For those of you hoping to read an in-depth summary of the Penguins’ somnambulant 4-1 loss to the Bruins on Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, I confess this ain’t it.
In the 81st game of a largely ho-hum season, save for the odd shove to the snout by Evgeni Malkin and an occasional flare of temper from Kris Letang, our Pens turned in a bow-wow-wowser of an effort. And that’s being grossly unkind to our four-legged, tail-wagging friends.
Since we pretty much mailed this one in, I’m doing the same with my recap.
As for the game itself, it started at 3:30. Save for goalie Tristan Jarry, who did everything in his power to keep us in the contest, his teammates showed up an hour or so later. Long enough for Rickard Rakell to pop in his career-best 35th goal of the season on the power play 16 seconds before the second intermission to trim our deficit to 3-1.
Then Jack crawled back into the box or the genie returned to his magic lamp, whichever you prefer.
Sorry folks, that’s all I’ve got today. And that’s pretty much all we deserve.
Puckpourri
The Bruins ran up a sizeable advantage in shots and shot attempts through the first 35 minutes or so before the Pens began a mild pushback.
Jarry did what he could, turning aside 28 of the 31 shots he faced. He didn’t have much help.
At the opposite end of the ice we made Joonas Korpisalo, he of the Mendoza Line-ish .900 career save percentage, look like Georges Vezina.
Again.
In addition to establishing a new career-high in goals, Rakell tied his career best in points (69).
Our power play’s been humming of late with ex-Bruin Matt Grzelcyk serving as quarterback. So Mike Sullivan handed the controls to Erik Karlsson during a potentially game changing man-advantage to open the third period.
Can you say pfft?
Philip Tomasino returned to the lineup after missing three games with a concussion. He registered the first assist on Rakell’s goal. Rookie Ville Koivunen notched the second assist, in the process running his points streak to four games. He’s got five helpers in seven games.
We won’t be reaching hockey .500 this season.
Okay, that’s really all I’ve got.
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Rick,
On the flip side
The baby Penguins, led by Blomqvist (who finally returned from his injury) and Murashov took their talent depleted team (a lot of their best players are in Pgh right now) on a 3 game sweep this weekend.
And in truth I don't care about Jarry. regardless of what may have happened here or there, he ended the game with a 0.903 Sv%. If there was anything redeeming about him, when he was waved and buried in WBS, someone would have plucked him off our roster, Perhaps the only reason he is getting any playing time here is because Sully still has his britches in a bunch from when Ned yelled at the bench (allegedly Sully and the coaches) when he got pulled in a game when he wasn't getting any defense.