Last summer Fenway Sports Group was reported to have asked general manager Ron Hextall to share his plan for retooling the Penguins. Hexy assured them he had a plan, but that it was hard to articulate.
Along those lines, I’m sure coach Mike Sullivan has a plan for protecting third-period leads. And I’m sure he and his staff communicate that plan to the players. Unfortunately, something always seems to get lost in the translation.
I don’t mean to be a kill joy. I’d really like to be happy about our 4-2 victory over the Flyers last night at PPG Paints Arena. After all, our guys came through in an absolute must-win game, in the process squeaking past the Panthers in the race for the second Eastern wild-card spot. And for 40 minutes I was. Despite Evgeni Malkin’s one man penalty-a-thon, we generally carried the play.
Then came the third period, which quickly devolved into a not-so-funny comedy of errors. With the notable exception of goalie Casey DeSmith, no one wearing the black and gold appeared to have a clue about where he was supposed to be or what he was supposed to be doing. There was absolutely zero structure and even less attention to detail.
Guess I’d better start at the beginning. The Pens got off the schneid at 11:40 of the opening frame courtesy of a king-sized break. Rickard Rakell cut loose a blast from the high slot that ricocheted off the Plexiglas behind the cage before bounding off goalie Samuel Ersson’s backside and into the net. Reinforcing the old adage that good things happen when you shoot the puck.
The Pens made it 2-0 minutes later on a more traditional type of goal. Rakell once again did the honors. With Flyers d-man Travis Sanheim in the box, Malkin fed the silky Swede a hard shot-pass in the slot. RikRak bunted it past Ersson off the heel of his stick for his second goal of the game.
With three minutes to go in the period, DeSmith robbed Philly sniper Travis Konecny with a stunning goal-line glove save to preserve our lead.
We continued to cruise until the 7:31 mark of the second period, when Malkin took a hooking penalty. Nothing terribly unusual about that. After all, Geno is the team’s all-time penalty minute king. However, no sooner did we kill off the penalty then No. 71 was issued a second hooking minor shortly after he returned to the ice.
The odyssey continued at 14:23 when Malkin was whistled for high-sticking. Fortunately, our besieged PK caught a break when Philly’s Noah Cates was flagged 22 seconds later. In the meantime, the Pens had padded their lead at 13:23 on a pretty backhand goal off the rush by Bryan Rust.
DeSmith made another huge save, this time on Brendan Lemieux at the buzzer, to keep the score 3-0.
Then came the calamitous third period. Malkin once again pressed the self-destruct button, this time taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at 1:49 after absorbing a high stick. I’m not privy to what he said to the refs, but his protests promptly earned him a 10-minute misconduct and game misconduct. Which meant Geno was assured of a hot shower and we were assured of playing without our second-best player for nearly a full 20 minutes in a must-win game.
Predictably, things went to hell in a handbasket. Philly heavy Nicolas Deslauriers pounded the puck past DeSmith from the lip of the crease at 5:57. While we pretty much stood around and watched, the Flyers proceeded to pile up a 31-10 edge in third-period shot attempts and a 13-6 advantage in shots on goal.
DeSmith continued to do his part, denying Owen Tippett with a spectacular blocker-pad save with just over six minutes to play. But the inevitable occurred at 17:31 when Konecny beat Casey with a snipe from the slot.
Suddenly it’s 3-2 and I’m sweatin’ bullets. Convinced we were going to give the game away, I could scarcely watch.
Fortunately, an unsung hero stepped to the fore. Although not for a lack of effort, Mikael Granlund hasn’t produced much since arriving in the ‘Burgh. But with the game clock ticking down to a minute, he dove on his belly to poke a loose puck away from Tony DeAngelo and up to teammate Ryan Poehing high in the zone. The speedy forward turned on the jets and escorted the puck into an empty Flyers net to seal the all-important victory.
I’m happy to report Nightmare on Centre Avenue Part 2 didn’t occur.
Puckpourri
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers dominated across the board. Philly held an edge in shot attempts (69-50), shots on goal (33-31), scoring chances (36-30) and high-danger chances (19-17). Fortunately, DeSmith was superb, turning aside 31 of 33 shots. A performance that should’ve earned him a game star.
Kris Letang played his 1000th career game. In typical Tanger fashion, he logged 30:34 of ice time, delivered four hits and finished a plus-two.
Rust also reached a milestone, playing in his 500th NHL game. With three goals and four points in his last two games, Rusty’s heating up.
