Wild Trample Slip Slidin’ Penguins, 5-0

Three short weeks ago, our Penguins played arguably their finest game of the season while issuing a 4-1 beatdown of the Wild.

Well, last night the boys from Minny redressed the balance and then some. Pouncing on the locals early, John Hynes’ crew spanked our not-ready-for-prime-time (or anything else) Pens by a 5-0 count.

The afterglow of our 4-0 victory over the hapless Preds last Sunday lasted for all of about four minutes. Or the time it took Matt Boldy, uncovered in front, to beat a sliding Arturs Silovs with a nifty forehand-to-backhand maneuver. With the time afforded by our no-show defense, Boldy could’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a light snack as well.

Unfortunately for the 17,257 black-and-gold faithful in attendance, a harbinger of things to come.

A couple minutes later Blake Lizotte accidentally caught Jake Middleton under the visor with a high-stick, causing some scary moments and resulting in a four-minute power-play for the visitors. (Middleton would mercifully return.)

The Pens nearly killed it off and had they done so, it may have changed the tenor of the game. However, with 14 seconds left Joel Eriksson Ek, again parked in front, beat Silovs on a deflection to make it 2-zip, bad guys.

Two minutes later, Marcus Johansson scored on a one-timer from the top of the right circle. Again, due in part to lax defensive coverage.

When sniper Kirill Kaprizov struck on a redirect just 69 seconds into the second period to run the score to 4-0, that was pretty much all she wrote. To bend a quote the immortal Dave “Tiger” Williams used to describe an earlier Pens’ squad, “Them guys was done like dinner.”

Coach Dan Muse called a timeout and replaced Silovs with Sergei Murashov, who yielded a goal late in the frame to Boldy for the final margin of victory.

Puckpourri

Although the shot totals were fairly even, this was one of those times when the statistics lied, to borrow from Mark Twain. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Wild dominated in terms of scoring chances (30-24), high-danger chances (16-9) and expected goals (63.81 percent).

Hard to not affix at least some of the blame on the Pens recent trip to Sweden, not to mention inactivity. I, for one, am not a fan of the Global Series. It causes too much disruption.

The Kris Letang–Ryan Shea tandem was on the ice for all five Wild goals. They were, in a word, DREADFUL. Shea, in particular, reminded me very much of the non-descript journeyman of seasons past rather than this season’s assertive overachiever. And, at age 38, Tanger most certainly ain’t what he used to be, to put it mildly.

Silovs was torched for four goals on only 10 shots. It certainly wasn’t his finest hour but, my word, he didn’t receive much support from his mates. Murashov stopped 10 of 11 shots in relief. I imagine he’ll be in net against the Kraken tonight.

Noel Acciari, Justin Brazeau and Rickard Rakell skated prior to Thursday’s practice (Tristan Jarry, too). Needless to say, we could sorely use these guys. Not to make excuses, but my goodness we’re banged up.

On a brighter note, Sam Poulin played his first game of the season, replacing Philip Tomasino (who cleared waivers) on the third line. In addition to unleashing a shot on goal, he had some of the strongest underlying numbers on the team.

In a classic tale of two teams headed in opposite directions, the Wild have gone a piping hot 8-1-1 since the game in Minny, while the Pens have staggered to a 2-4-2 mark. In the process, dropping into a fourth-place tie in the Metro with the Caps and CBJ. Two points ahead of the cellar-dwelling Rangers.

Speaking of Mike Sullivan, Adam Gretz provided a couple of revealing quotes in an article on Pensburgh, both of which seemed to cast a shade at our former coach, or at the very least his system.

This from Erik Karlsson via an interview with Josh Yohe:

“We have good individual players. And now we’re finally starting to feel good as a team. The roles are starting to slot in. You know what’s expected of you. You do the things you’re good at, and not the things that someone tells you to do, that you can’t do.”

And this from Ryan Graves courtesy of Jason Mackey:

“The last few years I’ve really tried to fit a mold. Now, the staff has said, ‘Be you. Be what you’ve been your whole career.’ “That’s freeing, to be able to play your style of game.”

Seems to reinforce our sense that Sully tried to conform his players to a certain mold and style of play, rather than allowing them to play to their strengths.