I’m not gonna’ lie.
When Brayden Schenn scored off the rush at 9:17 of the second period last night to make it, 3-1, Islanders, I began preparing the Penguins’ obituary in my head.
Not only were we on the short end of the score, following a solid first period to boot, but the game had all the makings of the latest in a long (long) line of crushing failures against the Isles, right down to the power-play goal scored by long-time nemesis Anders Lee.
No way we win this one. Especially with Vezina candidate Ilya Sorokin guarding the Isles’ net.
Then we came back from the dead.
With Noel Acciari serving a tripping minor, Rickard Rakell worked a give-and-go with Bryan Rust to perfection, culminating in a shorty at 11:01. In the process, lighting the fuse on a black-and-gold powder keg.
At 13:29, Ryan Shea walked into a perfect feed from Anthony Mantha at the top of the left circle and drilled one in off the iron.
Three-three!
Then it was Mantha’s turn on center stage. Big Moe beat Sorokin twice within a span of three minutes with a pair of silky forehand-to-backhand moves, sprung both times by fellow denizen of the big-and-tall-shoppe, Justin Brazeau.
At the far end of the ice Arturs Šilovs, shaky early in the period, robbed Casey Cizikas with a huge glove save three seconds before the horn to reserve our 5-3 lead.
If that one had gone in, who knows? Instead, we were treated to more Pens pyrotechnics in the final period.
Avery Hayes scored from the lip of the crease at 6:06, thanks to a hustling play by Ben Kindel. Rakell struck again at 7:54 on a feed from Brazeau, chasing Sorokin in the process. Rust snapped a wrister past replacement David Rittich at 16:16 for the grand finale.
All of which left me smilin’ like Mike Lange’s butcher’s dog.
Puckpourri
In one magnificent explosion, the Pens went a long way toward exorcising the ghosts of Islanders calamities past.
Fifteen Pens notched at least one point. Top star Mantha paced the attack with two goals and an assist. Number two star Brazeau registered three helpers. Third star Rakell potted two goals.
Almost lost in the din of our offensive eruption, Sidney Crosby’s return and two-assist night.
While I’m noting exceptional performance, Kris Letang (two assists, plus-3) played his finest game in goodness-knows-when.
Remarkably, Erik Karlsson and Egor Chinakhov were among the locals who didn’t register a point. Connor Clifton was the other.
An enormous amount of credit goes to Dan Muse. Following our dinky 12-shot effort against the Stars on Saturday, coach Dan juggled his lines and hit on four winners. Kindel centered for Hayes and Tommy Novak. Chinakhov joined Crosby and Rust, while Rakell centered for Mantha and Brazeau. The twin towers once again displayed great chemistry while helping to revive Brazeau’s dormant offensive game.
Speaking of large, Elmer Söderblom was a force to be reckoned with on the fourth line. The hulking Swede primed the offensive pump with our first goal at 6:41 of the second period and was a physical force all night. In addition to delivering three hits, Elmer scored a unanimous decision and takedown on Isles defenseman Scott Mayfield, no shrinking violet.
Yet another uncanny find by Kyle Dubas and his staff.
The only truly worrisome thread in my eyes? Goaltending. While Šilovs turned aside 20 of 23 shots in a workmanlike effort and made the momentum-saving stop on Cizikas, I’m beginning to share my colleague Other Rick’s concerns. Neither of our goalies seems capable of stealing a game. You need that at least once in a while, not only during the caldron of a heated playoff chase but come the postseason as well.
By the Numbers
In our 18 games since the Olympic break, Karlsson has nine goals and 25 points! Only slightly off his torrid pace, Rust with eight goals and 21 points. Rakell has nine goals and 17 points, Mantha nine goals and 15 points. Last but certainly not least, Chinakhov with six goals and 14 points.
Talk about stepping up at crunch time!
