929 save percentage. Although he could hardly be faulted on the two Cates goals, which came on deflections from the doorstep, the big goalie expressed dissatisfaction with his play.
“I got outplayed by (Jones),” Domingue said. “He was better than me.”
Wish there was a little more of that to go around, rather than an overall laconic tone in the black-and-gold dressing room.
There’s no sugar-coating. This is a loss we may come to regret…deeply. While the Pens (45-24-11, 101 points) maintain a fingertip grip on third place in the Metro, the Capitals (one point behind) have a game in hand.
And there’s bad news out of the Atlantic. The Bruins beat Montreal and now have 103 points. If we slip behind the Capitals, we may fall to the second wild card. Which means we face the Panthers, recent winners of 13 in a row, in the first round.
Know of any good golf courses in south Florida?
Boyle for the Masterton
The Pens have nominated Brian Boyle for the Masterton Trophy, and rightfully so. After sitting out the entire 2020-21 campaign, the big guy signed a PTO with us in August. He not only carved out a spot on the roster, he’s thrived.
Boyle’s notched 10 goals and 19 points in 65 games while literally anchoring the fourth line and our pk. The 37-year-old’s provided invaluable leadership and physical play (92 hits) to boot.
If the Hingham, Massachusetts native wins, he’ll be the first player since the award’s inception in 1968 to be honored twice. Brian previously won the award in 2018 after overcoming myeloid leukemia.
Two Penguins have won the award…Lowell MacDonald (1973) and Mario Lemieux (1993). In addition, former Pens Charlie Simmer, Gary Roberts, John Cullen, Phil Kessel, Steve Sullivan, Dominic Moore and Jaromir Jagr were honored while playing for other teams.
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Greetings All.
What a hockey Game folks !!!
Like I said , the Edmonton game will be the changing of the guard and we have witnessed the Last Dance for the Penguins as we know it. This game was never close, never in question and never in anyone's mind who the better hockey team is. We played a good game but against a much better opponent !!!
It does not matter what Sidney Crosby does....the Oilers have far more talent than us and are bigger and faster. I am glad we saw this embarrassment tonight so there can be NO Doubt in anyone's mind that we need to rebuild our team.
So what do we do about our last game against the Blue Jackets ? Do rest Crosby , Malkin, Letang and risk losing the game and given the Caps a sure Victory in New York ?
We can't !!!! A sad situation to be in.
Lets Go Pen's....
Jim
Hey Jim,
I know that anything is possible and injuries and puck luck can sometimes buoy up a foundering team, so there may be a last gasp before the final end, but as you said, the signs are there for anyone who has eyes and are willing to open them, rather than bury their head in the memories of bygone days. Some here on these boards have been warning about this inevitability (you for one), but no one would listen and some even ridiculed.
The signs of what happened last night were clearly evident in the preseason but preseason optimism would not allow discourse with the obvious for most. A week schedule through the first half of the season bloated already unreal expectations. Even now some will refuse to acknowledge the truth. But our Penguins are pretenders not contenders. Barring Divine intervention the only question that remains is will this team get swept?
What ticks me off though is the realization that once again we refused to be sellers at the trade deadline and now 1 or more of our players will defect in off-season FA - the team will receive no compensation, the team will not get the draft picks I coveted.
There is no joy in Pens-Town this AM.
Rick & The Other Rick
I think it's time for Sullivan to send a message to the team - It's time for
a couple players to see the Press Box (Kappy & E-Rod) - I like Kapanen
and I've never been an E-Rod fan but both are struggling big time.
Maybe a couple of games as a healthy scratch will rejuvenate the
two of them. Personally I think E-Rod is really back to playing the way
he's played in his 9 plus years in the league but Kapanen is capable
of at least 20 goals a year. My lines for the last (3) games are as follows.
Crosby, Guentzel, Rakell
Malkin, Zucker, Rust
Carter, Heinen, ?? O'Connor, Zahorna, Angello " ANY ONE" Put Friedman
on right wing.
Blueger, Boyle, McGinn "If healthy" - he doesn't appear to be 100%
Something needs to give prior to the start of the Playoffs. GO PENS
Hey Mike,
I won't argue too much about your lines at all, maybe a tweak here or there depending on situational issues.
I am not as down on E-Rod as you, but I would have traded him when his stock was high. As I wrote at the beginning of the season, I do think he is a Center not a Wing and Center on the top 2 lines (on a non-playoff team) for him to be effective and that while Crosby and Malkin were out, he would thrive but as the big guns started to come back and he would slide down the lineup he would fail.
Kapanen, honestly, I don't think his lack of production need be traced back any farther than the Penguins taking the puck off of the forwards and having the Defensemen carry the puck. However, now with the exit of Simon and ZAR, outside of trying to force E-Rod into a bottom 6 role just to put him on the ice, I can live with your lines.
Hey Rick,
You know, I find it interesting that whenever our Penguins lose, the fans and even the coaches like to point to this player or that player and say they were the cause of the loss, but precious few people look at the coach. Despite a revolving door of players in the lineup, mostly due to injuries/sicknesses at forward, people still love to point fingers at the players.
Low hanging fruit? naivety? other?
The constant through all of this mediocrity has been the coaches, but let's not look at them. Let's not question if it has been a question of the team getting out-coached. I have read several people, here on these boards complain that the team is too predictable, yet not really be willing to demand the coaching staff be held accountable - I don't get it.
Against the Metro Division, our Penguins Pnts% is barely above 500 (0.540). Against Metro division playoff teams, they have only won 3 games. The teams that play them the most, the teams that know them the most, fare the best against them. This is where Coaching comes into play, against teams that know you, but our Coaching staff has no answers. All they want to do is call out players, not look in the mirror.
Consistency is also a mark of good coaching. If a team is inconsistent, it is on the coaches.
