Ever since the trade deadline, our Penguins for the most part have played a gritty, competitive brand of hockey. In short, they’ve been “bringing it” on a nightly basis.
Along with stellar goaltending from a resurgent Tristan Jarry, it’s a huge part of the reason why we were on a 5-1-1 roll entering last night’s contest in Tampa Bay.
Well, sorry to say, both those elements pretty much went pfft during an ugly 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Lightning.
Following an evenly played opening 10 minutes or so, the Bolts struck with a fury, lighting up Jarry for four goals in just under four minutes, or 3:47 to be exact. Two by Anthony Cirelli and one apiece by Ryan McDonagh and Brayden Point.
Exit Jarry and enter Alex Nedeljkovic. Ned did what he could to staunch the bleeding, stopping 18 of 20 shots. However, by then the cat was already out of the bag or the horse had fled the corral, take your pick.
In an effort that could be charitably described as flat-line, his pulseless teammates managed just eight shots on goal through two periods. Meanwhile, our hosts tacked on two more goals by Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel to run the score to 6-0. All that was missing was the extra point.
We did manage to ruin Andrei Vasilevskiy’s shutout bid at 14:15 of the third period, as Bryan Rust tipped home a pretty shot/pass from Matt Grzelcyk for his 26th goal of the season. Sidney Crosby picked up a helper as well.
Oh well. The less written about this one, the better.
Puckpourri
Former Pen Jake Guentzel is alive and well and thriving in Tampa Bay. Jake has 34 goals and 68 points, including an assist last night. Stacked with elite talent, the Bolts are my choice for dark-horse Cup contender.
Crosby’s assist, his 54th, gave him 79 points for the season. Sid needs one more point to cinch a record-setting 20 seasons of point-per-game production.
Even more remarkable? Sid leads the NHL in 5v5 points with 52, one ahead of Oilers’ stud Leon Draisaitl. At 37 years of age.
I know. Amazing doesn’t describe him.
Fellow Two-Headed Monster mate Evgeni Malkin sat out with an upper-body injury. (FYI, Geno has 15 seasons of point-per-game production, tied with a fellow named Mario.) Emil Bemström dressed in his place.
As the Pens exited the ice, I couldn’t help but notice the proliferation of AHL names on the back of jerseys. Bemström, (Joona) Koppanen and (Boko) Imama to name a few.
Speaking of our heavyweight, Boko injected a little juice early in the third period by pursuing Hagel over hill and dale and delivering several whacks and cross-checks. An attempt at payback after the scrappy Bolts’ winger rammed Grzelcyk into the end boards with a stiff check to open the second period.
Imama’s misdeeds earned him a double-minor for slashing and a 10-minute misconduct. I don’t know if they earned him coach Mike Sullivan’s approval.
I’m guessing Boko’s teammates appreciated his actions, or at least his intent.
Following six games of All-Star Jarry, we got the 2024 version last night. Whether or not it was partly attributable to the iffy defense being played in front of him, he was deep in his net instead of at the top of his crease. On his heels instead of his toes. Generally, a recipe for…well…I’ll let you fill in the blanks.
Brunicke to the Baby Pens
Kid defenseman Harrison Brunicke (still only 18) will join the Baby Pens for the remainder of the season. The talented second-round pick totaled 30 points (5+25) in 41 games for a weak Kamloops squad.
Although Harry’s numbers don’t pop, his skills do.
“This dude is absolutely ridiculous,” commented Jesse Marshall of The Athletic after witnessing a dazzling Brunicke solo rush.
Given the sorry state of our defense, we sure could use a little of that.
Also Rick
As for Brunicke, I can’t wait to see him, Blomqvist, Broz, Koivunen, Avery Hayes, McGroary, Murashov and even Pickering get regular TOI in the NHL – not the ridiculous. I also would love to see Belliveau, PiePietela, Gauthier, Graham, Harding, Pieniniemi, and Pietila, get legitimate chances to display their wares. However if there is no coaching change, I pray that those players get traded to teams that will give them real chances to play, for their sakes. Rather than see them wither on the same prospect vine that has claimed nearly every prospect in this system (except those players that really stunk – Simon, POJ etc). The laws of probability are against all of them making it, or even most of them making it, but this team needs a change. They have hit a low (most loses in a season) since Malkin came to the team and the second most amount of losses in the Crosby era.
Even if this team goes on a 9 game win streak, they will only finish with 87 points.
Rick,
I still am NO fan of Jarry and although I would like to see him pad some stats so the Pens could trade him, I would not say that he has had a resurgence. Jarry has played a little better but has benefitted from multiple external factors like opponents completely disrespecting this team and in particularly 2 of the last 3 games were played against teams coming in on the back end of a back-to-back series, with one of those back-to-back series starting off with an OT loss. However, last night Jarry wasn’t completely to blame on those 4 GA scored when he was in net; Grzelcyk and Timmins contributed greatly to those goals. Gzrelcyk was on the ice for 3 of those 4 GA, plus 1 more later – he was awful.
Also, I would like to temper any of my complaints about Defensemen on this team by saying I do understand that even superstars can’t always make pathetic strategies work. Most of the problems with this defense radiates through every single blue-liner; that is more a condemnation of the system than the players. I know there are going to those whose noses will get bent out of shape reading that but true words are seldom pretty and pretty words are seldom true; the biggest problem with this team lies on the bench not the ice – logic demands this conclusion.