Stars Shine, Drub Skidding Penguins 4-1

The Penguins lost their third game in a row last night, dropping a 4-1 decision to Dallas at PPG Paints Arena. Unlike the previous defeats, when our guys appeared to go through the motions for large swaths of time, I had no issues with our effort or sweat equity. A huge step forward in my book. In fact, for about 30 minutes or so we played a really strong game. Before the dark times. Or more accurately, before our mistakes caught up with us.

Indeed, the Pens actually dominated the first period, piling up sizeable advantages in shot attempts (32-20) and shots on goal (18-9). We even snagged the lead on a last-minute goal by Bryan Rust (at 19:20 to be exact). Kris Letang broke up a play at our blue line to initiate the scoring sequence and nudged the puck to Sidney Crosby, who alertly headmanned it to a breaking Jake Guentzel. Jake made a nifty play to swing around Stars defender Thomas Harley and force him to the ice before slipping the puck to Rust, who chipped it past Jake Oettinger.

Handed a late tripping call to Wyatt Johnston, we nearly struck again in the closing seconds.

It’s hard to say when the momentum began to shift. Under pressure, rookie defenseman John Ludvig sent a d-to-d pass to Erik Karlsson along the back wall seven minutes into the second period. Karlsson’s attempted outlet pass was instantly picked off by Roope Hintz. A scramble ensued, leading to a total breakdown in coverage and Jason Robertson’s second-chance backhand goal from the doorstep to knot the score.

However, the real turning point may have occurred just past the mid-point of the period, once again involving Ludvig. Hoping to send a message, he stepped up in the neutral zone and flattened Radek Faksa with a crushing open-ice check. However, Faksa’s helmet caught Ludvig square on the cheek during the collision and the youngster dropped to the ice as if he were shot. Mercifully, his gloves protected his face when he hit the ice.

Shades of the gruesome Kevin Stevens hit on Rich Pilon back in the ’93 playoffs.

After several minutes the young defender was helped to his skates and led off the ice by his teammates.

The Pens never regained their early steam and the opportunistic Stars took full advantage. Evgeni Dadonov beat Alex Nedeljkovic, again from the front porch, at 16:03 to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Visibly deflated by the turn of events, the locals opened the third period with two icings, setting the tone for a lackluster final 20 minutes. Nedeljkovic made some huge saves to keep us in the game, including one from point-blank range on Robertson, then gambled by flying out of his net on a partial breakaway, leading to the back-breaker by Harley at 5:22.

Johnston made amends for two first-period penalties, beating Nedeljkovic on a second chance opportunity at the side of the net near the 14-minute mark. And that was all she wrote.

Puckpourri

Although the Stars came on like gang-busters, the Pens held the edge in shot attempts (74-62), shots on goal (39-34), scoring chances (49-27) and high danger chances (16-10).

Ludvig replaced struggling veteran Chad Ruhwedel and was paired with Ryan Shea, who I thought was fairly solid against his ex-mates. Sure hope the kid’s okay. We could sorely use his physicality and youthful spark.

Rust replaced Rickard Rakell on the top power-play unit. Although improved, we went 0-for-3. We’re 2-for-16 on the season for a dreadful 12.5 percent success rate.

In an effort to shake things up, coach Mike Sullivan dropped Rakell to the third line and promoted Radim Zohorna to the second line in the third period.

Rust has five goals on the young season. By contrast, our bottom six has accounted for a lone goal and three assists through six games. Pop-gun production in anyone’s book. Our fourth line of Noel Acciari, Jeff Carter and Matt Nieto has yet to register a point. Drew O’Connor, who I thought was primed for a breakout, has been virtually invisible.

Is anyone else (way) over our stick-on-puck defense?

The PenguinPoop Curse is Alive and Well

Literally seconds before Nedeljkovic bolted from our net on his ill-advised foray, I’d scribbled in my game notes that he was keeping us in the game.

Sorry kid.

For the record, I thought “Ned” looked sharp and played reasonably well while stopping 30 of 34 shots. In particular, I like his quickness and rebound control.

Opinyinz

A consistent theme throughout the game was our difficulty in getting bodies and pucks to the net. Something, by contrast, the Stars did quite well.

As the old saying goes, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Unfortunately, our Pens are built to go around and not through. They still want to make the extra pass and the perfect play.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but that’s not gonna work. Not in today’s NHL, with speed and back pressure at an all-time high. There simply isn’t time and space to make the kind of plays we want to make.

We need to keep it simple, get pucks to the net and drive to the net, even if it means getting our noses bloodied. Hopefully creating some chaos in the process. Ugly goals count just as much as pretty ones.

A Last Thought

This relates to what I wrote in the previous section.

I work at a gym and am very fitness conscious. Consistently throughout my adult life I’ve done some sort of resistance training, often five-to-six days a week. I’ve always been pretty good at pushing myself through my workouts, even when I don’t feel like it.

However, I’m 66 years old, and lately I’ve had a more difficult time coaxing myself to do the harder stuff. To put it bluntly, I just don’t feel like it any more.

I wonder if that’s the case with our Pens. They’re an aging team…ancient by hockey standards. And I wonder, if like me, they just don’t want to do the hard stuff any more.

Food for thought…

On Deck

We’ve got the Avs on Thursday night, followed by the Sens on Saturday night and the Ducks next Monday. All at home.

Although it’s ridiculously early, with the way we’re playing? Our season may well depend on how we perform during these next three games.