Penguins Jar(ry) Canadiens, 4-1, Bag Two Points

As our faithful readers are fully aware, PenguinPoop has been down for several days due to technical difficulties.

One could argue our Penguins have been offline for a while, too, going back to our come-from-in-front loss to the Kings on February 18.  Leading to a rather deflating press conference by POHO/GM Kyle Dubas on the team’s present state of affairs and direction (or lack of).

It didn’t help matters when our Pens rumbled, bumbled and stumbled out of the starting blocks against the visiting Canadiens on Thursday night, to coin a phrase by ESPN legend Chris Berman.

Perhaps Kris Letang had flashbacks back to when Mike Matheson was a teammate. After picking Colin White’s pocket (more on that in a bit), he hit Matheson with a gorgeous pass in the high slot. The speedy Habs blueliner ripped a shot past Tristan Jarry for the game-opening goal nine minutes in.

Tanger atoned for his bungle a short time later, with an assist from…you guessed it…Matheson. Forechecking fiercely in the corner, Drew O’Connor and Evgeni Malkin hounded their old teammate into a turnover. Geno quickly moved the puck to Letang at the point. Tanger’s ensuing shot appeared to be tracking wide of the net. However, in a rare (but welcome) case of puck luck, the biscuit clunked off the blocker pad of Habs goalie Cayden Primeau and in at 11:24 to knot the score.

Almost 20 minutes to the clock tick later, the Pens snatched the lead on a goal from a most unlikely source. Usually a culprit in our demise, the power play (yes, you read that right) struck just six seconds into a holding penalty to Brendan Gallagher. Bryan Rust did the honors, tipping home a long-range Erik Karlsson wrister.

The 17,000-plus patrons in attendance at PPG Paints Arena had scarcely stopped cheering when the Pens struck again 21 seconds later. Karlsson carried the mail over the Habs’ blue line, then pulled up and fed a short pass to Valtteri Puustinen. The peppery rookie wasted little time in moving the puck to O’Connor steaming down the slot. DOC let ‘er fly, beating Primeau stick side for his eighth goal of the season and second point of the night.

At the opposite end of the rink, Jarry made our lead stand up. Sharp as a tack for a second-straight outing, he faced down 34 scoring chances, including 15 of the high-danger variety, and several great looks by Habs sniper Cole Caufield.

Letang applied the finishing flourish with a length-of-the-ice empty netter with 1:25 to play to cinch a crucial two points for our Pens.

Puckpourri

The fleet Canadiens dominated the fancy stats according to Natural Stat Trick. They piled up significant advantages in shot attempts (73-54), scoring chances (34-24) and high-danger chances (15-7), along with a slight edge in shots on goal (31-27).

Again, Jarry was air-tight, garnering top-star honors in the process.

None of our forward lines had a particularly good game…with one notable exception. After the DOC-Malkin-Matthew Phillips line pooped the bed (15 5v5 shot attempts against, 1 for), Mike Sullivan promoted Puustinen and SHAZAM, the unit’s fortunes turned on a dime. Geno and the kids promptly piled up 11 5v5 shot attempts for to 1 against the rest of the way.

Time to end the Phillips experiment. Not to pick on the kid…I’m sure he’s pressing to make an impression…but his underlying numbers through three games are atrocious (a woeful 29.41 Corsi and 19.77 xGF% despite favorable deployment). Give me Jesse Puljujärvi any day of the week.

Actually Emil Bemström, newly acquired from Columbus for Alex Nylander and a conditional pick, may be the next man up. A former fourth-round pick of the Jackets, the 24-year-old right wing has struggled to score with any consistency at the NHL level. However, in the AHL and back in his native Sweden he’s put up huge numbers.

Guess we’ll see what he’s got.

In the meantime? Puustinen’s just what the doctor ordered…a quick, talented and spirited young forward who brings a ton of enthusiasm and spark. If Sullivan can’t see it, he’s blind.

Speaking of our coach, despite the team’s underperformance, he was given what appears to be a vote of confidence by Dubas. Talk about being coated with Teflon. Criticism, warranted or otherwise, appears to slide right off.

Lament number two. I know it’ll never happen has long as Sully’s behind the bench, but I wish we had a legit tough guy or two. Marcus Pettersson, God bless him, tries to stick up for his teammates, as he did last night after burly Habs’ power forward Josh Anderson ran over Jarry. But the lanky defender’s simply outgunned in mano y mano confrontations.

A point reinforced when Arber Xhekaj (6’5” 238) thumped Malkin in the closing minute. I give Geno high marks for going back at the heavyweight defenseman, but this guy’s a killer who’ll knock you into tomorrow (lifted from Rocky III).

I sure don’t want Geno…or any of our other stars…fighting that battle.

Don’t know if anyone’s noticed. But Karlsson has almost quietly been asserting himself. Despite our power-play woes, EK65’s got 19 points (1+18) in our past 21 games. He’s the least of our worries, at least in the offensive zone.

Defensively? Shudder…

And what a difference a power-play goal actually makes. How many pivotal moments…and points…have we left on the table due to our man-advantage struggles? It’s literally sunk our season.

Oh. White was claimed on waivers by the Canadiens and was actually fairly noticeable. He finished a plus-1 with one shot on goal and one hit.

On Deck

The Pens (25-21-8, 58 points) host Philly (30-20-7, 67 points) in a critical matinee match-up on Sunday afternoon. As for our flickering playoff hopes? We trail the third-place Flyers by nine points in the Metro race and the Lightning by seven in the wild-card chase.