I can sum up my feelings about the Penguins’ 4-3 overtime loss to Carolina last night in one word. Frustrated. Make that FRUSTRATED.
I really thought we had ‘em, especially after Bryan Rust capped off a rink-long dash with a spectacular go-ahead goal with a shade over seven minutes to play in regulation.
Then an old, or should I say, continuing bugaboo reared its ugly head. Namely, our grave difficulty in getting the puck out of our zone when foes turn up the heat. Almost to a man we poke, chip, nudge or feather the rubber as if it’s some sort of vulcanized hot potato rather than making a hard play to clear the zone. It’s almost as if we’re trying to set offensive plays in motion instead of seeing to the immediate task at hand.
Whatever the root cause, it came back to bite us in the unmentionable last night. Our collective inability to get the puck out led directly to a wraparound game-tying tally by Jordan Staal less than three minutes after Rusty’s marker. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The first eight minutes or so of the game were as low event as it gets. The Pens mustered all of two shots on goal, the Hurricanes none. For the record, our foes didn’t register their first shot on goal till 9:55 of the first period. No great surprise when you’re playing the ‘Canes. As I’ve written before, they make you fight for every inch of ice. Just as important, they don’t beat themselves. A trait I wish the team wearing the black and gold possessed.
Actually, the ‘Canes did provide a little largesse with just over three minutes left in the period when defenseman and Vancouver refugee Jalen Chatfield needlessly crosschecked Sidney Crosby from behind at our blue line.
To borrow from an old Jim Croce song, “…you don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Sid.” Our captain struck just 39 seconds later for a power-play goal. Take that, kid. Except Chatfield didn’t go away and neither did his team.
You could see the Pens let up ever so slightly after the goal and it cost ‘em. Man, did it cost ‘em. Martin Necas evened the score just 15 seconds later thanks to a made-to-order shot/pass off the end boards from Calvin de Haan. Seventeen seconds after that, the pesky Chatfield beat Tristan Jarry on a long-range bomb. In the blink of an eye, or 32 seconds to be more precise, our 1-0 lead morphed into a 2-1 deficit.
It looked like it was going to be one of those nights, especially after the second period dissolved into a quagmire of penalties drawn and taken. When Jason Zucker got tagged with an interference penalty for accidently-on-purpose bowling over goalie Antti Raanta at 17:25 of the period, I thought for sure we’d bought the farm.
But 45 ticks before the horn Teddy Blueger attacked the ‘Canes 1-on-2 and fired off a shot. Brock McGinn pounced on the rebound and slung it far side past Raanta for a huge shorthanded goal. Not to mention momentum stealer.
The stage was set for Rust’s brilliant individual effort at 12:55 of the third period. Catching the ‘Canes in a line change, he tucked his head and set sail with the puck on a one-man foray into Carolina ice. After bursting over the blue line, Rusty skirted forward Jordan Martinook and beat a stunned Raanta to the far post.
The 18,075 in attendance erupted. Pure bedlam. Then Staal delivered his dagger to take the air out of the building.
Overtime had scarcely begun when Evgeni Malkin committed the cardinal sin of chasing Jaccob Slavin behind the ‘Canes cage. With Geno hopelessly trailing the play, the veteran defender spearheaded a 3-on-2 rush before notching the OT winner. In the process, transforming what should’ve been a stocking stuffer of a victory into a lump of coal.
Puckpourri
Following a sluggish start, the ‘Canes dominated statistically. They held the high ground in virtually every category, including shot attempts (76-47), shots on goal (36-27), scoring chances (39-28) and high-danger chances (19-11).
Malkin has been mostly terrific of late, but last night wasn’t his finest hour. In addition to his brain cramp that led directly to the OT winner, he stood and watched after firing off a shot in the late stages of regulation, leading to a 3-on-2 against. Geno’s nine-game points streak was snapped as well.
On the flip side, Kris Letang’s been magnificent since his miraculous return from a stroke. Makes me wonder if something was ailing him earlier in the season.
Great work in the faceoff circle aside (57.6 percent), Jeff Carter appears to be morphing into this season’s Patrick Marleau. Signing him to an extension? One of GM Ron Hextall’s few obvious blunders.
IMHO, the Pens could use more jam up front to help with forceful plays, especially in the defensive zone. Would dearly love to pry rugged forward Tanner Jeannot out of Nashville.
Am I the only one who holds his breath when the Brian Dumoulin–Jan Rutta pairing is on the ice?
While our 5-on-5 play has slipped, our special teams continue to be special. We’ve scored a power play goal in 10 straight games while clicking at an incendiary 36.8 clip (14-for-38). We’ve killed off 19 straight enemy power plays, including five last night sans key penalty killers Josh Archibald and Ryan Poehling.
Speaking of hot, Rust has four goals and 11 points in his last nine games.
I’m beginning to hate Staal (sorry Jordan).
Can’t wait to be done with the ‘Canes. Much like the Devils of the Martin Brodeur-era, they’re a pain-in-the-you-know-what to play against.
On Tap
The Pens (19-9-5, 43 points) travel to Long Island on December 27 to take on the Islanders (18-14-2, 38 points).
A blessed Christmas and New Year’s to all our faithful readers!
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Hey Rick,
You know how early I have to get up in the AM. I rarely get to see past the 1st period, So, I look forward to reading your recaps.
1) You aren't the only one I have read talking about Malkin Chasing Slavin behind the net. I retrospect it was a bad play but 3-on-2 isn't all that different than 3-on-3. If Jarry doesn't mishandle the dump in prior to Necas' Goal, then Malkin is not put in the position to chase Slavin. Or if Jarry has better body control on the point shot that gets blocked and redirected behind the net before Staal's Goa, he doesn't get his leg trapped on the outside of the pipes and could have easily stuffed Staal's wrap-around attempt again obviating Malkin's OT play.
2) looking at the numbers, our Pens were out HDC 5 - 14, Guentzel - Crosby - Rackell 0 -4 (15:25 TOI) and McGinn - Carter - Kapanen 1 - 6. (*:26 TOI)while Zucker - Malkin - Rust were 1 - 1 (10:10 TOI) and Heinen - O'Connor - Blueger were 1 -0 (3:42 TOI). Maybe better Coaching would have helped and the lines that were playing better got the higher ice time instead of the lines that were struggling.
3) Giving up HDCs is dangerous with Jarry in the net. His Sv% on HDCs has always been in the lower half of the league. Right now he checks in at 47th in the league among Goalies who are within 1 Standard Deviation of the mean in ice time over all and 37th when looking at 5-on-5 play.
In the end there is a good reason why we are not 1st in the division and it comes from within.