Where We’re At (Purposeful Pittsburgh-ese)
With the victory, the Pens (37-21-16, 90 points) vault past the Islanders and back into second place in the Metro, a point up on the Isles and CBJ, who currently occupy the second wild card.
We’re four points up on the teams we need to stay ahead of, including the Sens, the surging Flyers and tonight’s foe, the Red Wings.
Don’t need to be Cap’n Obvious and state just how important tonight’s game is. Beat the Red Wings and we pretty much punch our ticket for the postseason.
Go Pens!
I thought silovs responded well. That first goal was just a weird bounce, and the PK has sucked for both goalies without lizzotte.
But he made some clutch saves, like the one at the end of the 2nd.
That wasn’t a weird bounce, it was a pass that was 3 feet off the net.
Silovs made several huge mistakes on that Goal.
* Boqvist (the primary assist) is a right-handed shot, drifting to the right. Silovs had a good view of this initially, but still chose to stand up out of his crouch and shift back to the left, screening himself from the puck.
* The poor decision to shift to the left on a player moving to the right led to Silovs to over-react to a shot that was a good 3 feet off the net. He dropped to his knees and slid across the net, helplessly off his skates because he screened himself out of the play.
* When he slid across the net he slid laterally rather than down to the post, leaving a huge gap for a tap-in short side.
Had Silovs had any hockey IQ he would have followed the puck to the right. He would have then seen that the puck was a slow pass meant for Lee to either deflect or tap-in off a pass off the boards. He would have either been in position to either glove the puck before it went behind the net, stick the puck to the corner before Lee could get to it, or at least shut down the short side shot. Instead the lumbering walrus was off his skates, out of position, and helpless through his own lack of Hockey IQ.
I really wish you were right Keeger. I wish at least one of our NHL level Goalies was competent, with the playoffs coming up. Unfortunately, the glass is more than half empty despite what I wish.
Maybe so, but I’m not as down as you I guess. Skinner is playoff tested and has been to 2 finals, and I’d much rather that than a Jarry / silovs combo. Although to be honest, if we still had Jarry, we probably are not about to lock up a playoff berth.
If we clinch early enough, I think murashov gets a game or two, in case someone gets hurt, and that should be interesting to see. But I think it’s skinners net in the playoffs.
Sorry Keeger but Skinner has playoff history but it isn’t a good one. His career playoff Sv% is 0.893. Skinner’s playoff history is a bad one. He was just on a team that could outscore their Goalies short comings in most games, but in the end cost them.
I said at the beginning of the year, when everyone was still doubting this team, that the skaters had playoff potential; that part is close to being reality.
I also said that the veteran Goalies would be their Achilles’ Heel and that is also holding true.
Finally I said and still stand by; if the team would have used/still can use Blomqvist and Murashov they could go to the finals and maybe steal a 4th Cup for Crosby and Malkin.
In 15-16 I was also the first one on these boards to suggest that team could win a Cup (in Feb of that year).
Doesn’t mean that the team will win it this year. I really doubt the team will go with the right Goalies.
Rick,
Last week, before the Sens game, I did write that if our Pens could beat the Sens, Isles, and Wings they could get away with only 1 or 2 other wins, while others were worried that our Pens were already dead.
Sorry but the Casey Cizikas should have been even more a footnote to the game than it was. NYI should have been scoreless at that point. All 3 of the Goals Silovs did give up were very stoppable. Color me unimpressed with Silovs.
Hey Other Rick,
Again, I’m beginning to agree with you regarding our goalies. When the Pens are at their connected, quick-transitioning best as they were last night, they’re able to insulate Skinner and Silovs to a large degree. When we don’t have our ‘A’ game and aren’t able to carry the play, it seems they’re more vulnerable. I guess you could make that statement about most goalies. But ours don’t seem to have the ability to steal a game when the team’s not at it’s best.
Again, the defense being played of them has something to do with it. But, I, too am beginning to find them lacking. Silovs in particular seems to blow hot and cold.
Rick