For one brief, shining moment, the Penguins resembled the team we’d all hoped they’d be last night. Taking full advantage of a sluggish Avalanche squad that was playing its third game in four nights, the Pens popped two goals past Mackenzie Blackwood during a glorious 19-second span of the first period.
Better still, it was the big boys who did the honors. At 8:28, Evgeni Malkin took a short pass from Ville Koivunen, knifed through the slot with a ballistic move that would’ve done Jaromir Jagr proud, and whipped the puck past Blackwood as he tumbled to the ice.
Vintage Geno.
On the ensuing shift, Sidney Crosby motored into the Avs’ end and baited the hook for a stumbling Josh Manson before slipping a picture-perfect pass to Bryan Rust at the far side of the net for an easy goal.
Bang-bang. The Pens were up 2-zip, courtesy of our Two-Headed Monster of yore.
Camelot revisited.
Alas, it wouldn’t last. Following extended pressure by our fourth line, Elmer Soderblom in particular, the Avs countered. Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen flew past the pinching tandem of Erik Karlsson and Declan Carlile as if they were a pair of rusty gates, with the flying Finn netting the goal.
Suddenly, it was 2-1 and all that wonderful early momentum went pfft.
When Lehkonen struck on a jam play around the net just 25 seconds into the second period to knot the score? As much as you didn’t want to, you just had the feeling the game was slipping away.
And slip away it did. Miracle man Gabriel Landeskog and rookie T.J. Hughes pumped second-period goals past Arturs Silovs at 4:24 and 14:57 respectively to make it 4-2. MacKinnon leveled the final blow with a power-play goal at 15:06 of the final frame to run the score to 5-2.
PUCKPOURRI
The Pens actually enjoyed more than a moment in the sun. They outshot the Avs, 14-5, and played some of their finest hockey of the young season during the first period. Ah, but 20 minutes does not a game make. Our hosts owned the final 40 minutes, piling up a 27-17 edge in shots on the goal the rest of the way.
With five goals allowed, it’s tempting to pin this loss on Silovs, but he had “help.” Indeed, a few of the Avs’ tallies, most notably the third and fourth, resulted from defensive breakdowns. And Silovs did stop MacKinnon on a penalty shot in the second period to keep the score knotted at 2-apiece, however briefly.
Koivunen was a late substitution for Egor Chinakhov, who suffered a lower-body injury at practice. No word on the severity of the injury as of yet.
The power play (0-for-3) sank to new lows of ineptitude. We’re now 0-for-19 and counting. A legit question that was broached on another site. Why is snakebitten Rickard Rakell (no goals, two assists in eight games) still on the top unit? I get that coach Dan Muse might be hoping to jump-start Raks with a man-advantage goal, but at some point you’ve got to go with a better option.
In his defense, Rakell did fire off a team-best five shots on goal.
Sad to say, our Pens are looking every bit like the 85-point (or worse) team I envisioned in my season preview. Instead of celebrating victories, we’re left to latch onto all-too-fleeting moments of glory that serve as a reminder of better days past.
Camelot, indeed.
UP NEXT
The Pens (3-4-1) visit Vegas (7-2) tonight. Old friend Parker Wotherspoon won’t be in the Golden Knights lineup. He’s out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
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