In 1983, carrot-topped singer Cyndi Lauper released her smash debut album, “She’s So Unusual.” Although the video to one of the album’s hits, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” featured wrestling icon Captain Lou Albano, it has nothing to do with hockey.
However, unusual is the word that best describes last night’s Penguins-Sabres tilt at PPG Paints Arena. We scored three goals, but only one of ‘em counted. We hit something like five posts, including two by Evgeni Malkin on a single power play. We had three breakaways, one by each member of our top line, and converted nary a one.
And we lost, 3-1.
I alluded to the referees in my headline. Intentionally or otherwise, they heavily influenced the outcome.
After Alex Tuch beat Tristan Jarry courtesy of a quick-up from Connor Clifton at 2:53 of the first period, Drew O’Connor appeared to knot the score for the good guys at 15:59 thanks to a sensational setup from Sidney Crosby. Alas, Sid was a few strides offside on the play, a factoid that didn’t escape the attention of Sabres video coach Justin White.
No goal, and rightfully so.
Nonplussed, the Pens tied the game again at 18:55 on a deflection by Jake Guentzel from the doorstep. But hold the phone. The Sabres challenged again, claiming goaltender interference. Sure enough Jake, skating on the lip of the blue paint, made slight hip-to-mask contact with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen just as the puck arrives.
No goal again, eliciting a chorus of boos from the 18,241 faithful in attendance and derailing an otherwise dominant period of hockey by the locals.
Having dodged a bullet, the Sabres began to tilt the ice in the second period, outshooting the Pens 15-12. Yet they were generous enough to afford us three power plays. In pass-pass-pass mode, we did nothing with them. Our best chance of the period came on a Guentzel breakaway, but Luukkonen stopped Jake cold.
The refs continued to influence the game in the third period. Three minutes in, Jansen Harkins shanked a puck off a Sabres stick and into the crowd, only to be issued a bogus delay-of-game penalty. Moments after the Pens killed off the phantom infraction, Clifton and Zemgus Girgensons were whistled on simultaneous infractions, handing us a rare 5-on-3 power play for a full two minutes. It was the officials’ way of saying, “Hey, we screwed up, but please accept this free gift as a peace offering.”
A gift we very nearly squandered until eight seconds remained, when Erik Karlsson placed a gorgeous shot/pass onto the waiting stick of Rickard Rakell for a can’t-miss goal.
If only regulation time had ended there, I would’ve gladly taken the point and ran.
Alas, our weak underbelly of a defense was exposed with 4:38 to play. Pierre-Olivier Joseph had his pocket picked along the wall by Peyton Krebbs to touch off a power-play like sequence by the Sabres’ fourth line. With the aforementioned Joseph and Karlsson basically standing around and watching the proceedings, the light-scoring Girgensons popped the puck past Jarry from the doorstep.
Any chance for a Pens comeback was snuffed out on a whacky play with 96 seconds remaining. Kris Letang made a hustling effort to flag down a Buffalo clearing attempt, then headman the puck to Rakell. Noting RikRak had lugged the biscuit into the attacking zone, Jarry dutifully headed for the bench. Unfortunately, Rakell promptly turned the puck over to Rasmus Dahlin. The all-star defender alertly fired a tracer bullet past a sprawling Jarry for a sorta-kinda empty netter.
An appropriately bizarre ending to a bizarre night of hockey.
Puckpourri
Per our usual, the Pens dominated the shot-based stats according to Natural Stat Trick. We had the edge in shot attempts (79-64), shots on goal (41-32), scoring chances (35-23) and high-danger chances (12-6).
All for naught, unfortunately, due in no small part to Luukkonen. The rangy 6’5” netminder stopped 40 of 41 shots to easily earn top-star honors. In the opposite net, opening softy aside Jarry kept us in the game with a workmanlike effort. Hard to fault him on the Sabres’ final two goals.
Despite their heroics on our goal, Karlsson and Rakell each finished a minus-3. Guentzel and Joseph minus-2 each.
