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Non Marc Andre Fleury Related Issues From Game 4

April 24, 2014, 9:37 PM ET [307 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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Last night was a difficult loss for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Blowing 3-0 leads in the playoffs is always a tough pill to swallow. The Blue Jackets played great, crowd was great, they deserve credit, but the Blue Jackets aren’t going to be the focus of today’s blog.

There are many variables that make up the complex web of why the Penguins find themselves tied 2-2 in this series. For the most part, nothing is black and white, there are many many many shades of gray.

Marc Andre Fleury was the big story from the game last night and I feel as though that is deserved. I covered that issue separately, you can find my thoughts on that here .

This blog is for covering the other variables at play.

Let’s start with the notion that the Blue Jackets have outplayed the Penguins this series. I don’t buy it. Don’t confuse working harder with outplaying the opposition. The two things are not mutually exclusive, however one can happen without the other. The Blue Jackets are working their tails off, but most times in this series they have not had the puck.



Last night, the Penguins were outworked AND outplayed. That was a problem and ultimately led to the Penguins demise.

The problem the Penguins suffered from last night (sitting on a lead) is not exclusive to them. For some reason it is a real phenomenon and it plagues every single NHL team. The technical definition is called score effects.

This article by Justin Bourne explains this phenomenon and some examples of why it exists.

One of the reasons that I totally agree with is the thinking in hockey where coaches value “safe” play and frown upon risks. This dumbs down great players. Great players are great because they do great things. I for one would rather trust that these great players will continue to make more great plays than bad ones, instead of them dumbing down their style to “play safe”. This totally defeats the purpose of having more better players than the other team.

Justin Bourne explains:

A third cause, and the only thing that I believe coaches affect, stems from something like the rat food-reward experiments we used to do in my psychology classes.

With a lead, coaches are less prone to use guys who “take risks,” which seems to be a trait that goes hand-in-hand with “having talent.” The last thing a coach wants is to see Nazem Kadri make a dangle inside his own blueline, turn the puck over, and give up a goal.

What they do want, is Jay McClement to chip the puck out of the zone because, like fans, they’re less stressed out when the puck isn’t in their zone. So, it gets out, coach feels relief, sees who made the clear, and the rat has been rewarded. He wants more of that.

Players know this (even if they don’t relate it to psychology), so they try to appease coaches late in games to continue getting more shifts. What you’re doing now is basically using your less talented players more while asking your more talented players to play like less talented players, because you’re terrified of the odd moment where it’s glaringly obvious who messed up. You’ve created a plan where you’re actively giving the puck to your opponent at every opportunity.

But, for the players, it’s get the puck out, get more ice. The rat—this time the player—gets rewarded.

In the D-zone? Chip it out. Here you go, have it back, now we’ll sag and try to stop you. In the neutral zone? Chip it in. Here you go, you never have to defend against us, just take it. This way when your opponent goes in and scores, there’s not a single player to point at to say “Here’s why they scored on us and came back.” Instead you get to say “They just made some plays and took it to us in the third.”


Sound a lot like last night?

Even with all that said the Penguins weren’t really that bad in the 3rd period. They held the Blue Jackets to one shot for a 14 minute stretch, one shot. A desperate, hungry team with all the “momentum” couldn’t even generate shots on goal. They continued to come up empty until that fateful play behind the net.

Have there been stretches of play in this series where Columbus has held the play? Of course, has it been a majority of the time? Not even close.

If you want a reason to get on Dan Bylsma here is a fair one, Rob Scuderi the owner of 23% possession (23%!) in the playoffs was on the ice in the last minute of regulation when the tying goal was scored. Scuderi is an obvious scratch, yet finds himself playing super important minutes. That can’t happen. But Scuderi is one of those “safe” players described above. Simon Despres is not.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are facing stern criticism for their lack of goals. I am not here to say that is unfair criticism, but I am here to say that some of it is incredibly too harsh. I get it, the star players make all the money and they are paid to score goals. However, hockey is not like basketball and star players in hockey do not get to take over a game like a quarterback or a point guard. Sometimes great players will be playing at a high level without tangible result. This has been the case with both Crosby and Malkin.

When Sidney Crosby is on the ice 57.9% of all shot attempts at even strength are at the oppositions net, with Malkin it is 58.1%. Am I supposed to pretend they are playing awful? There are ebbs and flow to goal scoring, that is a reality in hockey. It is unfortunate that both players seem to be experiencing it at the same time in the playoffs.

Evgeni Malkin has a point per game so far in this series. Just to put things into perspective only 34 players ALL TIME have been more than a point per game player in the playoffs. What does that figure out to be, .01% of all players?

The real frustration stems from the fact that 87 and 71 have to carry this team because it is not a deep team. This is an incredibly tough burden and can skew what realistic expectations are.

For example, Jonathan Toews went through a 9 game goalless streak in the playoffs last year, he followed that up with an additional 10 game goalless streak. He was still a great player during that drought, just like Crosby and Malkin are now. Both Toews and Kane went goalless in their 5 game series win over Minnesota last year. They were still great players, much like they are now.

When Brian Gibbons is a significant loss to the forward grouping, you are not playing with a full deck.

I do think there was a huge turning point in the game last night that did not involve Fleury and it too did not benefit the Penguins.

The play in question was when Chris Kunitz was slashed and he was called for embellishment. Chris Kunitz did not embellish the slash.

Don’t believe me? Then believe esteemed Blue Jackets reporter Aaron Portzline






Here is what actually happened. Kunitz was slashed, the penalty was obvious, but the referee was uncomfortable awarding the Penguins a 5 on 3 advantage when they already had a 3-0 lead. This was a classic example of the referee reffing the score of the game, not the actions in front of him. The ref couldn’t ignore the obvious slash and doesn’t want to award that drastic advantage, so the phantom embellishment call gets made. The Blue Jackets were reeling, the Penguins already had a power play goal on the night, I like the odds of that game getting to 4-0. It wasn’t to be.

This was a big turning point in the game and was a factor in the end result. It was not the reason the Penguins lost, it was part of the equation.

A side note on the Penguins penalty kill: When the Penguins get into penalty trouble like they did in the 2nd period I think it is imperative that Bylsma plays both Crosby and Malkin on the PK. You can’t have those guys on the bench for 4-5 minutes at a time. The best players need to play, they are more than capable of helping out on the PK when these unique situations come about in a game.

Some positives. Paul Martin is a stud. Martin has 8 points and leads the NHL in playoff scoring. He has registered 2 assists in each of the first 4 games.





James Neal and Chris Kunitz both scored a goal and I thought both players played a solid game (sans Neal’s penalty).

Lastly, Mario Lemieux is a good owner.





Thanks for reading!

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