Mama said there’d be days like this. Or, if you prefer, all good things must come to an end.
Pick your platitude.
Our Penguins came crashing back to earth last night en route to a resounding 6-1 shellacking at the hands of Mike Sullivan’s Rangers at PPG Paints Arena. Following a strong first period that saw us pile up a 21-9 edge in shot attempts and a 9-4 advantage in actual shots on goal, the roof pretty much caved in on the boys clad in black and gold.
Indeed, the wheels came off early in the second period, ironically following our lone highlight of the evening. Rookie Ben Kindel scooped up a short pass in the neutral zone from Caleb Jones, streaked around Vladislav Gavrikov and laced a bullet past Igor Shesterkin glove side to knot the score at 1-apiece.
Then the Rangers got down to business. Adam Fox (6:06), Will Cuylle (9:25) and Fox again (16:38) tickled the twine behind Arturs Silovs to stake the visitors to a 4-1 lead.
The Pens offered little in the way of pushback in the third period as the Rangers tacked on goals by heavyweight Matt Rempe and Taylor Raddysh to complete the blowout.
Call it Sully’s revenge.
Puckpourri
The Rangers dominated the final 40 minutes while piling up a significant edge in shot attempts (60-46) and shots on goal (30-19) overall. They also won the special teams battle in resounding fashion, with a pair of power-play goals and a shorty by Mika Zibanejad.
Sully’s revenge Part 2: after losing to us in their home opener, they’ve outscored their last two opponents (including us) by a whopping 10-2 margin.
While it isn’t a direct apples-to-apples comparison in terms of playing style, Kindel’s early performance harkens back some 51 years to another precocious teenage sensation, Pierre Larouche. Ben was one of the few Pens who didn’t have dead-red metrics, topping the team with an expected goals for percentage of 51.23 and winning five of 10 draws.
In not-so-great news involving a prospect, the Pens sent fellow young-gun Ville Koivunen to the Baby Pens to make room for Bryan Rust. While I thought the kid looked a little lost his first couple of games, especially compared to his electric performance down the stretch last spring, this isn’t an especially welcome development.
However, to borrow a line from Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’ll be back.
Eventually.
Speaking of the kiddos, the Baby Pens beat the Hartford Wolfpack (the Rangers’ top farm club) 2-1 last night in their season-opener on goals by Valtteri Puustinen and Owen Pickering. Sergei Murashov made 23 saves in net.
Back to the vets. It wasn’t a night to behold (or remember) for our top line in particular as Rust, Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell each finished a minus-three, as did Erik Karlsson. Kris Letang departed early in the final frame with an undisclosed injury, applying extra pressure to our patchwork defense.
Unappealing as it was, this was the Pens’ first loss since they fell to the CBJ back on September 24. Since then they’d won seven in a row, including their first two regular-season games.
On Tap
The Pens hit the road for an early season swing through Cali to take on the Ducks (Tuesday), Kings (Thursday) and Sharks (Saturday), before returning home to face Jimmy Rutherford’s Canucks on the 21st.
Speaking of the left coast, 38-year-old Ryan Reaves scored a beauty of a goal for the Sharks last night with a classic power move.
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View Comments
Rick,
I didn’t get too excited about the first two wins, nor will I get too depressed over last night’s loss. Hockey is a marathon, not a sprint.
My concerns are more about what the team will do going forward after the loss.
• Crosby is starting the season off horribly. He has yet to be on the ice for a 5-on-5 Goal and has been a defensive nightmare. His Team GA/60 5-on-5 is a bloated 4.01. Last night he was directly responsible for 2 GA, the SHG and Rempe’s G. He passed the puck right to Ranger’s sticks and the Blue-and-White went off to the races off our Captain’s bad decisions and weak passes. I fear the team will do what they have done over the last 4 or more seasons , strip Malkin of Wingers with which he is developing chemistry to try and get the Captain on track.
• Novak is almost as bad as Crosby in terms of GA/60 5-on-5 and always has been (as I pointed out in the preseason). After 3 GP his GA/60 5-on-5 is 3.81, despite Offensive Zone Start % of 66.67. How is this clown still on the team while Koivunen was sent down and Broz and Hayes were not even given a shot.
