The Penguins came up a cropper last night in their third game of the young season, dropping a come-from-in-front 3-2 decision to visiting Winnipeg. While we weren’t bullied in a literal, fighting sense, we were pretty much manhandled in the high traffic areas. More on that in a bit.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
- Ben Kindel scored on a deflection at 9:27 of the second period to stake us to a 1-0 lead. His second goal of the season.
- Declan Carlile likewise notched his second goal of the campaign at 8:53 of the third period, ever-so-briefly knotting the score at 2-all.
- In his first start of the season, Sergei Murashov stopped 31 of 34 shots, good for a .912 save percentage. He had a little help from his friends (our defense—NOT) as the Jets struck iron five times.
- Going by the eye test, I thought a handful of Pens played well, including Kindel and Carlile (two points apiece), Ville Koivunen (and assist) and Blake Lizotte, who forever scraps and hustles. Murashov too. As for the rest? Flat as a bottle of soda pop left open on the kitchen counter for a week.
THE LOWLIGHTS
- The Jets popped three goals past Murashov during a 4:19 span of the third period to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
- Our foes out-hit us, 23-11, dominated along the wall and disrupted us in the neutral zone. In the process, forcing 22 turnovers.
- The leading practitioners of coughing up the puck? None other than captain Sidney Crosby (4 turnovers) and fellow stalwarts Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson (3 apiece). Sid was practically invisible and EK65 had an uncharacteristically brutal game butchering the biscuit.
- Speaking of brutal, the defensive tandem of Sam Girard and Kaedan Korczak is having “issues,” to put it mildly. They were a combined minus-3 last night and a minus-9 over the past two games. They weren’t alone. Our d-zone play overall was “soff” to the tune of three hits, in Michel Therrien-speak.
- We made Jets goalie Clay Stevenson, a 27-year-old journeyman making his sixth NHL start, look like a Vezina Trophy winner.
SMURF CITY USA
It’s as inevitable as death and taxes. I’m talking about the Pens’ penchant for divesting themselves of all functional size.
Last night our 12 forwards averaged a Smurfish 190.8 pounds according to individual weights listed on Hockey Reference. Meanwhile, comparative heavyweights Elmer Söderblom (254 lbs.) and Filip Hållander (207 lbs.) bulked up on press-box nachos.
No surprise that our forwards combined for eight hits. While hits aren’t always a fair indication of a team’s compete level and physicality, last night it was very accurate. We were weak, weak, weak along the boards and won precious few puck battles against the much larger Jets.
While bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, there’s no denying the positive effect having some large humans in the lineup can have. Remember last season’s “Big Line” of Evgeni Malkin, Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha and how difficult they were for foes to handle? To say nothing of the literal impact Söderblom had while filling in on the third and fourth lines.
How quickly our brain-trust forgets.
It’s an organizational dysfunction that’s repeated itself over and over (and over) again throughout the course of the team’s 60-year history. The Cup winners of the early ‘90s were dead in the water until Craig Patrick acquired the likes of Rick Tocchet and the Samuelssons, Ulf and Kjell.
Ray Shero’s first priority upon assuming control in the early 2000s was to make us more difficult to play against, something we decidedly weren’t prior to his arrival.
We taste success with a more diverse and all-inclusive lineup, then inevitably (and purposefully it seems) bleed off size and muscle to add that one last morsel of skill.
To draw a football analogy, you wouldn’t build a team with all wide receivers. You need guys who can block and tackle. Same with hockey. You need guys who can muck and grind, lean on foes a bit, and win puck battles.
Apparently, a lesson forever lost on those who guide the Pens’ fortunes.
UP NEXT
The Pens (2-1) visit the Caps (1-1) Wednesday night. Talk about a David vs. Goliath matchup. Then we visit the CBJ (1-1) Friday night before hosting the Stars (1-2) on Saturday.
– Speaking of Smurfs, how about Lowrey’s Go Head Goal when De Melo just destroyed Robertson, so that Iafalo could just take the candy from that baby and feed Lowrey – But Noooo let’s not have big Wingers that can absorb the hit and still get the puck out of their own zone.
Not only does Hallnder add Wgt to the lineup, he and Koivunen are a +4 each, yet both have already been given Press Box time, while the usual suspects still get TOI without cause.
– Not going to drink the Kool-Aid but I have to give credit where credit is due, that was one sweet deflection by Kindel and a really good bumper pass to Carlile on that Goal too. He is still a -2 in his first two games but those plays deserve kudos.
– Murashov almost made as many saves in one game as Silovs has made in his two starts, but Silovs is the starter?