I confess, my duties at Wright’s Gym kept me hoppin’ last night, so I didn’t get to watch as much of the Penguins-Avalanche game as I would’ve liked.
On second thought, maybe I saw enough. After all, we wound up on the short end of a 6-2 score. Proving among other things, that while Penguins like ice, they don’t do well in extreme snow.
In some ways I liken last night’s affair to our previous game, a 5-2 victory over the Leafs, only the roles were reversed. Despite the lopsided outcome, I didn’t think we played all that badly. The Avs just played really well.
They were fast, aggressive and “on” us, for lack of a better way to describe it. And their superstars shone.
Sidney Crosby’s Nova Scotia pal Nathan MacKinnon (dear Lord is he fast) piled up five points, including a goal and four assists. Mikko Rantanen did even better, notching a hat trick and two helpers.
As for our big guns?
Cue the crickets.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Evgeni Malkin set up Cody Glass for his first-ever black-and-gold goal with a gorgeous cross-zone pass. Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang picked up assists. Crosby, however, was held off the scoresheet.
Although he’s contributed six assists during that span, Sid hasn’t scored a goal since November 23, a seven-game dry spell. Even worse, he’s managed only two goals in his last 16 games. He hasn’t struggled so offensively since the Mike Johnston era nearly a decade ago.
Perhaps a reminder that our stars, all in their advanced years, are fading, as even the greatest eventually do.
Back to the game. Following a string of good-to-excellent outings, it wasn’t Tristan Jarry’s finest hour in net. He yielded a goal on the second shot he faced and five for the evening on 26 shots, good for a crispy .808 save percentage. While it would be unfair to pin the loss completely on our embattled netminder, he most certainly was a contributing factor.
Still, there were some positives. Even when down by multiple goals in the third period, we kept battling as opposed to mailing it in. I like the hustle and energy provided by comparative kids Glass, Blake Lizotte and Philip Tomasino. The only Pens’ blueliner to avoid a minus, Owen Pickering’s solid play continues to be a mini-revelation.
Speaking of battlers, Michael Bunting scored our other goal on the power play and was at the eye of whatever storm was brewin.’ As hot as Sid is cold, “Bunts” has three goals and six points in his past five games.
A final, random thought. I think the past three games are a pretty fair representation of what we can expect during the final 52. A Mulligan’s stew of disappointing losses (Rangers), surprising wins (Leafs) and games that, for whatever reasons, we just aren’t good enough (Avs).
Down on the Farm
With four goals and six points in five games, including a hat trick, Vasily Ponomarev’s been hot since his return to the Baby Pens. Ditto high-profile rookie Rutger McGroarty, who has five points (1 goal + 4 assists) in his past five games following a sluggish start to the campaign.
Tristan Broz is second on the team in scoring with 14 points (7+7) behind AHL stud Emil Bemström (19 points). Ville Koivunen likewise has 14 points (4+10).
Defenseman Isaac Belliveau leads the club with a plus-seven in nine games. Between the pipes, Joel Blomqvist has a 3.02 goals against average (GAA) and .902 save percentage (SV%) in five appearances.
Wunderkind Sergei Murashov has taken over the goaltending reins in Wheeling. He’s posted a 2.35 GAA and .922 SV% while contributing mightily to the Nailers’ club record 11-game winning streak.
Oh, and former Pens prospect Nathan Légaré was returned to the AHL following a three-game stint with the Devils.
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Hey Rick,
It is really hard to play from behind. Not going to blame the skaters much when their Goalie is an empty sweater.
Although that ersatz Goalie in the black and gold was gifted 4 straight wins, he really wasn't playing all that well. He only turned in 2 performances out of the 4 that I would deem starting Goalie performances. His Sv% over the past 5 games were as follows, 0.862 (Van), 0.968 (Bos), 0.902 (Fla), 0.926 (Tor), and 0.808 (Col). Despite big contract players, Toronto only ranks 20th in GF/60 and Sh% and Boston (with considerably less talent on paper) ranks 28th in terms of GF/60 and Sh%, so those high Sv% games against Bos and Tor are not all that impressive.
Furthermore, the crybaby left the game on the Wahmbulance again, trying to blame the defensemen for his woes.
The 1st GA, he once again squared up to the Shooter's (MacKinnon) body not the puck, giving away 1/3 of the net. On the 2nd GA he once again sat back passively and let the play to come to him. If he had been playing up he would have been in a position to disrupt Makar's pass to Rantanen. Instead he got beat like Mike Lange's rented mule. On the 3rd GA he was lackadaisical getting across to the low post so it was no problem to sneak that shot in. Even on the 4th GA he was passive. Yes he tried a half-hearted stick check while still choked up on his stick and with alligator arms that barely reached past his skates. No way in the world was he going to knock the puck off Nucheshkin's stick.
As I have said many times, jarry is a decent athlete that has no idea how to play goal. Sometimes he guesses right and wows people who don't know goaltending then those same people can't understand why he looks bad the other 75% of the time.