I have a confession to make. When Kris Letang turned the puck over (again) in the final minute of the second period, which led to a goal by Zach Werenski four seconds before the horn to give the CBJ a 3-1 lead, I snapped off the TV in disgust.
Didn’t bother to turn it back on again to watch the third period. Nor did I bother to check the final score until just before bed time. You can imagine my surprise when I did.
Penguins win! In overtime to boot! On a goal by Letang, of all prople.
While I was away, in a manner of speaking, Bryan Rust took a short feed from Erik Karlsson and lashed the puck past CBJ goalie Jet Greaves just 13 seconds into the third period to pare the Jackets’ lead to one. Perhaps just as important, if not more, giving the black-and-gold a desperately needed shot of adrenalin and forward momentum.
Next on the list of ‘Guins heroes, Sidney Crosby. Sir Sidney, who’d staked us to an all-too-brief lead earlier in the contest, made an absolutely brilliant play at 8:28 to tie it at 3-all. Sid astutely allowed a head-man pass from Tommy Novak to carom off the sideboards before engaging the rubber in a race to the CBJ net. Arriving on Greaves’ doorstep at roughly the same time as the puck, Crosby then corralled the biscuit with one hand on his stick and in one smooth motion beat the stunned netminder blocker side.
I mean, what a goal!
Only Sid.
From there the Pens pushed the game to overtime. Let’s face it, with an 0-5 record in games extending beyond regulation, extra stanzas haven’t exactly been our domain thus far. However, 59 seconds before a dreaded shootout, Evgeni Malkin barreled into the Jackets’ zone and pinned the puck to the side boards, drawing the attention of two defenders. Rookie Luca Pinelli pried the puck loose, but Letang promptly pounced on the loose change and fed Novak, who in turn slipped it back to No. 58 on a quick give-and-go. Tanger snapped it past Greaves for the game-winner.
Puckpourri
I’m not gonna’ lie, Letang’s disturbing penchant for turning pucks over in the final minute of periods had drawn my attention prior to last night. It’s as if Tanger’s hard-wired to give the puck away in crucial situations. If a schlub like me notices, Dan Muse and his staff certainly must also. Dare I suggest they deploy Karlsson and Parker Wotherspoon, by far our best defense tandem, at such critical junctures?
For the first 40 minutes, it wasn’t a pretty game to watch from a Pens’ perspective. We managed just 15 shots on goal, and there was little in the way of sustained offensive pressure. Not to call guys out, but there are way too many (ahem, Ville Koivunen and Joona Koppanen) who simply aren’t producing.
To that end, in a rather baffling move, Muse made rookie Tristan Broz a healthy scratch just two nights after his big-league debut, while reinserting fellow rookie Ben Kindel. While I get that they’re both natural centers, each has played wing as well. Is it wrong to suggest they could and should both be in the lineup? Perhaps on the same line?
Anywho, to say we desperately need to get Rickard Rakell and Justin Brazeau back is the Cap’n Obvious understatement of the century. Until then, I’m afraid it’s a steady diet of hard-scrabble (and at times, hard to watch) hockey.
Muse did break out of his strict rotation to give Tristan Jarry a richly deserved second-straight start in net. Tristan stopped 26 of 29 shots and was stiff when he had to be.
Speaking of, Jarry’s name is popping up in trade rumors, mostly with the Oilers. One iteration, posted on X by Oilerslive, suggested that Jarry and Wotherspoon would be headed north of the border, with the Pens receiving sieve-like Stuart Skinner, veteran depth forward Mattias Janmark and draft picks in return.
If true, I want no part of that deal. Hopefully, Kyle Dubas doesn’t, either.
The victory pushed the Pens (12-6-5) into the first Eastern Conference wild card slot. With only six points separating the first-place Devils from the cellar-dwelling CBJ, the Metro is packed tighter than a tin of sardines.
Tonight’s foe, the floundering Maple Leafs, are fresh off a 4-2 drubbing at the hands of the Capitals in DC. Presenting a prime opportunity to avenge our ugly, come-from-in-front loss to Toronto on November 3.
Jet Greaves is one of my very favorite hockey names. Former Flames and Blackhawks defenseman Miles Zaharko is another.
A final thought. While I may be guilty of setting the expectation bar too high, Koivunen has been my biggest disappointment thus far. Is it too early to suggest that those early reports claiming that he lacked the speed to keep pace in the NHL be true?
I sure hope not.
Oh, and nice to see Novak pick up those two assists.
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Before dumping on Koivunen, maybe check to see who his most common linemates have been, Ben Kindel (.071 Pnts’/60 – pathetic) and Tommy Novak 1.11 Pnts’/60 – and that is after a rare 2 Pnt night). He really hasn’t been given a whole lot of prime minutes. Maybe Koivunen won’t make it, but asking a rookie to carry two zero linemates could be a bit much. Not everybody is a Geno that can still score with a couple of pylons for wingers.
