When I awoke this morning, I fully expected to document another black-and-gold loss. After all, the Penguins were trailing, 2-zip, when I went to bed. According to “The Ol’ Two-Niner,” radio announcer Phil Bourque, our guys didn’t seem to have much pep.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered we’d won, 4-2, in comeback fashion.
First, the bad. Warren Foegle struck 4:24 into the contest on a made-to-order rebound off Arturs Silovs’ pads. Kevin Fiala capitalized less than five minutes later following an offensive-zone turnover by Evgeni Malkin and a pretty passing play on the counter attack.
Now, the good. Or delicious, if you prefer.
Working on the power play just past the six-minute mark of the second period, Malkin atoned for his earlier gaffe. After taking a short pass from Bryan Rust, Geno circled the left side of the Kings’ zone and let ‘er rip from the circle, his shot finding Anton Forsberg’s exposed five-hole.
A mere 41 seconds later the Pens knotted the score at 2-all. Kris Letang won a puck battle in the d-zone and moved the biscuit to partner Ryan Shea, who snapped a lead-pass to Connor Dewar. The puck squirted through to Noel Acciari driving to the net. “Cookie” made a Sid-esque, one-handed nudge to Dewar. The peppery forward beat Forsberg with a sharp-angle shot from the side of the net for his first goal of the season.
The Pens proceeded to grab the lead at 6:50 of the final frame on Filip Hållander’s first career NHL goal, a shorty to boot. Pouncing on a rebound of a Rickard Rakell shot, the former second-round pick beat Forsberg at the right post with a second-crack whack.
Sidney Crosby applied the finishing stroke with a long-range, empty-netter at 19:29.
By accounts, it wasn’t pretty. But a win, is a win, is a win.
Puckpourri
For the most part, the numbers reinforced the ugly-win descriptions. According to Natural Stat Trick, our hosts held the high ground in shot attempts (61-48), shots on goal (32-26) and faceoffs (61 percent…yikes).
Scoring chances were even at 31-apiece. The Pens held a slight edge in high-danger changes and somehow managed a 58.42 expected goals for percentage. Not quite sure how that came about.
Silovs stiffened (sort of) after yielding the two early goals, turning aside 30 of 32 shots for the win. Apparently, his rebound control left a lot to be desired.
Personnel-wise, it was Ben Kindel’s turn to sit. Tommy Novak moved to center and was typically innocuous while winning 3 of 7 draws. Acciari rotated back in.
Former King Caleb Jones and Harrison Brunicke bumped Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba back to the press box. Metrics-wise, they had a dreadful game.
Our top-six forwards didn’t shine, either.
On the flip side, our fourth line of Acciari, Dewar and Blake Lizotte did much of the heavy lifting. The latter duo were among only five Pens to register a positive Corsi. Hållander and the defensive pair of Erik Karlsson and Parker Wotherspoon were the others.
Wotherspoon somewhat atoned for his egregious flub against the Ducks with a two-assist, plus-two effort. EK65 registered his first assist of the season on Geno’s goal, three less than Shea, who’s been a pleasant surprise.
Letang has yet to register a point through five games.
We complete the California trip with a visit to San Jose and old friends Alex Nedeljkovic and Ryan Reaves on Saturday night. Poor Ned’s had somewhat of an adventure-filled start on the left coast.
The Sully Effect?
Their 6-1 pulverizing of our Pens aside, the Rangers are having grave difficulty scoring goals. Certainly a surprise given the front-line talent on hand.
How bad is it?
Mike Sullivan’s troops have been shutout in their first three home games, the first team in NHL history to suffer such an ignominy.
The Rangers were limited to a single goal in their most recent contest, a 2-1 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs at Toronto last night.
Somewhere, Other Rick must be smiling.
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Rick,
Hate to point it out but it was Mantha that gave the puck away on that second LA Goal not Geno. Malkin slip a neat drop pass through the legs of a defender back to a lumbering Mantha who would have been wide open for a shot had he been moving faster. As it was, the Mantha train was late to the stop, and a defender was now closing in. Mantha still had time to either give and go back down to Geno or even still fire a wrist shot on Goal. Instead, Mantha opted to slow down a little more and toe-drag around the King who promptly took it off his stick. That gaffe was totally on Mantha.
I liked Hallander’s Goal. It wasn’t pretty but it was the type of lunch pail Goal another Swede used to tap in regularly for the Pens (Hornqvist).
It was a blessing that the Sharks couldn’t finish to save their lives, or the result of the game would have been completely different; Silovs was serving up some fat rebounds.
I am going to say it again, if you dump Jarry and Silovs and run Blomqvist (when healthy) and Murashov, Send Mantha, Novak, and Acciari down and bring Broz and A. Hayes, inserting Broz in as 3rd line center and A Hayes in Acciari’s slot – and if you think you must keep the physically immature kid, Kindel, around, bump him up to 2nd line RW with Geno (Where he could play to his strengths; the child does not have a 3rd line skill set) this is a playoff team. - not Cup contender, yet, but playoff team. Don’t do those things and the team will finish the season in the bottom 16 but probably out of any real shot at McKenna.
Hey Other Rick,
Re: Geno gaffe...my bad. I was going from a video replay on my phone and...well...old eyes and a small screen don't mix.
Don't know if it's his size or not (sometimes large objects don't seem to be moving that quickly) but Mantha does seem a step-slow. On the goal he scored against the Ducks, he was slow getting the shot off but it worked in his favor, throwing Dostal's timing off. Again, goodness knows how the ACL injury and subsequent surgery has affected him. To say nothing of missing basically a full season.
It sure will be interesting how the season transpires vis a vis personnel moves. Hopefully, the team we finish the season with will be a great deal different (and a lot more intriguing) than the one we have now.
Rick