Another game. Another loss to a Metro rival and with it a missed opportunity to secure some much needed points, to say nothing of momentum.
Wholly appropriate, since I feel like I’m documenting our death spiral.
For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee, Penguins playoff hopes. But I digress.
If our execution was lacking as it almost always is these days, there was nothing wrong with our effort during last night’s come-from-in-front 4-2 loss to the Islanders. A cookie-cutter defeat that perfectly bookended our third-straight regulation loss to a Metro foe.
Indeed, we started like a house afire, piling up a 19-7 edge in first-period shots on goal and continued to pour it on, launching 46 shots in all against the Isles all-world netminder Ilya Sorokin. We skated, we hustled. Heck, we even showed some fight.
We did everything but win. An all-too-common theme these days.
Our central issues remain the same. Way too many unforced errors. And while not for a lack of sweat equity on everyone’s part, too few guys hauling the freight.
How few? Since Brock McGinn last scored against Carolina on December 22, a span of two months and 23 games, the eight players who most frequently populate our third and fourth lines have combined for a paltry 12 goals out of the team total of 66. That’s roughly a goal every other game.
Five of those goals came from players who are frequent scratches (Danton Heinen and Drew O’Connor). McGinn, Josh Archibald and Teddy Blueger have combined for zero, zip, nada goals during that time.
Nor are we getting any help from our defense, which has combined for only 17 goals all season. You know when Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson and Chad Ruhwedel shoot the puck, it’s not going in (no goals combined). I’ll bet our opponents know that, too.
For the record, the Islanders aren’t what they used to be, either. But with three regulation wins in three tries, they’re more than a match for our Pens. Seems everyone is these days.
If there was a lone silver lining to last night’s loss, it was the return of Tristan Jarry. He made a number of big saves to keep us in the game, including a 10-beller on Zach Parise at the second period horn. Given the number of breakaways and odd-man breaks we allowed, the score could’ve easily been 6-2 had a goalie of inferior pedigree been stationed between the pipes.
Any hope we have on making the playoffs would seem to rest on Tristan’s shoulders, not to mention delicate health.
I hate to suggest this. But could our 15-3-2 run back in November and December represent the last golden stretch for a dying black-and-gold dynasty?
It’s beginning to look that way.
The Goals
The Pens drew first blood at 6:12 of the first period on a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play off the rush by the top line, culminating in Jake Guentzel’s 24th goal of the season. Nemesis Brock Nelson knotted the score for the Isles at 5:19 of the second period off a 2-on-1.
We regained the lead seven minutes later on a power-play tally by Jason Zucker. Digging like a coal miner, the feisty winger batted home a Jeff Petry missile off the iron.
After Sorokin stopped Blueger on a breakaway to open the final period, goal-scoring machine Bo Horvat tied the game at 2-2 for the Isles at 8:34 with a sharp-angle snipe. Following a costly giveaway by Jarry, Anders Lee scored off a goal-mouth scramble two minutes later. Nelson tacked on an empty-netter in the final minute.
Puckpourri
The Pens had the edge in shot attempts (76-66), shots on goal (46-32) and high-danger chances (19-16). The Isles had more scoring chances (39-35).
It was a spirited game befitting a key divisional matchup, culminating in a wild 5-on-5 scrum at 17:15 of the second period. Zucker tangled with Matt Martin and engaged Isles heavyweight Ross Johnston in a heated verbal exchange. Evgeni Malkin battled Johnston and Ryan Pulock.
Zucker also laid a huge hit on Adam Pellech in the first period. Again, wish we had 10 more guys like him.
Size Matters
Over the weekend I engaged a commenter on another site in a lengthy debate about the virtue of size and physicality. While he pooh-poohed the notion that brawn and aggression are important elements, I insisted they are.
Interesting to note that two Islanders horses, Lee (6’3” 235) and Nelson (6’4” 210), have eaten us for lunch this season. The former has tallied five goals against us, the latter four.
Nelson has eight career goals against Jarry, the most of any player.
On Tap
The Pens (27-20-9, 63 points) host Connor McDavid and streaking Edmonton (30-19-8, 68 points) on Thursday night. Good luck with that.
We’re presently in fifth place in the Metro, one point out of the last wildcard spot.
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View Comments
Rick
The Maple Leafs have pronounced Muzzin out for the season. Could be a good time to
persue a trade with Toronto - Maybe Dumo for a pick - not sure how Hextalll can balance
the finances but you would think their would be some interest on there part??
