No Match for the Bruins, Penguins Lose 6-2

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article where I confessed to my envy of the Boston Bruins. Specifically, the way they’re constructed. Last night’s lopsided 6-2 Penguins defeat at the hands of the Bruins at PPG Paints Arena only amplified my jonesin’.

Accordingly, highlights for the home team were scarce. Big Justin Brazeau scored his first goal of the season against his former team at 9:04 of the first period on a one-timer from the right dot to stake us to a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a nice feed from Hendrix Lapierre.

Nick Robertson notched his tied-for-team-best seventh goal of the campaign on a deflection at 7:57 of the second period to close the gap to 3-2. (Yes, Martha, in the interim the Pens had yielded three goals.)

The Bruins tacked on three more goals, two in the second period and one in the third, to win going away.

PUCKPOURRI

Where to begin…

…guess I’ll start with our “top” defensive tandem. I don’t know what possessed coach Dan Muse to pair defensive weak sisters Sam Girard and Erik Karlsson, but the results were disastrous. Karlsson was just plain awful (minus-4) and Girard (minus-2) was nearly as bad.

In fairness to Muse, he’s desperately trying to solve what’s become an unsolvable puzzle. To borrow from Star Trek’s “The Wrath of Khan,” it’s an on-ice version of the no-win, Kobayashi Maru test.

The root of the problem is rotten roster construction, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Among our myriad issues, deplorable play down low at both ends of the rink. Opposing forwards are afforded countless unfettered opportunities in front of our goalies because our defense won’t (or can’t) engage them physically.

It’s almost impossible to get a true read on our goalies when they’re constantly being hung out to dry like bed linens on wash day. They should get hazardous duty pay.

The same holds true at the opposite end of the ice. We don’t score, especially on the power play, because we have no discernable net-front presence. No one who’s consistently willing (or able) to venture into the dirty areas and take away a goalie’s eyes. You can shoot from the fringes all night long. If an opposing goalie can see the puck, you ain’t gonna score.

Back to roster construction. Thanks to Kyle Dubas’ deeply flawed blueprint, we have too many of the same type of player. The fix isn’t as simple as trying to coax these guys to play with more compete and aggression. It’s simply not in their DNA. It’s like asking a prom queen to become an MMA fighter.

You have to go out and get that kind of player. Teams like the Bruins, Panthers, Caps, hell, just about everyone else, understand that. Not our Pens. No wonder we’re dead-last in the league in hits, and not by a small margin.

Okay. Just so this isn’t all negative, there was a bright spot. My goodness, was defenseman Kaedan Korczak impressive last night. Displaying excellent mobility, Korczak was a force at both ends of the ice while registering his second-straight, two-assist game. On a night when practically every other Pen was a minus, the former Golden Knight finished a plus-1.

The fourth line of Robertson, Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar likewise held its own. However, following several strong games, the Sidney Crosby line got eaten alive. The Ben Kindel line wasn’t much better.

Speaking of the kid, if he evolves into more than a 20-goal, 40-point guy I’ll be pleasantly surprised. There are elements to Ben’s game for sure, but IMHO not enough for him to become a star. Or maybe even a second-line center.

UP NEXT

The Pens (5-9-2) take their four-game losing streak to the road. First up, the Kings (5-7-2) on Saturday night, followed by the Ducks (8-7-1) on Sunday night. Then they get a two-day break before finishing up with the Sharks (7-9-1) on Wednesday night.