Sens Rookie Stymies Penguins, 2-1

Our season is hanging in the balance.

That was my thought last night as I watched our Penguins gamely attempt to kill off a late hooking penalty to Chad Ruhwedel.

On cue, Ryan Poehling broke his stick and Bryan Rust was incapacitated after blocking a shot. With visiting Ottawa essentially working on a 5-on-2, Brady Tkachuk zipped a sharp-angle pass to Drake Batherson on the doorstep. Batherson slipped the rubber past and through Brian Dumoulin and Tristan Jarry for the game winner.

The goal seemed to typify the very nature of what’s become a decidedly star-crossed season. Indeed, whatever can go wrong has gone wrong for our boys. It’s as if the hockey gods have turned a collective thumbs down on our fate and proclaimed, “Sorry guys, this isn’t your season.”

How else do you explain losing four of your regular defensemen to injury, not to mention a key trade deadline acquisition, just as you enter the stretch run?

Back to Ruhwedel’s unfortunate penalty with 3:05 left in the third period. The black-and-gold defender blew a tire as the Sens began a rush out of their zone. Scrambling to catch up, Chad had little choice but to impede Ridly Greig with his stick. Certainly not a lazy penalty. Rather one born out of desperation and need.

A shame, because only minutes earlier the Pens had finally solved the riddle posed by Dylan Ferguson, the Sens’ obscure 24-year-old rookie netminder. Taking full advantage of an open lane, Pierre-Olivier Joseph escorted the puck deep into the Sens’ end before dishing to Evgeni Malkin behind the net. Geno quickly fed Rickard Rakell between the circles. RikRak somehow found an opening and threaded the puck past Ferguson glove side to knot the score at 1-1.

Exactly what Ruhwedel was doing encroaching so far up the ice with the game on the line is open to debate. Tribune Review columnist Mark Madden has repeatedly criticized our defense for pinching at every conceivable opportunity, often it seems indiscriminately and without regard to the game situation. A practice encouraged if not outright mandated by our coaching staff. Madden’s often cited Ruhwedel as an example when describing this high-reward, higher-risk practice.

As the old saying goes, you live by the sword, you die by it, too.

Last night? We died by it.

Puckpourri

You certainly can’t fault our effort. Squeezing out every ounce of sweat equity, our guys literally poured over the Sens in waves while running up mind-blowing advantages in shot attempts (91-52), shots on goal (49-21), scoring chances (51-17) and high-danger chances (17-9). While we’re at it, giveaways, too (19-6).

Ferguson was the difference. Appearing in only his second NHL game (his first since 2017-18) he was superb, stoning the Pens to the tune of 48 saves to garner top-star honors. To put his super-human effort in proper perspective, the former seventh-round pick of the Stars has only appeared in 56 games his entire pro career spanning six seasons!

While not nearly as active, Jarry made some big saves as well, especially early when the Pens yielded their usual passel of odd-man breaks. More on that in a bit.

Thomas Chabot scored the Sens’ first goal at 16:46 of the first period off a picturesque setup by Claude Giroux. With Chabot and recent high-profile acquisition Jakob Chychrun, the Sens boast quite a 1-2 punch on defense.

Although held together with scotch tape, bubble gum and baling wire, our patchwork defense acquitted itself reasonably well. Shaky of late, Joseph rose to the occasion and had a strong game skating next to Kris Letang. The duo was a combined plus-two with eight shots on goal. Taylor Fedun, our version of Ferguson, skated in his first NHL game since the 2020 playoffs with Dallas. He finished a minus-one with two shots on goal and a blocked shot in 10:34 of ice time.

Coach Mike Sullivan shuffled his forward lines. He sat Alex Nylander in favor of Danton Heinen, who joined Mikael Granlund and Poehling on the third line. Drew O’Connor dropped to the fourth line alongside Josh Archibald and Jeff Carter. Speaking of, I thought Carter played his best game and displayed more hop than at any time in recent memory. Of course, he saw only 6:30 of ice time.

SULLY PLEASE TAKE NOTE ALERT

For a brief sequence, Granlund was on the ice with Malkin and they displayed an almost instant chemistry. Perhaps the newcomer merits a longer look beside Geno. Just a reminder…Granlund skated on a line with Malkin sidekick Jason Zucker the season Zucks tallied 31 goals for the Wild. For the record, Granlund’s an excellent passer.

Name Change?

Football has the 49ers. Basketball, the 76ers and hockey, the Ottawa 67s. Perhaps the Pens should change their name to the 2-on-1-ers.

On Tap

The Pens (34-26-10, 78 points) face a murderous back-to-back of Colorado (Wednesday night) and Dallas the following night. Lotsa luck.

With our fourth straight loss, we’ve slipped out of a playoff spot. We trail the Panthers by a point and the Islanders by two.