In a homecoming of sorts, the Blue Jackets rolled into town last night and bested our Penguins in a shootout, 4-3.
I say homecoming, because it was, indeed, old home week for a number of ex-Pens in the CBJ lineup. Each of whom had a hand in the scoring.
Zach Aston-Reese (remember him?) scored his first goal of the season to give the Jackets the early lead at 2:42 of the opening frame. Punctuating an ultra-sluggish start by the black-and-gold.
Fast-forwarding to the second period, Danton Heinen struck on a redirect less than three minutes before the horn to stake the visitors to a 3-2 lead. Assisting on the goal? Erik Gudbranson and his defense partner, almost Pen Egor Zamula.
In between, the locals had recovered from their somnambulant start to grab a 2-1 first-period lead on markers by Connor Clifton (9:59) and Rickard Rakell (17:52).
Unfortunately, the Pens collectively hit the snooze button in the second stanza, yielding a game-tying tally to sniper Kirill Marchenko off an egregious Sidney Crosby turnover prior to Heinen’s would-be, game-winner.
Our captain would make amends with a tick over a minute left in regulation. With Arturs Silovs pulled for an extra attacker, Sid deflected Kris Letang’s shot/pass from center point past Elvis Merzlikins to send the game to overtime.
Despite a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal during the extra stanza, we couldn’t get ‘er done. Which meant a shootout.
Unfortunately, our personal den of horrors continued unabated. The CBJ beat Silovs twice, with ex-Jacket Egor Chinakhov the lone black-and-gold scorer.
Can you say buh-bye to the second point?
Puckpourri
Okay, so this may be a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. But I wonder how much longer coach Dan Muse will employ a strict rotation system with his goalies. Newcomer Stuart Skinner seems to be emerging as the stronger of our twine-tending duo, and the team appears to be playing with more confidence and surety with Big Stuuuu between the pipes.
Should Silovs be relegated to a more traditional backup role? His numbers would sure seem to suggest as much. His boxcars, including a 3.05 goals against average, .890 save percentage and 8-6-8 record? Pedestrian at best.
Imbedded in that record are six shootout losses. Not to affix all the blame on the 24-year-old Latvian—our shooters have been positively anemic—but the naked truth is, Silovs has stopped only seven of 20 shootout attempts for a ghastly .350 save percentage.
Not to be dismissive, but I might be able to stop that many.
Arturs has certainly served a greater purpose, i.e. buying time for goaltending prospects Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist to develop and gain invaluable experience with the Baby Pens. But perhaps it’s time to fish or cut bait.
Either reassign Silovs to the Baby Pens and promote one of the kids or relegate him to a backup role. Given that we run a risk of losing him on waivers, Kyle Dubas would probably opt for the latter, at least for now.
Nice to see Clifton get that goal. Not that he’s the second coming of Erik Karlsson, mind you, but Connor’s been surprisingly active in the offensive zone. Decent metrics, too. Just a solid, physical defenseman.
It was a rare off-night for our fourth line, which got jobbed statistically and otherwise.
On the flip side, I wasn’t the least bit shocked to learn it was Aston-Reese’s first goal of the season. His scoring touch, modest at the big-league level to begin with, dried up as he became increasingly entrenched in a defensive role.
Yet once-upon-a-time, ZAR scored 31 goals during his final collegiate season with Northeastern and was a Hobey Baker Finalist to boot, not to mention a coveted free agent.
Standings-wise, the Pens (22-14-11, 55 points) maintain their razor-thin hold on third place in the stumblin’, bumblin’ Metro. BUT…
…we’re lagging behind several teams in the Atlantic. Should we be dislodged from our guaranteed playoff slot, certainly a distinct possibility, we’d be several points off the pace for a wild-card spot.
Up next, we take our show on the road for a four-games-in-seven-days Western swing, starting in Seattle tomorrow evening. A grinder of a trip that could very well decide our fate.
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View Comments
Rick,
Despite a couple of recent good games turned in by both Skinner and Silovs Both Skinner and Silovs fall below the League average in Sv%. The current Avg Sv% for the League is 0.895, Skinner's Sv% to date between his two clubs is 0.894 (very close but still low), and Silvos Sv% is 0.890. The Penguins' Defense despite being a patchwork quilt of defenders is insulating a couple of turnstiles in yeoman fashion, covering up the lack of skill in the ersatz Goalies that Muse and Dubas have chosen to employ. If we look back over the first 47 odd games played, there were plenty of points squandered away in games that Jarry, Silovs, and Skinner lost outright or in Overtime or shutouts that should have at least been Overtime wins if not regulation; points that could have this team as far up in the standings as 1st place in the Metro, vying for home ice.
Instead of building a cushion to help survive the murderous schedule in March, our Penguins' brain trust and yes even fans, lack the foresight and in some cases the courage to buck the system and play the best two Goalies in the organization. In true hypocritical reasoning they say that Blomqvist (23 yrs) and Murashov (21 yrs) are too young while wasting half of a year of Brunicke's (19yrs) and the full year of Kindel's (18 yrs,-13 which is worst on the team). Then they will say hindsight is 20/20, ignoring what I am saying in present sight.