IMHO, P-O must go. As for pairing him with Karlsson? Two defensive wrongs clearly don’t make a right. Both need a partner who can cover their arses and not one who has similar weaknesses. Time to try the unspectacular but responsible Ryan Shea with EK65.
Mike Sullivan juggled his middle-six forward lines, bumping O’Connor to second-line duty and dropping Reilly Smith to the third unit. Coincidence or not, Smith responded with a game-high six shots on goal.
It may be more impression than reality, but it seems Malkin’s line is where wingers go to die. In stark contrast to his early season form, Bryan Rust has looked strangely invisible skating alongside Geno. The opposite is true for Rakell.
It would seem No. 71 is more shooter than playmaker at this stage of his career.
Oh, the Pens traded forward Rem Pitlick to the Blackhawks yesterday for a conditional seventh round pick in the 2026 Entry Draft. Good for both player and team.
On Deck
The Pens (19-15-4, 42 points) visit the wrong side of the state to take on John Tortorella’s surprising Flyers (20-13-6, 46 points) on Monday night in a game rife with playoff implications.
We remain two points behind in the race for a wild-card spot.
To me Rick, the difficult thing is trying to tease out how much really is player and how much coaching.
1) how much of the players failures is true lack of talent and how much is THE coach putting them in a position to fail. ie why would you ask a top 6 type forward to play bottom 6, they just don’t have the skill set.
2) how little patience our Coach has for kids. Carter gets chance after chance, but Puustenin, despite having the best primary points/60 5-on-5 only got 5:31 while Carter, whose primary points/60 is roughly 1/3 of the young Finns was given over 12:00 in a game when the team needed Gs.
I swear, with some of the kids in the org but not on this team, a good coach could be fighting for home ice instead of the 2nd Wild Cards spot.
Hey Rick,
You do realize that Malkin’s Primary Assists per 60 minutes is only fractionally lower than Sid’s 5-on-5 and higher than the Captains at all strengths combine. However, #71’s secondary assists are almost non-existent, the worst in his career. Since Primary Assists are the mark of a play-maker and secondary assists are excuse me stats, only given out to pad stats for players looking to get higher salaries and hype the game. I wouldn’t be so quick to criticize the Russian Bears play-making skills.
It would seem to me that Geno is now being saddled with the worst wingers of his career. If Geno isn’t scoring the Goal or drawing the attention of the defenders to him before slipping the puck to a wide open winger, then nothing is really happening and opponents need not fear. if Smith or the RW du jour would be capable of NHL level play, then Malkin would have picked up far more secondary assists from the Wingers passing between each other.
By comparison, Crosby is having his worst season in terms of Primary Assists and his Second Worst season in terms of Secondary Assists. The reason the team is fighting for its life just may because Sullivan and management have allowed the supporting cast to become non existent, populating it with older and older fossils, has been s and never was s. NOw, in their older age, the Captain and his Assistant need help, there is none to be found
Oh, and did you notice that Puustenin was given a scant 5:31, a kid who has some of the better Primary Points/60 was parked on the bench in favor a higher paid, lower performing veterans.
Hey Other Rick,
Yeah, as I wrote, it’s probably more perception than reality. Geno has the same amount of assists as Sid (19), and only four less at even strength (15 for Sid, 11 for Geno). Yet, by and large, guys don’t seem to score on his wing. Reilly Smith has only two goals in his past 28 games. Given how well they played together early, that one’s really been a head-scratcher. Rakell certainly had his struggles with Geno (no goals in 17 games). Rust (none in three) doesn’t look particularly in sync with No. 71, either.
I’ll agree with you that Sid gets his pick of wingers to a point. The most prominent being Guentzel, who’s obviously a cut or two above any left wing skating with Malkin. But Geno’s had equal opportunities with Rakell and Rust and both seem to do better with Sid.
Drew O’Connor’s been playing better and he seems to work well with Geno, although I actually really like the DOC-Eller combination on the third line. Puustinen showed flashes with No. 71, but that seems to have gone by the wayside, too.
A lot of times players of Geno’s (and Sid’s) talent level are difficult to read and react to. Not everybody can play with them. I wonder if that isn’t the case here.
Rick