In a square-off of Metro rivals, the homestanding Capitals had their way with our blundering Penguins en route to a 5-3 victory last night.
The Caps dominated the black-and-gold through the opening 20 minutes, piling up an obscene edge in shot attempts (34-11) and shots on goal (14-4) while grabbing a 2-1 lead on goals by ex-Pen Anthony Beauvillier and heavyweight-turned-scorer Tom Wilson.
Our hosts padded their advantage to 4-1 midway through the second period, thanks to tallies by Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alex Tuch. They appeared set to blow the Pens out of Capital One Arena. However, Tommy Novak and Nick Robertson countered for the good guys to close the gap to 4-3 and make things interesting, at least for a bit. But Ryan Leonard smoked Arturs Šilovs on the power play at 3:55 of the final frame to put an end to any drama.
PUCKPOURRI
Bryan Rust returned to the lineup and promptly scored on his patented, drive-to-the-net power move to counter Beauvillier’s goal. Rusty eventually rejoined old friends Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell on the top unit.
In the plus department, the Novak-Evgeni Malkin–Egor Chinakhov line continued to make sweet music to the tune of a 78.57 Corsi and 66.93 xGFA%. As for discordant chords? The sloppy Pens committed 21 giveaways, 14 by our defense, including four by Kris Letang.
I’m going to dispense with any further statistical analysis and cut to the chase. The connected play that was a hallmark of last season’s squad is nowhere to be found. Perhaps we’re trying to play too fast for our own good, because we’re misfiring on passes with mind-numbing regularity. While it might be a matter of the team learning each other (we had five newbies in the lineup), at least for now it’s not looking too good.
One of my chief concerns heading into the season was team chemistry and spirit, which was exemplary last season. Especially since we bled off quite a few character guys like Noel Acciari, Connor Clifton and Parker Wotherspoon and didn’t really replace them.
Those concerns were amplified during the second period. Prior to our two-goal outburst, we looked for all the world like we were ready to quit and mail it in, something I don’t ever remember witnessing last season. To the contrary, I always felt like our Pens had a fighting chance, even when down by a few.
Not so this season.
TALE OF THE TAPE
I already wrote about our lack of size and physicality being a serious drawback, but I’m going to keep banging that drum because someone has to.
Only six of our 18 skaters last night weighed in at 200 pounds or better, and that includes non-behemoths like Crosby and Rust.
By contrast, the Caps are a huge team, with 15 of their 18 skaters tipping the scales at 200 pounds or more. Eight weighing in at 220 pounds or better. Their average weight of 214.6 pounds dwarfed our 193.6 by over 20 pounds.
Talk about being in a different weight class!
It showed.
The Caps out-hit us, 22-7, and generally dominated play along the wall and in the traffic areas. At one point in the first period Rust and Blake Lizotte were pitted in a board battle against the Protas brothers, Aliaksei and Ilya, who go 250 and 230 respectively.
You can talk about the fight in the dog all you want, but that kind of extreme size disadvantage is almost impossible to overcome.
Even when we scored it wasn’t pretty. Mighty mite Robertson had to peel himself off the deck following his deflection tally after getting crushed like an empty beer can by 245-pound Dylan McIlrath.
Even our tougher players weren’t immune. Midway through the final period, Declan Carlile got mashed into the side boards by Dubois. While Carlile, bleeding from the nose and down on all fours, tried to clear the cobwebs, Lizotte waded in to defend his teammate. While I give Lizzo an A+ for guts, he was quickly swallowed up by a sea of red jerseys, while a couple other Pens only half-heartedly joined the fringes of the fray.
Bottom line? Kyle Dubas has badly miscalculated our need for size and toughness. If he doesn’t reverse his course, and I mean pronto, we’re going to be “treated” to more of the same.
UP NEXT
The Pens visit the CBJ (1-1) Friday night before returning home to host summertime trade target Jason Robertson and the Stars (1-2) on Saturday.
I don’t understand why Muse dressed lapierre, and put him on 1LW. I mean, what? He’s a good bottom line center but cmon.
And where is Elmer? He’s big, physical, has grit, and appears to have an offensive talent. Yet he’s sitting in the press box.
I actually don’t care about the hit counts as a stat. Generally, if you are hitting a lot, you are chasing the puck. But I do like physical play and grit, and last night I saw more of mental ineptitude from basically everyone.
That said, I thought the second half of the game the team looked better. There were more offensive chances and a comeback in the works…and then more mental hijinx ruined it. Hoping stastny swaps in for TVR.
Hey Keeger,
Agree about Lapierre. He looked lost on the top line and on wing to boot. Scratching my head over Robertson’s demotion to the fourth line as well. I’m sure to an extent Muse is trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, but we can ill-afford to have guys out of place for too long.
I hear ya about hits not being a be-all indicator of engagement and physical play. But in our case, it does seem to reinforce that we’re a very benign bunch.
Like you, I like grit and physical play and think they’re important elements. As much as I harp on it, I don’t expect the Pens to be “goony” tough. I just want enough guys who’ll get involved and handle the rough going when push comes to shove. Last season’s team was a perfect example. I was perfectly happy with the mix we had.
I have no idea why Soderblom wasn’t in the lineup on Wednesday. Maybe Muse thought he could outskate the Caps by going with a small, comparatively speedy lineup. But in addition to being huge, the Caps can skate.
Pray Soderblom doesn’t get put on waivers when Kuzmenko returns.
Rick
Hey all,
A little more on the size/aggression subject.
I really thought Dubas understood the need for some bigger, more aggressive players a couple years ago when he signed and promoted Imama and acquired Desharnais, then brought in guys like Brazeau, Clifton, Mantha, Söderblom and Wotherspoon…even Dumba, who didn’t work out.
This summer, he shifted completely in the opposite direction, with predictable results. The Pens look incredibly benign thus far. Indeed, we have the fewest hits/60 (a paltry 12.42) of any team in the league.
That’s not an admirable trait…or one that leads to winning hockey.
Rick
Where to start?
This loss was a total team effort; everyone all the way up to Kyle Dubas needs to raise their hands. You make a very salient point when you write about how disconnected the team looks this season. Dubas seriously compromised the team chemistry starting all the way back to the Kulak for Girard trade. He continued undermining all the good he did the previous off season through the most recently past summer. He stripped the team of all of the size and grit. He then painted himself into a corner signing a ton of FA Forwards giving him an excuse to trade even more size and grit right before last game.
We can talk all day about Letang’s Gv, and it would be right to bring up those points, but who in their right mind would pair 39-year-old, RHD, Kris Letang with 35-year-old RHD Trevor van Riemsdyk – who has a history of struggling playing his offside already. Therefore, Muse, who had a good rookie season Coaching this team is experiencing some growing pains.
I know some have discussed the idea of trying to dress Silovs up to trade him like they did with Jarry last season but tagging him as the starter is another strike against Muse. As bad as Silovs is on his own, sticking him out there with Letang, TVR, and Carlile is really less than a good idea. Silovs has enough trouble with rebounds and finding his angles, the above trio is absolutely no help to a weak Goalie.
The real question I have is how long before heads start rolling?