As for Jarry and the concept of deserving, Murashov and Blomqvist outplayed both Silovs and Jarry. Blomqvist was injured but based on merit, the team should have gone with Blomqvist and Murashov out of the gate. Okay, with Blomqvists injury Murashov and Silovs out of the gate and Blomqvist when he gets a couple games under his belt in WBS. Colombus’ S% is 23rd in the league, “being tough when he had to be” against that team is nowhere near a compliment. Nobody on that team can shoot. That should have been near a shutout!!!! Jarry should have been traded after last game, before he Jekyll and Hyde again.
Koppanen should never have been called up. He really wasn’t doing anything in WBS to merit a call up.
As for Brazeau and Rakell, they cannot come back too soon. But when they do make it back, trim the deadwood from the roster. Wish they would have sent Kendel down. He is killing this team. He has the worst +/- (-7) and only has 0.71 prime points per 60 minutes 5-on-5. I know many fans are wearing some weird fun glasses that obscure the truth about the kid but doubling down on that draft mistake is only exacerbating the mistake. He needed to be cultivated to salvage something from that pick. He is a right handed shot and this team desperately needs a right handed shot.
And Rick,
What do you think of Silovs and Jarry's performance against Tor?
It certainly wasn't their finest hour. Nor the team's in front of them. Lots of breakdowns and empty shot activity.
And, yes, Silovs' sudden downturn is certainly cause for concern if not alarm. I wrote as much in my most recent recap.
Still, two games do not a season make. Just to provide a little balance, here are some random quality starts percentages from around the league, including some of the top goalies. Silovs and Jarry are both .667.
Vasilevskiy, TBL .722
Shesterkin, NYR .714
Hellebuyck, WPG .714
Bobrovsky, FLA .647
Oettinger, DAL .588
Sorokin, NYI .438
Skinner, EDM .368
Rick
Rick,
Tristan Jarry's Overall Sv% is now 0.905, only good enough for 21 st in the league, despite playing against shooters whose s% was a full point below the league avg. Jarry's 5-on-5 Sv% has dropped to only 31st in the league (0.908).
Silovs Overall Sv% has dropped below 0.900 (0.898), only good enough for 33rd in the league, like Jary only facing shooters whose S5 was a full 1% lower than the league avg. Silovs checks in at 34th in the league 5-on-5 (00.905)
These numbers are not just from the last 10 games, but from the start of the season and include all Goalies who have played roughly 5 games or more so as to include both starters and backups. In terms of 5-on-5 numbers, our Penguins only have backups.
I still maintain that with Blomqvist and Murashob we would still be challenging for the top spot in the Metro. I just wish Jarry could have been traded before these last two games, when rumor had it Edm was hot for him. The good news on that department though is that as bad as Jarry is, Stuart Skinner is worse. Jarry would represent a trade up for them.
Hey Other Rick,
I'm not sure where you're getting your rankings or if you're applying some sort of criteria for minutes played. But going straight from the lists on both NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick without applying a filter, Jarry's .905 save percentage ranks 27th out of 78 goalies. Which is tied with the Wild's Filip Gustavsson.
Silovs' .898 save percentage is tied for 37th out of 78 goalies, which is pretty much square in the middle of the pack.
Rick
Rick,
As I wrote, I filtered the the data to roughly 5 games to remove outliers that only played a game or two. I wanted to limit the field to around 64 Goalies. In other words the only what should represent the top 2 Goalies of any team. That is why I am looking at slightly higher rankings than you. Without filtering, you are including Outliers, Goalies that may have only played 1 game - not a fair comparison to Goalies who play on a more regular basis.
Next, Middle of the pack is not a good look at all. middle of the pack only represents a top back-up not a legitimate starter. Even ranking as 21st, where I show Jarry, that is a bottom 3rd Starter. 33rd is a decent back-up. If we use your rankings, inclusive of outliers, that drops Jarry to so bad of a starter that he is almost a back-up and Silvos slips a bit as a back-up
For an even more telling stat. Filter the stats to just November, when Jarry and Silovs finally began playing better teams and look where they rank. When looking at overall stats Jarry ranks 58th (0.871) and Silovs 59th (0.868). 5-on5 Silovs rose to 56th (0.874) while Jarry dropped to 60th (0.868) In November Silovs and Jarry, when playing good teams where ranked as bad back-ups.
Our Goaltenders aren't getting it done. Murashov rates about both of those two players but has been sent to WBS.
Hey Other Rick,
You neglected to mention that Koivunen sits below both Novak and Kindel in terms of 5v5 points/60 (.4). Maybe it’s the other way around in terms of who’s dragging who down.
And I wasn’t dumping on Koivunen. I was merely stating that he’s my biggest disappointment thus far. To my eye, he’s been darn near invisible. Everyone develops at a different pace and hopefully Ville will eventually find his footing at this level. But with no goals in 13 games (and none in 21 going back to last year) from a kid who was supposed to provide offense. Yeah, I term him disappointing so far.
As for Jarry? I know you have a deep and abiding hate going on there and nothing’s going to sway your opinion. Heck, I wasn’t a huge fan, either. But to my eye he’s been really solid his season and especially the last couple of games. Unlike last season, he’s giving the team a chance to win every time he goes between the pipes, to the tune of a 7-2 record. As much as I’m sure you might disagree, he’s not doing it with smoke and mirrors.