The thing with the penguins is they start out like a house on fire that soon smolder down the ashes. Their age is showing And they can't maintain the pace That Sullivan wants them to play And by the middle of the 2nd period other teams Wear them down and start dominating play And they can't hold any type of lead. We should be sellers at the trade deadline And start retouning this team.
I fully agree J Carley. Great comments.
No one wants to admit that we are a team in decline and have been for a few years now.
Time waits for no one...
JIM
Spot on J Corley.
Hey Guys,
Good job on your summary above Rick...I don't know how you do it my friend ?.
Lots of panic in the Hockey World, Now the brain trust is willing to sacrifice Defense men Jeff Petry in order to free up some cap space to maybe help with a player or two for the bottom 6. Defense is not our strong suit !! I find this an act of desperation because last season we all said that the Pen's needed to bolster their Blue line and get help for Letang .
This is a surprising move but to me it just shows that GM Hextal has been trying to move other Pen's players and no one wants them so he must resort to this. As you said robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I agree Coach the team is going through a transition and they can not compete consistently with 50% to 60% of the teams in the league. Mamy teams are getting better.
Did you see that FSG wants to sell their marquee asset in the Liver pool Football club in the UK ??? That is a story for another day...
. Jim
Hey Jim,
I had to laugh when I read the team was trying to shop Petry.
1) He is 35
2) He has a m-NTC, NMC. (15 team no trade list, almost half the league.) He can block tons of trades.
3) He has 2 more years left on a $6.25 Million contract.
4) When he was injured the team couldn't win a game.
Therefore, the number of teams that we could trade Petry too is limited. The Cap may be going up but a team would have to be very desperate to win this year, have Cap space and Petry would have to be ok with the trade. Furthermore, the Pens would only destroy what little hope they have for a playoff run by trading him.
Not only does it show desperation on the Penguins part Jim, it shows extreme incompetency in the brain (less) trust. The team needs more help on D than it does on the 3rd line but they are willing to trade a D-man? That is asinine!
Hey Rick,
I was trying to spare you the ignominy of writing this latest post mortem but stuff happened.
I do have to disagree with you over Jarry however. All 3 GA were at least partially if not fully his fault. On the first GA he was squared up with the Nelson's body as he cruised his off wing, not the shooter's stick, he left a path wide enough to drive a car through on the far side. On Horvat's G give some kudos to Fasching for being able to jump up and flag POJ's clearing attempt down but Horvat's shot was a bad angle shot that Jarry miss played while failing to hug the post, leaving room for the puck to trickle in behind him. On Lee's G, that was 100% Jarry misplaying the puck, putting it on an Islanders stick with one of his league leading Gv for Goalies. Jarry was his own worst enemy.
An interesting stat is this Rick, our Pens out HD the Isles 7-1 in the 1st period but wore down as the game progressed until they pretty much evened out. Age is a primal factor on this team. The fail in the 3rd and let leads slip away because they are too old to compete 60 minutes.
I am not frustrated at this team at all. I have viewed this team realistically, this season. At every turn that this team has had to retool they failed, management and way too many fans still cling to an illusion that will never materialized as it is nothing more than a phantom, wisps of days of yore. Now will come the rebuild and that rebuild may be long and painful if everyone keeps ignoring the truth.
Hey Other Rick,
I won't dispute that some of the goals were Jarry's fault. But I thought he made a lot of big saves and that, overall, things were more under control with him back there. Just my humble opinion, but I think the outcome would've been much worse with DeSmith or Tokarski in goal.
Given that it was Jarry's first game back? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
I have to tell you. When you posted your initial Armchair GMing article and documented all of our holes, I thought you were being a tad overcritical. But the more I watch us...
With the exception of the top six, hardly anyone contributes on the score sheet. When everyone else is on the ice, it's like the best we can hope to do is tread water. A survival swim that, more often than not, we don't survive.
Unless by some miracle we make a couple of perfect additions and they wind up providing a chain reaction spark...not impossible but highly improbable...I don't think we're going to turn this around.
Rick
Rick - Good article
I have some quick observations then I'll wait for everyone's feedback.
1) Blueger couldn't score into an empty net - I believe he's already accomplished that feat.
2) Mike Matheson would look pretty good right now skating with the black & gold.