Rakell earned top star honors with his two goals, his 26th and 27th of the campaign. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he was a phenomenal pickup by Hextall. Malkin and Sidney Crosby picked up two assists each, as did Brian Dumoulin.
I’m not sure what’s gotten into Dumo of late, but he’s tallied four assists to go with a plus-four in his past three games and has played extremely well. In the process, he tied his career high in points (23) and established a new career best in assists (22).
I’m not sure what got into Geno, either. To be that undisciplined (28 penalty minutes) and to become that unhinged in such a critical game? It doesn’t speak well of the big guy. A shame, too, because he’s been playing so well (80 points on the season).
Maybe I’m just catching him at the wrong time. But I swear every time I watch Pierre-Olivier Joseph he’s either getting tangled up in himself or falling down or making a critical mistake near our net.
On Tap
The Pens (38-29-10, 86 points) trek to beautiful downtown Newark to take on the Devils (48-21-8, 104 points) on Tuesday night.
We presently occupy the second Eastern wild-card spot, one point behind the Islanders (with a game in hand) and one point up on the Panthers.
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Rick
This is not an attack on Geno - he's played much better this year than I expected "BUT", He still allows
his ego to control his emotions and not just by taking horrible penalties but he refuses to adjust his
game and still tries moves with the puck that worked when he was in his twenties. He leads the team
in Giveaways with 101 and when you have 80pts on the year and your a minus player its not good. I
think you would be hard pressed to find another player scoring points at an 80, 90, or 100 that has a
minus rating except for may Erik Karlsson wha plays on a crappy team. I guess my point is I would
like to see him play a more disciplined game.
PSS–You got me curious, so I did a little digging. Geno’s 101 giveaways are tied for first in the league with David Pastrnak and just ahead of Leon Draisaitl. (At least he’s in good company.)
His 76 takeaways are tied for fifth in the league with Connor McDavid among others. Again, pretty good company.
I do think he’s done a better job of sticking with a north-south game this season, no doubt aided by Zucker and Rust when he’s on that line.
Rick
Rick
I agree it's definitely a high risk, high reward style but if you look at the other players
who score and put up numbers there all plus players - Pastrnak is a +32 and I believe
Draisaitl is a plus 14 - Geno on the other hand averaged over a point a game last year
and ended up a - 10. "For whatever that's worth".
David Pasternak is 26 years old and his 5 on 5 GF% according to natural stat trick is 64.71% while his team GA/60 is 1.94. In 2013 when Geno was 26 years old, his 5 on 5 GF% was 63.64% with a team GA/60 of 1.64. When controlling for age and 5 on 5 situations these 2 players had statistically the same GF% while Geno had a significantly lower tGA/60. At 26 Geno was roughly the same as Pasternak defensively.
Leon Draisaitl is 27 years old and his 5 on 5 GF% is 52.86% while his tGA/60 is 2.85. In 2013-2014 when Geno was 27, his GF% was 57.83% while his tGA/60 was 2.43. Geno at 27 was better than Draisaitl at 27 in both categories. At 27 Geno was significantly better than Draisaitl defensively.
When comparing apples to oranges one can say that a young Pasternak and Draisaitl on Cup contender teams are better defensively than an old Geno on a bubble team. When comparing apples to apples a young Pasternak and Draisaitl on Cup contending teams vs a young Geno on a Cup contending team the narrative changes greatly.
When comparing Sid and Geno on this current bubble Penguins team Sid’s GF% 56.25%, Geno’s is 52.04%. Looking at 87’s and 71’s tGA/60 they are 2.51 vs 2.66 Crosby does show to be the better defensive Center but not by much.
PS--Your point about giveaways is well taken, although Malkin also leads the team in takeaways with 76. Again, a product of his high-risk, high-reward style.
Rick
Hey Mike,
You’re not going to get any argument from me, especially on the undisciplined penalties part. I love the fact that Geno’s an emotional player…in many ways a perfect balance to Sid’s controlled intensity. And I understand that penalties are sometimes part of the package. But yesterday it was like he was possessed by the spirit of Steve Durbano or something.
Although it didn’t, his actions could’ve cost us a game we couldn’t afford to lose. To your point, you might expect that from a 22-year-old kid, but not from a seasoned star and team leader like Geno. And it truly would’ve been tragic because, the usual high-risk, high-reward stuff aside, he’s playing so well at age 36.
Hopefully, he’s learned his lesson. We can ill-afford a repeat performance.
Rick