“He’s the backbone of our team,” Kevin Hayes said after the game. “He was great.”
I get the sense from Sid and Geno on down the team is very comfortable right now with him in goal.
Rick
But Kindel has been given twice as TOI with Crosby as Koivunen and Novak is past his prime while Koivunen is only entering his prime. Furthermore, almost all of the TOI Koivunen has had has been with Kindel a black hole 18 year old and about 3/4 of his TOI has been with Novak. Point is, Koivunen has been given nothing to skate with while Kindel has failed with Crosby, Rust, and Hallander while Novak has failed with Malkin, Mantha and has seriously abetted Kindel's absenteeism. If Koivunen was the problem, those two millstones should have taken off like rockets and they didn't, they just dragged down other lines.
I may not always present my full argument as there is not enough room in attention span to iterate all of the reasons I have for what I write.
Hey Other Rick,
You might say the black hole is in the eye of the beholder, my friend.
Actually, if you look at their underlying 5v5 stats, their metrics are remarkably similar, and mostly on the positive side to boot:
Corsi: Koivunen (53.60) 3rd on the team; Kindel (51.93) 5th
Shots for %: Koivunen (52.50) 5th; Kindel (55.71) 2nd
Expected Goals for %: Koivunen (54.03) 5th; Kindel (54.74) 3rd
Scoring Chances for %: Koivunen (56.41) 2nd; Kindel (55.34) 3rd
High Danger Chances %: Koivunen (51.02) 15th; Kindel (56.70) 6th
About the only thing neither is doing particularly well is producing, or at least outproducing the opposition. Both have a Goals for % of 33.33.
I will concede that Kindel's game appears to have fallen off recently (one assist, minus-5 in his past seven games). Lending credence to your assertion that he may not be quite ready for full-time duty at the NHL level.
The same could also be said of Koivunen.
Rick
Rick,
It appears that you wish to die on this hill and that is OK. I knew a Field Operations Manager who love to trouble shoot by eliminating the least probable source of error first and work his way up to the most logical cause - Things were never fixed in a timely fashion and he always tried to defend the debacle by saying hindsight is 20/20.
If Kindel and Novak are Koivunen's most common line mates and the young Finn has been given precious little time to skate with Crosby, Malkin, Rust, or Mantha, like Kindel and Novak have been afforded and Kindel and Novak were able to accomplish nothing when skating with Crosby, Malkin, Mantha, and Rust, then process of elimination demands that we look at Kindel and Novak as the sources of failure, not Koivunen - at least not until he is afforded the same TOI as Kindel and Novak have been generously dolled with NO evidence of merit. If Koivunen is given equal time with proven linemates and fails, then and only then can you justify stating that the three are equivalent.
And was given the briefest of Cameo's there. Kindel has been given far, far more time on Sid's line, on the order twice as much (60:43 to 30:49). Sorry but your rebuttal about Koivunen starting out on SId's line is irrelevant. Also look up the with or without numbers,
Crosby/Kindel
GF% Together: 0%
GF% Crosby W/O Kindel: 53:15%
GF% Kindel W/O Crosby: 38:46%
For the 60:43 that Corsby and Kindel skated together they scored no Goals
For the 256:57 they skated apart, Crosby's line scored more Goals than they gave up.
For that same amount of time Kindel's lines scored less Goals than they gave up.
Kindel failed Crosby.
Koivunen's numbers with Crosby were similar, (0, 50%, 33.33%) but his TOI was only half, and it occured at the beginning of the season when Crosby himself was pretty much still getting his game legs under him. Remember, neither Crosby, nor Malkin really skate much until the season starts and over the last several season's this has had our Captain start out slow, up until this season taking until Sullivan would steal Geno's wings to get Sid on track.
All I wrote at the beginning was that you shouldn't dump on Koivunen yet, he hasn't been given any real chance yet, not like the copious opportunities Kindel has punted on. I don't know whether Koivunen will make it. He may go the way many Europeans do - by the way side. However, I am pulling for him, mainly because if he doesn't make it, that would mean that another of Du(m)bas' maneuvers would have failed. I am referring to his poor handling of the Geuntzel trade. Of the three players the Penguins got back for Jake, Ponomarev went back to Europe, Cruz Lucius is finally having a decent season (at least at the start of his 4th year in College and on his second College team) and may never really make the NHL. That leaves Koivunen as the best hope to salvage that trade.
Hey Other Rick,
Do I need to point out the obvious and say Koivunen started the season on Sid's flank, and was so underwhelming they not only dropped him from the top line but sent him down to the Baby Pens?
It's you who's electing to die on a hill of your choosing.
I'll make a gentleman's wager with you. And no excuses or spinning why your guy can't or doesn't. I'll bet you Kindel outscores Koivunen at the NHL level, both goals and points, over the course of their respective careers. And it's not that I'm rooting against Koivunen. I just think Kindel will be the better, more productive player.
Rick