On Tuesday night, the Predators ground us to dust with a dose of rugged, playoff-style hockey. Well, our Penguins returned the favor last night against a heavy St. Louis squad. For the better part of the evening, the Pens skated circles around the bewildered Blues, piling up a lopsided 45-25 edge in shots on goal.
The result? A highly entertaining, not to mention rewarding, 3-2 shootout victory.
Still, to say we didn’t get off to the best start would be an understatement of the highest magnitude. Nine seconds in Kris Letang flipped the puck over the glass to draw a delay of game penalty. A scant 26 seconds later Jeff Carter was whistled for high sticking. Skating 3-on-5 is no way to start a hockey game, but Tristan Jarry and his PK mates miraculously weathered the storm and the Pens soon got down to business.
With 5:18 to go in the frame, Carter won a faceoff to the right of the Blues’ net. The puck pinballed to Radim Zohorna, who moved it quickly to Marcus Pettersson at the right point. Pettersson slipped a soft pass into Chad Ruhwedel’s wheelhouse and No. 2 did the rest, beating Ville Husso with a bullet to the stick side.
The Pens padded their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period, thanks in part to a pretty play by Kasperi Kapanen. Following a strong backchecking effort by Zohorna and a short reverse by John Marino, Kappy spotted Mike Matheson speeding up the far side of the ice and hit him in stride with a bounce pass off the wall. Matheson smoked Husso with a blistering snap shot to the glove side.
At this stage, our guys were putting on a show. It seemed everyone in black and gold was flying, our passing rarely as crisp and sure. Perhaps a little too crisp and sure, because we repeatedly eschewed shots in favor of one last pass.
Then, like a bolt from the blue (pun intended) the home team struck, courtesy of a brilliant individual effort by David Perron. Swinging wide down the left side of our zone, the ex-Pen lowered his shoulder and cut around Matheson with a surprising burst of speed. Having shed his checker, Perron glided in front of the net and coolly outwaited Jarry before snapping the puck home.
The goal seemed to stagger the Pens…at least momentarily. Before we could recover, the Blues struck again at 1:49 of the third period. Pittsburgh native Brandon Saad pounced on a loose puck following a faceoff and circled behind our net before attempting a wraparound shot. The puck skittered off Jarry’s stick and onto the waiting blade of Ivan Barbashev, who knocked it in from the doorstep.
Following our five-minute hiccup we quickly regaining control, pounding Husso with 15 third-period shots. But the Blues’ netminder was up to the task, as was Jarry at the far end of the ice.
With a dreadful 1-6 record in overtime, the Blues seemed ripe for the picking. However, the Pens faltered again, looking sloppy and disheveled while handing the home team several Grade-A chances. Torey Krug clanged one off a goal post 44 seconds in. Jarry proceeded to make huge saves on Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn. With 2:11 remaining Krug again walked in all alone (where in the wide world of sports was our coverage?), but Jarry denied him.
Mercifully, the game went to a shootout. In rapid succession, Jarry shut down Jordan Kyrou, Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly…again with a little help from the iron. At the opposite end, Husso made short work of Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Letang.
Finally, on our fourth try, old reliable Bryan Rust steamed in and ripped the puck past Husso for the win.
Puckpourri
The Pens dominated the game, piling up huge advantages in shot attempts (77-44), shots on goal (45-25), scoring chances (53-29) and high-danger chances (18-8). An endorsement of Mike Sullivan’s up-tempo style.
Sully juggled our defense pairings, reuniting Letang with Brian Dumoulin. Matheson dropped to the second tandem beside Marino. The latter responded with a breakout performance that harkened back to his rookie season. Pettersson dressed in place of feisty Mark Friedman, to mixed reviews. Marcus set up our first goal, but failed to box out Barbashev on the game-tying tally.
Jarry made 23 saves to earn top-star honors. Matheson (a goal, four shots and four hits) was awarded in the No. 3 star. Although his line was effective (71.43 Corsi), Evgeni Malkin’s points drought extended to six games. Sid’s point streak was halted at 10 games.
The Pens (37-16-9, 83 points) regained sole possession of second place in the Metro, two ahead of the Rangers and four behind front-running Carolina. Up next…we visit the piping hot (yes, piping hot) Coyotes on Saturday afternoon. The ‘Yotes have gone 6-1 in their past seven, ringing up 37 goals in the process. An upset special if there ever was one.
Bone to Pick
While I understand Sullivan’s desire to go with his big guns, Guentzel, Crosby and Letang have been ice cold this season in shootouts (a combined 3-for-20). Rust is 3-for-3, Carter is 2-for-3 and players like Matheson and Kapanen can shoot the biscuit. Maybe it’s time to mix it up.