• The hype of Kindel. Yes, he scored a Goal Scorers Goal, taking advantage of Shesterkin being off his angles and ripping a shot past the Ranger’s Goalie’s glove. However, the kid didn’t get a single start in the defensive zone. In fact, for the season, Kindle’s 5-on-5 O-Z starts 5 is a fat 62.5, yet his O-Z 5-on-5 FO’s is a paltry 37.5. The kid is being given great, positive ice but constantly allowing the ice to get tilted back into his own team’s Zone.
• Perhaps the most concerning issue is the Penguin’s Goalies. Dubas and Muse seem bent on playing the worst two Goalies in the organization (as if they wanted to tank). Although only two of last night’s Goals were on Silovs, they were typical Silovs gaffes, long high shots. Eventually, the book will be throughout the league, and he will become nothing more than a turnstile. While Jarry’s 5-on-5 Sv% is .870 (it was special team’s play in front of him that padded Jarry’s overall Sv%).
I still believe in this team and am hopeful Muse will quickly learn from mistakes and make the personnel changes that will give his players a chance to succeed. Stop giving (because that is what he is doing, giving them the net - Jarry and Silovs never earned it) the net to bad Goalies and if you really want to force Kindle onto a big-league roster, do it at the expense of Novak, Acciari, and Tomasino, not Koivunen, Broz, and Avery. Also, acknowledge that you are sheltering him and temper the discussion.
Hey Other Rick,
Agree with a lot of what you say. Sid is, indeed, off to a crappy overall start, especially when you consider he has a whopping 84.62 offensive zone starts percentage. FYI: Rakell is right with him at 83.33. Apparently, the same thing happened last season and Sid eventually got untracked. However, his defensive inputs have slipped the past couple of seasons, no doubt.
Regarding our goaltending, I think we're just going to have to grit our teeth and bear it, at least until Blomqvist is ready. I really don't want to see us rush Murashov. Let him gain at least little more experience before we bring him up. Perhaps around the holidays.
I guess his first two games pretty much sum up Silovs in a nutshell, good and bad. Great athleticism and ability to make difficult and even spectacular saves fastened to a vulnerability on long-range shots and iffy rebound control. Not to mention a lack of consistency.
Wish we'd cut ties with Acciari. He doesn't even do the things well he's supposed to do well, like win faceoffs and kill penalties. Frankly, I think the more we turn back to veterans, the more we're going to morph into last season's bunch.
We'll have to agree to disagree on Kindel. I think he's done just fine. Five vs. five, he's third on the team in Corsi (Brunicke's fourth), he leads the team in shots for percentage (Brunicke's second), and he's sixth in expected goals for percentage. As for that 62.5 percent offensive zone starts you mentioned? Only 13th highest on the team out of 20 skaters.
For good measure, he's a team-best 57.89 percent on faceoffs (11-8), while Sid's 43.75 % and Geno's 39.13%.
I'll state for the record that my initial impression and misgivings about this kid were totally wrong.
Rick
PS--However it happens, I also hope it won't be long before Broz, Hayes (Avery) and Koivunen make their respective returns. McGroarty and Pickering as well. Of course, that'll require considerable dead wood to be moved, which may take longer than we'd like.
Rick,
I am not going to tell you what to think. I am telling you what I know.
Corsi is a useless number if you look at it in a vacuum. Malkin leads the team in CORSI among Forward, at 56.00%, followed by Acciari (another Center) at 54.24%, then Mantha at 53.95%. Kindel doesn’t check in until 4th among Forward but only 3rd among Centers at 52.78%. Also, when looking at the with-or-without-you numbers, Kindel’s CORSI drops when skating with any other forward than Dewar, Rakell, Tomasino and Hallander. Kindel ‘s CORSI is as much a product of his positive ice starts and his linemates.
Also, a better set of stats at which to look is the difference between Offensive and Defensive Zone Starts vs Offensive and Defensive Zone Face Offs. Kindel, as I mentioned above, is losing ground when he is on the ice. He is not driving possession. Kindel gets to start in the O-Zone 62.5% of the time but only gets to take FO s 37.5% of the time.
As for FOs, first FOW do not equal Ws, second, FO s needs to be evaluated by opponent and situation, not gross, quick looks, down a stat chart. FOs do not exist discreetly as a factor of just one player and one circumstance.
However, again, if you want to hail Kindel as the second coming, that is your business. I see far to many confounding variables to elevate him, particularly after only 3 games. Way too often I have seen players play their first 10 games or so well and then tank after that.