The Duck is Mightier Than the Pen(guin)

Physicality in hockey comes in many forms. At its most basic level, manifested through a big hit or even a fight. Doing the dirty work in the trenches or along the boards. Playing through a nagging injury.

Or planting yourself in the opposing crease.

Why am I writing about toughness in the wake of our Penguins heartrending 4-3 loss to Anaheim last night at PPG Paints Arena?

On three separate occasions I referred to our lack of net-front presence in my game notes. I wasn’t the only one. TV color analyst and former Pens heavyweight Mike Rupp stressed it as well, in particular during our final 5-on-3 power play when Evgeni Malkin was blasting away and none of his teammates ventured into the crease to block goalie Lukas Dostal’s sight lines.

The better to let him see the puck all the way.

It isn’t that our guys don’t try to go to the net. They’ve been doing a better job of it over the last handful of games. But there’s a difference between going to the blue paint and being effective once you get there.

Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz set the standard. Both were net-front warriors who earned their keep on the edge of the crease.

For the most part, our current guys aren’t and don’t. That includes Jake Guentzel, who possesses the heart of a lion and a magic wand of a stick but simply lacks the girth required to stand in there on a consistent basis and absorb the punishment. While there’s hope for Radim Zohorna, who’s scored two goals from close range, he’s yet to fully establish himself in that role.

Make no mistake, it takes a special breed to plant yourself in front of the opposing net and absorb various forms of abuse from opposing defensemen, to say nothing of the odd slap shot whistling toward your mush.

Still, it’s a necessary and missing element on the power play. And it’s at least part of the reason we fire shot after shot but have difficulty finishing. We simply don’t get enough traffic in front.

As for the game itself, it followed an all-too-familiar pattern. For the most part our Pens skated circles around the Ducks. They held an absolutely staggering 99-51 edge in shot attempts and a 42-27 advantage in actual shots on goal. Same thing with scoring chances (57-23) and high danger chances (27-13). For good measure, we won over 70 percent of the faceoffs.

And once again we found a way to lose. This one in absolutely crushing fashion on a shorthanded breakaway goal by Mason McTavish with 13 seconds remaining.

I’m tempted to blame goalie Tristan Jarry for yielding two third-period goals after the Pens had worked so hard to forge a 3-2 lead. But as always, he wasn’t the lone culprit. On the game tying goal, again by McTavish, we turned the puck over in our zone. Lazily watching his outlet pass while drifting up the wall, Kris Letang allowed McTavish to slip behind him, where he had Jarry pretty much at his mercy. Yes, our goalie needs to make that save. But could the Pens’ defense make sure the puck clears the zone before they begin to transition from D-to-O?

For the record Letang’s partner, Ryan Graves, who’s made more than his share of mistakes thus far, was also moving to attack on the play and failed to break up the set up pass by Ryan Strome.

On the game winner, Erik Karlsson’s attempted feed to Malkin was broken up by Adam Henrique and nudged ahead to McTavish just as he stepped from the penalty box.

Kismet in its worst form.

The kid steamed up ice with EK in hot pursuit and smoked Jarry glove side. In the process wiping out some good early work by the Pens and bringing the final curtain down on a bitterly disappointing defeat. Not to mention another missed opportunity to gain some points and establish some forward momentum.

Puckpourri

The Pens held a touching pregame ceremony in honor of fallen former teammate Adam Johnson.

Pittsburgh native John Gibson made an insane no look, spin-o-rama stop on Sidney Crosby in the closing seconds of the first period, injuring himself in the process.

Karlsson, Malkin and Zohorna scored for the Pens. EK and Geno paced our attack with two points apiece (1+1). The power play went 2-for-7, snapping an 0-for-16 drought.

A bright spot…the third line of Zohorna, Lars Eller and Drew O’Connor is really starting to jell. They led all black-and-gold lines with a ridiculous Corsi of 70 and a staggering expected goals for percentage of 89.86.

Eller’s been much better than I anticipated and Big Z’s establishing himself as a bona fide NHLer. If we can just get O’Connor going (no goals, two assists).

Ditto Rickard Rakell, who has a lone assist in nine games. Way too good a player to be kept off the scoresheet.

Speaking of not scoring, the fourth line of Noel Acciari, Jeff Carter and Matt Nieto has yet to record so much as a second assist through nine games. Each is in the running for the Tyler Wright Award.

For the unfamiliar, Wright was a feisty little center who failed to register a point in 61 games for the Pens back in 1998-99. In Tyler’s case, it had more to do with ridiculously paltry usage (3:46 ATOI) on the part of his coach Kevin Constantine, who loathed physical players.

Frankly, I’m over these guys…especially Carter and Nieto. Park big Jeff in the press box, waive and/or send Nieto to the Baby Pens and plug in Vinnie Hinostroza and perhaps Colin White or Sam Poulin. They couldn’t possibly do any worse.

To sum up, I feel for our guys. It isn’t that they aren’t trying. Nobody wants to lose. But it seems every mistake we make winds up in the back of our net.

On Deck

On the heels of our 1-3 homestand, the Pens embark on a three-game west coast swing, starting with San Jose on Saturday night.

The Sharks are truly awful (0-8-1) and should be easy meat. The operative word being “should.”

You just never know with our Pens.