3) Everyone's attacking Jeff Carter - When Malkin was sucking it was his wingers - when Carter's
sucking it's Carter. I find this somewhat hypocritical - compare Malkins wingers to Carter's.
4) I have to be honest I'm not really a fan of any of the Pen's goalkeepers. When I look around the
league teams have young goalies coming out of nowhere and making an impact. I could live
with Jarry but with his injury history he has to viewed as a back-up.
5) Hextall has to figure out a way to get Sullivan on board or the Pen's move on from him - to me it's
cut and dry.
6) Think about this - if Petry goes that leaves us with Rutta, Pettersson, POJ in your Top 6 - Can you
invision us tyring to move anyone out of the crease? Playoffs?? I'm getting sick just thinking about it.
I look forward to your feedback
Hey Mike,
I agree with most of what you write.
Blueger – Amen Mike! Everyone has been grasping at the low hanging fruit of Carter, but Blueger has been an empty jersey all season., in the offensive zone. He more than anyone else is responsible for that first GA against the Isles. When Dumo kicked the puck down to him, he looked like Inspector Clouseau throwing one of Dreyfuss’s bombs away as he blindly around the boards, rather than taking 1 or 2 strides with the biscuit to look the situation over. The Isles were playing soft enough D at that point that he didn’t need to toss the puck away. That panic with the puck started the comedy of errors that followed.
Matheson – Not going to pretend that I ever though the was the 2nd coming of Bobby Orr. I didn’t want him in the 1st place but having said that, he was definitely the best LHD we had last season and I agree he would look really good in a Penguin sweater right now. I was on record as saying that was a bad trade, taking from an area of no depth to deepen an area that was slightly deeper.
Carter – Sorry, I have to disagree here. You are comparing apples to oranges. Even at his lowest point Malkin still finds a way to get on the score sheet. When given competent wingers he is in the top 20 of the league, even without competent wingers he makes the top 30. Carter is only barely better than Blueger when it comes to offense right now. I am not hating on him, just stating facts. He has simply aged out of his usefulness. It isn’t his fault that GMRH gave him that contract or that Sullivan overused him at the Beginning of the season so that he has almost nothing left in the tank. If our Coach was better at managing minutes of his stars, I can’t help but wonder if Carter would not look as bad as he does right now. Whenever we were playing cellar-dwellers, he should have been given maintenance days off and a kid given a chance to grow against low end NHL talent.
Goalies – Neither DeSmith or Tokarski should be picking up NHL paychecks. Tokarski is at best a journeyman AHL level Goalie, not even elite there. DeSmith was decent at one time but I am not sure he has ever, will ever, recover from his injuries. As for Jarry, he is not an elite Goalie to begin with and right now, as I wrote to Rick, I can’t help but think he was rushed back into service because of poor play of DeSmith and Tokarski and Sullivan’s refusal to now let a kid play. At this point, neither Gauthier nor Lindberg can do worse, a loss is a loss is a loss. This team would have been infinitely better off had Sullivan let DeSmith sit on the bench as an emergency back-up in games but when he knew he had to spell Jarry brought up Lindberg and now maybe Gauthier against weaker opponents. We may not be having this conversation right now if Sully didn’t have his allergy to kids.
RH v MS – I think everyone knows my thoughts on these two. I won’t go into any long diatribe here. Suffice it to say they would be standing in line at "window A" as the old saying goes if I were ownership.
Rutta, Pettersson, POJ – You forgot Ruhwedel. I agree. Look what happened when Petry was injured. I don’t think we won a game. I didn’t like trading for him, but the D is so depleted, trading him now would be far worse. GMRH and HCMS keep stripping the D of any competence in search of top 6 forwards to throw on the 3rd and 4th lines – a recipe for failure all the way around.
Hey Rick,
I won't argue with you that Jarry is light years better than DeSmith and Tokaski and he may have made some big saves that could have made the game worse, but in the end, he was his own worse enemy. Perhaps some of the reason he let in soft goals is that he really isn't healthy but the 2 other stiffs are so bad that he and/or the team rushed him back. Another reason he made such an awful or is that offal play on the GWG is that he knows the team is sooooo bad that he tried too hard. Jarry's Gv on that dump-in led directly to the GWG.
I do think that DeSmith was a good Goalie at one time, but he is stinking out the rink right now. Tokarski is a journeyman AHL Goalie. Signing him for anything other than a backup role in WBS was a horrible, horrible decision.