Oilers Lay Waste to Crumbling Penguins

Back when the score was 1-0 in favor of our Penguins (seems like 100 years ago) a couple of Wright’s Gym members stopped at the front desk and asked what I thought of our chances to beat the Oilers.

“Not good,” I replied. “They’ve got (Connor) McDavid and (Leon) Draisaitl.”

I’m not often prophetic. I was last night.

Indeed, the Oilers proceeded to pound our disintegrating Pens, 7-2, in a contest that was no contest.

I wasn’t able to watch much of the game because the gym was uber-busy. But from the little I did see, it looked like an NHL team taking an AHL team to the woodshed. Make that an ECHL team. The disparity was canyon-esque.

My apologies to those who were hoping to read a traditional game summary. There simply wasn’t much of a game to summarize. Nor am I going to delve into a litany of our shortcomings. They’ve been well documented, here and on other sites.

I’m not going to beat our players up, either. Hockey players are notoriously good guys…the nature of the sport fairly demands that they be. I’m sure no one feels worse about our present plight than they do.

I will state the obvious. The Pens are in trouble. Deep trouble. Among our myriad issues, a complete and devastating lack of confidence, both on an individual and team level. To the extent that all the king’s men, or in this case coach Mike Sullivan and his staff, can’t put our Humpty Dumpty Pens back together again.

Indeed, during last night’s post mortem Sullivan was at a complete loss to explain his team’s malaise. He’s searching for answers and not finding any. No doubt causing a lot of sleepless nights. Especially for one as ultra-competitive as Sully.

I feel for him and the players. Everybody’s trying. No one wants to lose.

One thing is certain. Changes need to be made. We can’t keep running the same combinations out there night after night and expect different results. The mix is morgue-like if not downright toxic.

To that end, Sullivan put his lines in a blender last night. But more needs to be done. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

For starters, if cap constraints will allow, call up a couple of guys from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and send a couple of guys down. Heck, maybe bring up the entire Alex Nylander–Drake Caggiula–Valtteri Puustinen line and plug ‘em in for a few games.

Perhaps like tossing a bucketful of sand on a dumpster fire, I know. But Nylander and Puustinen have breached the 20-goal mark for a poor Baby Pens team. Maybe they’re not future all-stars in waiting. But at least give them a chance to show they can’t do the job. They sure couldn’t do any worse than the current crop. And they just might surprise and score a goal or two, which would be a revelation.

It may already be too late to salvage the season. Indeed, the team seems to have crumbled beneath GM Ron Hextall’s feet, outstripping his ability to react and perhaps mitigating any chance of making meaningful moves.  But do something. Anything at this stage to change the mix.

The Goals

Kris Letang tallied both black-and-gold goals, bookending a seven-goal onslaught by the visitors. McDavid (2), Draisaitl, Kailer Yamamoto, Devin Shore, Warren Foegele and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers.

Puckpourri

The Oilers dominated across the board, holding an edge in shot attempts (65-48), shots on goal (44-24), scoring chances (36-22) and high-danger chances (16-10).

Tristan Jarry was mercifully pulled following a four-goal, second-period onslaught. He allowed six goals on 29 shots, for a .793 save percentage. Casey DeSmith stopped 14 of 15 shots in relief, yielding only a penalty-shot goal to the supernatural McDavid.

My word, what a hockey player. Kind of a cross between Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr. His sidekick Draisaitl, too.

The Pens had two would-be goals waved off in the third period, one by Evgeni Malkin (offsides) and the other by Jeff Carter (stick above the crossbar).

In an unrelated matter, the skidding Capitals have become sellers, sending Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov to Boston in a three-team trade. A hard checking bottom-sixer, Hathaway would’ve looked good in a Pens uni, but I digress.

It begs the question. Should we become sellers, too?

On Tap

The Pens (27-21-9, 63 points) travel to St. Louis to take on the equally disappointing Blues (26-28-4, 56 points) for a Saturday matinee matchup before returning home to face the Lightning on Sunday. Another game that’s liable to be ugly.

We’re presently in fifth place in the Metro, one point out of the second Eastern Conference wild card slot.