Rick,
In addition to the perplexing question of why wasn’t Rust in the top 3 shooters of the shootout, the Penguins missed numerous opportunities for juicy rebounds in the game.
As a general rule, they fail to get bodies above the crease waiting and fighting for garbage opportunities and screening the goalie . It was something I noted that Pusttaanen gravitated towards in the one game he played.
As you said, it was an entertaining game. You never know which team is going to show up . I turn n the TV wondering , “Are we going to see a team of Charlie Hustles or Charlie Chaplins tonight?!”
Hey Lightning,
I agree with your observation. We rarely seem to take up residence in the slot, or for that matter employ the center drive, which in my humble opinion puts pressure on the other team’s ‘d’ and sets a lot of stuff in motion. Carter was doing it a fair amount earlier in the season. In fact that’s what I loved about him…he’d just take the puck, drive to the net and shoot.
Maybe it’s just my impression, but he doesn’t seem to be doing that as much lately.
As a team, everything seems to come from the side or at an angle. We rarely seem to shoot straight on.
Rick
PS–Love your Charlie Hustle or Charlie Chaplin comment. Were you ever a writer…or a comedian? … 🙂
Hey all,
Just wanted to mention that Tampa Bay acquired left wing Brandon Hagel along with two fourth-round draft picks from Chicago for forwards Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk and TWO protected top-ten first-round picks.
Schnikes!!!!
Hagel’s a 23-year-old former sixth-round pick who, like our Bryan Rust, blossomed into a scorer (21 goals) and solid all-around player. He certainly makes the Lightning a better team. But…man…what a price tag!!!
Rick
Agreed !
That is the problem Rick. We do not have that kind of assets to be able to get serious in a bidding war and for teams like Florida,Tampa.Toronto,Colorado, Calgary…. Even a few others….2022 is their time to go all in. This is the time for the Pens to take it very carefully and NOT OVER PAY. By Sunday the bids for players will sky rocket.
Cheers
I hear ya’, Jim. Two first-round picks for a good (but still relatively unproven) player like Hagel? Unheard of.
Rick
Hi Rick,
Just checking a few things. In our last 21 games we have won 11 games and lost 10 games respectively. 9 games were decided by only 1 goal. 7 games went to over time and of those 3 went to a shoot outs. We lost 4 games in over time.
Four of our wins had a 2 goal margin with an empty netter goal being scored. These are all close games Rick.
In the past 21 games we only dominated 3 teams on the score sheet. Arizona 6 to 3, Tampa 5 to 1 and Vegas 5 to 2.
We look at the standings and how we are doing, just like the past 3 years but we fail to realize it means very little.
This past 21 games are NOT a record for a Cup Final Team. Not even a conference final team contender.
With regards to the game last night what i saw was our Pen’s let the Blues back in the game and they tied it up and in the first minute of over time the Blues hit the goal post. That could have been the game. Our top 3 players failed to score in the shoot out….Just sayin my friend. All a matter of perspective.
If Claude Giroux ends up in Florida it is game over for us anyway.
But i am glad we won.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Rick,
As I told you yesterday, I wasn’t able to watch the game so I can’t say anything.
I haven’t even had time to look at highlights, so, let me ask you, with a 77-44 shot attempt adv and 45-25 SOG adv. it sounds to me like Sully and his boys gave St. Louis their Sunday Best Punch, n’est-ce pas?
I mean reading your description outside of a 5 min brain rot moment, it sounds like you think so.
Next question, if this was the Sunday Best and we had to win in a shoot out, which is roughly equivalent to a flip of the coin, should we as fans be excited or scared? That is if our best came down to the flip of a coin.
Next question, can this team play that was for 12 of 21 periods to get out of the first round?
Finall, was this an endorsement of Sully’s style of little perimeter hockey or condemnation. 2 Goals on 45 shots? Personally I would rather have a couple more snipers capable of putting the puck in the back of the net 10% of the time or more, than a bunch of Konstantin Koltsovs, skating rings around their opponents but scoring 2 or less goals every night. 35 of those shots came from forwards. none of the goals were scored by forwards.
In terms of prognosis, I still stand aloof.
Hey Other Rick,
I won’t disagree that our lack of finish is a concern. We’re 20th in the league in shooting percentage at 9.21 percent. Five-on-five? We drop to 24th. Only the Bruins and Kings are lower among teams currently slotted in a playoff spot.
Rick