The Pittsburgh Penguins were handled soundly by the New York Rangers last night 5-1. The Penguins started the game shot out of a cannon and controlled the play for the first 10-15 minutes. After that short time period the Rangers were the ones that dictated what went on during the game.
Here are the highlights from the game:
Here is the possession chart from the game.
You’ll see that the Penguins did well to start the game and then things went south. The only time the Penguins showed any life is when score effects took over towards the end of the game. Too little, too late.
The main source of the Penguins problems came in the form of turnovers, specifically near each blue line. Dustin Jeffrey was directly responsible for two of the turnovers which led to goals. Jeffrey has been fighting for a long time to find his niche on the Penguins roster; last night was probably the final dagger in his Penguins career. When playing on a team that rarely provides you the opportunity to prove yourself, you can’t go out and make the mistakes that Jeffrey did. Blue line turnovers are a killer and most times are a completely avoidable turnover. It does not matter what system you play, you cannot make up for turnovers in that area of the ice.
No coach draws up a turnover play on their dry erase board before the game and at practice, especially in that area of the ice.
If you look at the players who committed those errors last night you will see that they are players on the lower end of the depth chart. This is where the injuries the Penguins have are catching up to them. The Penguins have been icing two 4th lines for quite some time since the Bennett and Neal injuries. It is natural at the NHL level for another team to eventually take advantage of that weakness. Last night was one of those nights where the Penguins opponent did just that.
Brandon Sutter has been nothing more than a babysitter for the past few weeks. He has not been given quality line mates for quite some time. Given that the Penguins only have two lines which demonstrate a consistent ability to apply pressure, it makes an uphill battle to defeat a team that is playing well that night and has a goalie on his game.
Some people will say that you can’t use injuries as an excuse because every team has them. That is partly true.
The players and the coaching staff would never use injuries as an excuse and that is exactly how it should be. However, I am not part of the team and therefore I am in the position to call things exactly how I see them. The fact is the injuries do impact the on ice product and over the course of 82 games you are going to get a clunker like we saw last night because of it. If the Penguins start to string together losses like the one they suffered last night at the end of March/early April, with a healthy lineup, I’ll be critical. I’m not going to get bent out of shape in November, there is no point.
The only negative from last night that has any significance moving forward is the potential injury to Pascal Dupuis. It is unknown what the injury is at this point but it is known that he did not take a shift in the 3rd period. No information has been released about what his potential ailment is.
After my rant about how injuries caught up to the Penguins last night, it is pretty needless to say that a Dupuis injury would further negatively impact the Penguins ability to win hockey games.
Marc Andre Fleury had his worst statistical game of the year, but I did not leave that game with the same critical and negative thoughts that I had during the Islanders series last year. You never like to see your goalie give up 5 goals, but at the same time I was more focused on why those goal scoring situations were created in the first place.
I’ll never be overly critical of a goaltender who is victimized by double deflections and wobbly pucks in which even the shooter did not know where the puck was going.
Zuccarello made a terrific area pass for the 2nd goal which Stepan was able to beat Fleury. That is the one goal where I think Fleury needs to be on his angle better. If his angle is proper then Stepan’s shot hits Fleury as opposed to Fleury needing to “make” the save. Great shot by Stepan, savable puck for Fleury however.
One of the bright spots for the Penguins last night was their first power play of the night. The puck movement and decision making was a clinic in how to run a power play.
One of the lower points of the night for me was how they abandoned the successful approach from the first power play.
If Sidney Crosby is placed on the left point I am going to have a problem with that setup ten times out of ten. It makes little to no sense. By having Crosby there you are not getting the most out of his skill set, nor are you maximizing the abilities of the other players on the ice.
By placing Crosby in the furthest spot away from the goal on his strong side you have completely eliminated the possibility of a dangerous shot from Crosby. Another downfall of that setup is that Kris Letang is not able to one time the puck from Sidney Crosby as a right handed shot. This is not a good use of the only right handed player on the power play.
The setup that works best and has applied the best pressure so far this season has Crosby on the right side down low by the goal line with Malkin on the half wall. This setup allows both Crosby and Malkin to cycle through each of those positions with movement and create dangerous lanes .
Nobody fears Crosby on the far left point by the boards. In fact if the opposition could pick one spot to place Crosby I think they would actually choose that area. It’s time to retire that look on the power play for good.
Last night was a throwaway game for the Penguins, time to move on, 66 more games to go.
Kudos to the New York Rangers, they came into the game and earned a much needed win for their team. The Rangers will continue to adjust favorably to their new coach’s system and philosophies and become better as the year goes on.
After last night's contest the Rangers are only giving up 1.5 goals per game in their last 8 games. King Henrik is finding his groove and so is his team in front of him.
The Penguins will get their next crack at the Rangers on December 18th.
The Penguins will have a few days to regroup and get healthier. The Penguins have a great Blues team to play on Saturday and that should make for a great game.
Thanks for reading!
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