In the wake of the Penguins’ hardscrabble victory over the Rangers on Friday night, I wrote that our current batch reminds me a lot of the 1969-70 squad. Long on heart, short on talent.
I still feel that way following last night’s 3-2 loss to the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. However, there’s one fact I neglected to mention. That vintage Pens team, which finished in second place, actually had a losing record of 26-38-12 (and were shutout a whopping 14 times). In those days, the six 1967 expansion teams were grouped in the West Division, more or less assuring them of at least some level of success. But I digress.
As for last night, our hosts wasted little time in getting the jump on the undermanned Pens. Less than two minutes in, Scott Laughton beat Joel Blomqvist through the five-hole and the Flyers were off and running…sort of. While Philly was stuck on a lone shot on goal for the longest time, the Pens unleashed shots from anywhere and everywhere.
Unfortunately, our finishing-challenged Pens couldn’t capitalize, at least until 4:19 of the second period. That’s when Erik Karlsson took a pass from d-partner Matt Grzelcyk and fired a short-side pea over the shoulder of countryman Samuel Ersson from the right circle.
Unfortunately, Blomqvist would soon display his rust (not Bryan). At 12:26 of the period, Pierre-Olivier Joseph rang a shot off the crossbar that proceeded to bonk off the sideboards. As if drawn by an unseen magnet, the puck skittered between two Pens defenders and straight at Blomqvist. With a millisecond to decide, the rookie charged from his net and tried to play the puck, only to have it clank off Flyer tough guy Garnet Hathaway. The puck coasted into our abandoned net.
The Flyers upped their lead to 3-1 at 4:27 of the final frame on a Travis Konecny blast from center point. The puck glanced off Noel Acciari in the high slot and evaded Blomqvist.
Sometimes you block ‘em and sometimes you deflect ‘em. In the case of the latter, often past your own goalie.
However, the never-say-die Pens struck back on the ensuing shift, courtesy of a net-front scramble and some great work by Kevin Hayes. Standing practically atop Ersson, the big guy dug like a coal miner, even using his skate to coolly kick the puck to his stick. He did everything but score the goal. Hustling Anthony Beauvillier provided the final poke to nudge the puck across the line. Shades of Phil Kessel in the 2016 playoffs.
Rookie referee Morgan MacPhee initially waved the goal off, claiming he’d blown the play dead. Thanks in no small part to the eyes (and ears) of our video staff, the call was overturned.
Good goal and suddenly we’re only down by one with plenty of time left.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t nudge another puck past Ersson.
Puckpourri
The banged-up Pens played without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and heavyweight Boko Imama. Matt Nieto replaced Boko. Vasily Ponomarev was called up from the Baby Pens to replace Rust. The 22-year-old forward worked a nondescript 9:16 of ice time.
IMHO, Karlsson doesn’t score enough from long range. But near the net? My word, can EK65 snipe! No wonder he scored 25 goals a couple seasons ago.
Last night’s tally was virtually a Xerox copy of the one he scored against Utah ten days ago. Top cheese, short side.
If we could just find a way to spring him loose down low more consistently…
Ryan Graves was credited with his first assist (and point) of the campaign on Karlsson’s goal. Alas, it proved to be a case of mistaken identity. Grzelcyk was awarded the helper, and rightfully so.
Gotta feel for Graves, who tallied eight goals and 26 points as recently as ’22-23.
Speaking of helpers, it had to feel good for Hayes to get that assist, especially since John Tortorella basically ran him out of Philly for-goodness-knows-what sin. Since returning from healthy scratch exile, Kevin’s got five goals and two assists in 17 games. Not exactly point-per-game production, but respectable.
Similarly, Beauvillier has put up three goals and six points in 11 games following an extended stretch of bottom-six duty. Almost quietly, his dozen goals rank fifth on the team, only two behind Michael Bunting.
Tough to fault Blomqvist on any of the goals, with the exception of the Hathaway blunder. The kid’s been languishing in cold storage since a loss to the Kraken on January 25. Not to make like Captain Obvious, but hardly an ideal way to develop a kid. He might as well be splitting the netminding chores with phenom Sergei Murashov down in Wilkes.
We need to make up our organizational minds about what we truly hope to accomplish this season. Barring the greatest rise from the ashes since the Phoenix (or Zazarus), we’re not going make the playoffs.
Instead of languishing in a gray area, we need to set our priorities accordingly and shift into a more developmental mind set. And Mike Sullivan needs to be on board.
Accordingly, the Pens (23-25-9, 55 points) enter the 4-Nations break tied with Philly for last in the Metro, six points out of a wild-card spot.
Not insurmountable you say?
The Red Wings, who currently occupy that spot, have two games in hand. Which means a six-point bulge could easily morph into nine or 10.
Rick,
I don’t want Sullivan anywhere near our Penguins’ true prospect. Sullivan is an imbecile; evidence by his wasting 2 weeks of Blomqvist’s time riding the bench. If Dubas does not fire this clown , of a Head Coach I would want him to trade away Blomqvist, Murashov, Koivunen, Broz, Howe, Brunicke, Pieniemi, Broz, Belliveau, and all of their draft picks.
On the flip side, I am ok with letting Sullivan finish out the season. The farther down the standings this team falls, the better (assuming that Dubas has enough brains to fire Sullivan in the off-Season). My only thing is that I want the Rangers to sink in a similar ship wreck and they opt to keep their pick this year and cede their pick next year and finish even lower in the standings