When I was a kid, my favorite ride at Kennywood Park was the Thunderbolt roller coaster. As I recall, a veritable thrill ride of dips, high-speed curves, climbs and drops. I especially loved the part where it plunged over the hill and toward the Mon River Valley below before racing to the climax.
It reminds me a lot of last night’s 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the Devils and our season in general. Ironically, TV color analyst Mike Rupp also used the roller coaster analogy in his post mortem.
We’re up, down and all around.
Indeed, two days after a decisive victory over the Red Wings fanned our flickering playoff hopes, they were effectively snuffed out by last night’s loss.
The Penguins didn’t play a terrible game, at least not through the first 40 minutes. We had our moments, especially during the second period when we dominated in shots on goal (18-9) and scoring chances (19-8). However, we never really seemed to get up to speed.
Call it spark, drive, intensity or desperation. But it seemed to be lacking in this most crucial of contests.
Our hosts had no such issues. The Devils turned on the jets, especially in the third period, and simply overwhelmed us with their speed. In the process turning a close game into a rout with three third-period goals, two within a disastrous 16-second span that broke the game open and rendered us black-and-gold buzzard meat.
An observation. Sixty-eight games into the season, our guys still look like they’re trying to figure each other out. Perhaps the unfortunate and unintended result of a frenetic offseason that saw POHO/GM Kyle Dubas turn over roughly half the roster.
More often than not, the Pens resemble an on-ice version of Frankenstein’s monster, bolted together from disparate and ill-fitting parts.
The sad reality of a team that’s reached the end of its competitive run.
The Goals
The quick-starting Devils drew first blood on a tally by Dawson Mercer at 5:35 of the first period. Marcus Pettersson knotted it for our Pens at 7:16 of the second period on a drive from center point, courtesy of some dirty work down low by Michael Bunting and Rickard Rakell.
Unfortunately, that proved to be our high-water mark. Timo Meier struck for a power-play goal at 14:20 of the frame to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. Then came those sledgehammer goals 16 seconds apart by Alexander Holtz and Mercer midway through the final period, followed minutes later by Meier’s second power-play goal of the night.
Bryan Rust struck on the backhand with an assist from Sidney Crosby at 17:15 to close out the scoring.
Puckpourri
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Devils had the edge in shot attempts (75-64) and high-danger chances (20-14). Shots on goal (38-38) and scoring chances (40-40) were even.
As bad as the final outcome was, it could’ve been much worse had the Devils not rung about a half-dozen shots off the iron. Although Tristan Jarry was far from airtight, he made some big saves late after his defense basically quit on him.
With an xGF% of 30.15, the newly dubbed ESP Line of Lars Eller, Reilly Smith and Valtteri Puustinen could’ve used some extrasensory perception.
Our top two defense pairings were owned by the Devils. Erik Karlsson, whose vaunted offensive chops have all but evaporated, was especially bad (Corsi 38.89, xGF% 35.23).
My word, has EK(eek?)65 been a disappointment.
On the bright side, our emerging third defensive pair of John Ludvig and Pierre-Olivier Joseph played a strong game and seem to be developing some real chemistry.
Watching Bunting battle in the trenches reminds me of how lacking we are in that regard. As an organization, we’ve got to balance our tendency to focus solely on skill by adding players who are battle-ready and intense. Just as we did in the early 2000s when we drafted scrappers like Colby Armstrong, Tyler Kennedy, Ryan Malone, Brooks Orpik and Max Talbot.
Along those lines, power forward Jagger Joshua registered a Gordie Howe Hat Trick (a goal, an assist and a fight for the unfamiliar) during the Baby Pens’ win over Cleveland on Monday night. He’s got six goals and 10 points in his last 11 games.
For goodness sake…SIGN THIS KID!!!!
Judging by his post-game comments, Mike Sullivan appears to be separating himself from the team. I’d like Dubas to create some separation from Sullivan this offseason.
On Deck
The Pens (30-29-9, 69 points) limp into the Lone Star State to face the heavyweight Stars (41-19-9, 91 points) on Friday night.
We’re seven points out in the wild-card chase…and effectively done. Not to sound like Captain Obvious, but with 14 games to go, no way we’re making up that ground.
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Rick
Couple of things about the loss to the Devils. I felt like I was watching a Mike Tomlin team playing in a
must game and come out flat as a pancake. They interviewed Eller before the opening faceoff and he
said it was the biggest game of the year for the Pen's!! How do you come out not ready to play??????
Sully needs to go!!
I know Karlsson has his weaknesses defensively but to pair him with Graves IMO is an absolute joke.