It is past time for a coaching change. That should have been done when the Coach complained that no one in the locker room was listening to him, when our Pens got swept by the Isles in 2018-2019. That admission was more than enough for termination.
Hey Other Rick,
I'm not saying that Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff aren't part of the equation. But I think to pin everything on them is an oversimplification.
There are so many factors influencing the current state of our Penguins. Not to make excuses and they certainly don't owe us anything, but the NHL schedule-makers sure as hell didn't do any favors by back loading our schedule with playoff contenders. Poison for an aging team.
Too, salary cap issues and attrition have contributed as well. Going back to last summer, we certainly didn't have the pick of the litter when it came to adding free agents or even keeping our own who were worthwhile (Cody Ceci and Freddy Gaudreau come to mind). While Hextall did well all things considered, we weren't adding front-line talent.
Just a gradual erosion of our team...the back-end of the championship bell curve.
I won't argue that going forward I'd like to get away from Sullivan's system and blueprint for the team (if he remains our coach). We just aren't built for the rigors of the postseason.
Rick
Hey Rick,
Sorry, I have to disagree. I think constantly blaming the players rather than the coaches is over-simplification, particularly when the players, over the years have changed, but the outcome has remained the same. Even if it were the players, who were at fault, JR placated every Coaches whim, when it came to players, so, in the end, even the players fall back on the coaching.
It wasn't until RH came in that the Coaching staff was reined in a touch. RH started bringing actual adult sized hockey players back in here with Carter, even McGinn and Heinen, and Rakell, and now these kids he is signing, Frasca and Glover.; add to the bigger players the shipping out of Smurfs such as Simon.
Also, the fact that I am looking at our Pens records vs different teams and how we our record is barely above 500 vs teams we play most often should indicate that I am not oversimplifying anything. Add to that how I have complained about the Pens coaches trying to drive the offense thru the defense, forcing Dumoulin, Marino, Pettersson, and Ruhwedel to carry the puck rather than having Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel, Rust, Rakell, Carter, Heinen, Kapanen, Zucker, and the other Pens forwards all that have above average to elite level pedigree.
As for the Pens schedule for this year, I would suggest that the schedule did favor the Penguins (short term), as a team, but not the Pens fans. The schedule allowed the team to play soft teams while sans Crosby and Malkin to help them maintain their playoff streak alive.
However, the bloated W% caused a couple of problems;
1) Many fans were given false hope - It raised fans expectations that are now crashing to the ground.
2) It caused the team to make a poor long term decision not to be sellers at the trade deadline, now they will loose at least 1 if not several players to FA with no return.
Hey Coach, (Rick and Mike,)
If there ever was a game the Pens needed to win ,it was yesterday.For several reasons not to mention that it is your # 1 nemesis in the league.(Kind of like Toronto and Montreal here in Canada.) No motivation at all on our side but we ALL saw how motivated the young Flyers were yesterday. For them this was their Stanley Cup Final. Stick it to our hated rivals and hope they have to play the Panthers. To be honest yesterday the FLYERS were the better team.No excuses... Why ? Because we are no longer Championship materials. Champions win the key games, they make the right play at the right time....Losers don't.They make excuses.
Look what the defending 2 time Stanley cup Champions did to their Rivals.. every one's favorite ,the Panthers. They destroyed them.Sent the Panthers a message about how hard it is to win this thing called the Stanley Cup.
How about those useless Capitals, we all laughed off a month ago ? Whose laughing now ? In the last 10 games they beat or got a point off of the best teams in the league. Not possible I would have said a month ago. Why? Champions find ways to win !
They have 3 GAMES LEFT. I can tell you one thing that their last game against the Rangers, the Rangers will rest all their key players and start their back up goalie so that the Caps will win for sure.That way the Rangers will NOT have to play the Penguins. Plus their is no love lost between the Islanders either and I expect at least one of those games, they will do the same to help the Caps bury the Pen's.
Which leads me to the last point. Connor McDavid who is the NUMBER 1 player in the league.PERIOD ! We need to beat him tomorrow. We need those 2 points. But tomorrow will be the changing of the guard.Remember Evander Kane and how everyone thought Edmonton was crazy signing him. Again whose laughing now. Edmonton wants this game against us. Their captain wants to cement in the Hockey world's mind who is number one. This will be one heck of a hockey game and I hope we are ready.We don't win against the Oilers it will be hello Florida...and Good Bye 16 years of great memories.
Forgive me guys if I am a little edgy but my wife brought home Covid to our family last week and we both have been suffering and with my cancer other health issues this can be tricky.I am on some powerful stuff so I just let all hang out.
Thank's for letting me ramble.
Let's Go Pen's.
Cheers
JIM
Hey Jim,
It's okay for you to ramble. There's a lot of wisdom and truth in what you say ... :) We're definitely on the downside of the championship curve.
A shame in a way, because I still think Sidney Crosby's a Cup-worthy captain. I've been watching him away from the puck more lately and every little detail in his game is spot on. And he's still the best passer in traffic I've ever seen.
Just wish we had a more complete team around him.
Rick
PS--I hear ya about Evander Kane. The Oilers' season turned around when they signed him (21-16-2 before and 25-11-4 since). Don't know what he's like in the dressing room and off the ice. But on the ice? A talented power forward in the Gordie Howe mode.
PSS--Hope you're weathering Covid okay, my friend.
Thanks Buddy,
I really appreciative the well wishes.
Doing the best I can in a difficult situation.
I forgot in my rant to mention you did a fantastic job in writing this article above.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Jim,
You make a super point, how the H E double hockey sticks did the team come out completely flat? I could possibly look past a loss, if a goalie stood on his head but the team came out and played with passion, but the lack of passion in a rivalry game should cause all to question this team.