Fly(er) By Night Power Play Costs Penguins Again in 4-3 Shootout Loss

Blow it up.

No, make that BLOW IT UP.

That was my reaction as the Penguins’ power play sank to new levels of ineptitude while contributing in as negative a way as possible to our disappointing 4-3 shootout loss to the blood-rival Flyers last night at PPG Paints Arena.

How bad was it? When Erik Karlsson was whistled off for interference at 12:10 of the third period to abort a nascent power play, I actually cheered. That’s because the unit (0-for-5 on the night) had yielded a game-tying shorthanded breakaway goal to Scott Laughton only minutes earlier. Never mind that Karlsson’s penalty led to a go-ahead power-play goal by Tyson Foerster. I’d much rather take my chances with our penalty killers.

It’s gotten to the point that should an opposing player take a penalty, one of our guys should immediately commit a retaliatory infraction. Better to play 4-on-4 hockey than risk our momentum being hijacked.

I’m only half joking. That’s how self-destructive our power play’s become. An outright abomination.

As for the game itself, it appeared as if our Pens were trying to recreate the dynamic that had led to our rousing victory over the Lightning on Thursday. Starting s-l-o-w-l-y once again, we managed to put only three shots on the Flyers’ net during a low-event first period and 11 shots on goal through two periods. Fortunately, one of them went in.

At 14:31 of the second period Kris Letang kept the puck alive in the Flyers’ zone, then soft-tossed a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off Travis Sanheim’s blade and past goalie Sam Ersson.

Having finally gained the lead, our guys inexplicably relaxed, leading to a breakaway attempt by Owen Tippett on the very next shift. As he’s done so often of late, Tristan Jarry literally saved our bacon with a big stop.

Paying little heed to the fact that we’d dodged a bullet, Karlsson tried to force a cross-ice pass from the left point moments later. Foerster picked off the ill-conceived (bonehead) pass and sprang Tippett on yet another breakaway. This time the young Philly sniper beat Jarry on the backhand to knot the score at 1-apiece.

For those keeping track, that’s two breakaway attempts allowed during a 77-second span. Impressive attention to detail (not).

After slogging through quicksand for two periods, our guys finally discovered the on-switch in the third period, thanks in no small part to Jake Guentzel. Around the two-minute mark he outworked venerable Marc Staal at the side of the cage to deflect the puck home, in the process staking us to a 2-1 lead.

Then Philly figured out the best way to disrupt the flow of the game is to take penalties, leading to the two goals described above.

Give our guys credit where credit is due. With what would’ve been a disastrous home-ice loss all but etched in the books, Guentzel struck again from close range with 21 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

The Pens owned the extra stanza, attempting 13 shots to Philly’s two, including six shots on goal. The Flyers handed us a gift opportunity with exactly 60 seconds to go when they were issued a bench minor for too many men on the ice.

Typifying our stunning ineptitude, our power play missed the net on two shot attempts, had two others blocked, with a lone slapshot by Evgeni Malkin actually getting through to Ersson.

I cringed. Shootouts are not Jarry’s domain. While our guys misfired, Sean Couturier scored on Philly’s second attempt to deny us a second point and a chance to leapfrog the Flyers in the standings.

Puckpourri

It was an odd game, stats-wise. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Pens held sway in shot attempts (80-56) and scoring chances (35-25), Philly in shots on goal (35-32) and high-danger chances (11-7).

Thanks to his two goals, Guentzel has points in 13 of his past 14 games and 19 of 23 overall.

Sidney Crosby’s line was dominant, with a Corsi of 77.27 and an expected goals for percentage of 59.82. Our other three lines, including Geno’s? Heavily under water.

Just my opinion. This wasn’t Mike Sullivan’s finest hour in terms of decision-making and deploying the troops. I get it, the ill-timed injuries to Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto forced him to devise less-than-desirable line combinations.

However, he kept Radim Zohorna and Vinnie Hinostroza virtually glued to the bench while elevating Jansen Harkins and Jeff Carter to third-line duty. To say nothing of doling out obscene amounts of ice time to his aging stars.

That’s going to play well come March.

And for goodness sake, Sully, throw Malkin and Reilly Smith a bone. Move Bryan Rust (two assists last night) to their flank and put Drew O’Connor back with Sid and Jake, where he thrived.

Back to the topic on everyone’s mind…the power play. I listened to the game on radio and color-man Phil Bourque, who tells it like it is, was virtually beside himself with frustration. According to the ‘ol Two-Niner, we’re doing nothing to create shooting lanes. We’re just passing around the perimeter and blasting the puck into opposing penalty killers.

Prior to the overtime power play he implored Sullivan to insert Letang, the master of the one-timer and a productive OT scorer with 11 career game winners. Yet Sully stuck with a combo that absolutely isn’t working.

Good coach, yes. Great one? No.

Mercifully, help may be on the way. Senior advisor Doug Wilson, a power-play master during his career, was in attendance. So was Chris Kunitz, a terrific net-front scorer in his day. I’d like to think Kyle Dubas has sought their advice.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us pull Karlsson off the top unit in favor of Letang (who by the way has been outstanding this season). Speaking of EK65, he’s like the little girl with the curl. When he’s good, he’s very good. And when he’s bad…

On Deck

The Pens (11-10-2) travel to the City of Brotherly Shove on Monday for the back end of a home-and-home set against the Flyers (12-10-2).

We’re presently two points out of a wild-card spot.

Say what you will about John Tortorella, but his teams are well-coached and hard to play against.