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Friday Rants and Raves

October 24, 2014, 9:39 AM ET [237 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
This game went from potentially a pretty solid win while being outplayed, to a pretty crummy loss very quick.

The Penguins gave up two late goals and with those goals gave away their two points in the standings.

There are a lot of things that happen in the course of a hockey game but I am going to focus on one very simple sequence that has nothing to do with skill and nothing to do with coaching.

I expect more out of a solid veteran player than this:





Instead of depositing the puck below the goal line to one of the best players in the world he elected for a weak forced attempt towards the goal gave four Detroit skaters the opportunity to break the puck out the other way. Blame systems, blame coaching, blame whatever you want. The game was in hand with the puck on Dupuis’ stick and he gave Zetterberg and Datsyuk the window they needed. Great players are going to do great things if you give them the chance.

Dupuis is also on the hook for the Red Wings first goal. With Dupuis at the end of his shift and his linemates changing this was his attempt at getting the puck into the Red Wings zone:



Not good. Some people think that because Mike Johnston is a possession minded coach that means you never dump the puck in. That is the irresponsible and naïve way to look at things. Hockey isn't black and white, it is shades of gray. There will always be situations in hockey where dumping the puck in is still the right play. The goal is to limit finding yourself in those situations. Dupuis got cute here and the blue line turnover with his teammates changing cost the Penguins a goal. Hornqvist doesn’t get off the hook either for his ole attempt at defense on Kronwall.

So that was the bad with Dupuis but he made some really great plays too. His breakaway goal was very good and he was the player who set the moving pick for Olli Maatta on his goal. Dupuis had a direct hand in two of the Penguins goals. He’s a smart player and he is above making those two mistakes that led to Detroit goals. His mistakes more or less fall in the column of isolated events. But those are the kind of plays that can potenailly cause losses and did last night.

Thomas Greiss was really good. It’s almost as if you don’t need to pay a guy big money to give up goals that are going in the net anyways. Greiss made every save that he should have and his style of play is much less stressful to watch. I thought it was a good showing. Calm, cool, and collected. Greiss should get at least 30-35 starts this year, he probably won’t.

How about those two goals to tie the game for Detroit though?





That is as beautiful of a shot as there is.

And how many people on the planet do what Datsyuk did on the tying goal? Greiss and Comeau played that how anybody should, the problem is that you can never account for the Magic Man and the tricks he has up his sleeve.

Sidney Crosby now has back to back games without a point. He took an unnecessary penalty which ultimately led to a fortuitous breakaway chance. If he scores I’m fairly certain it would have been curtains for the Red Wings. I expect nothing less than Crosby’s best on Saturday night against the Predators.

Mike Johnston tweaked the lines for Thursday’s contest and that included a return to the third line center role for Brandon Sutter. It was also a return to his less than desirable possession in that role:





It’s just one game but you can see how Malkin props up other players when they are playing with him. Some people will try and lead you to believe that he is part of the problem. Those people should be disregarded.

Blake Comeau got the promotion to play with Evgeni Malkin last night and other than Malkin himself (FF% 80%) it was Comeau who led the team in possession last night (66.67%). Almost like there is some kind of positive correlation between puck possession and playing with Geno. Comeau also chipped in with two assists, including the nice pass to Pascal Dupuis to spring him on a breakaway.

What is fair is fair though, Comeau doesn't come away unscathed in this blog today. His weak attempt on the empty net preceded Dupuis' big gaffe. Have to bear down.

I love Paul Martin, I think he is a terrific player, but his Penguin tenure is coming to an end.

It was Olli Maatta, not Paul Martin, who was on the Penguins second power play unit with Christian Ehrhoff last night. His omission from the power play looks a hell of a lot like the writing on the wall to me. His turnover in overtime certainly won’t help the cause.

Here is your fourth line update for today:




Zach Sill did register one shot on goal last night but…





Did Craig Adams get waived yet?

Craig Adams won’t get waived because it doesn’t save the Penguins any tangible amount of money. Zach Sill on the other hand could be sent back to WB/S at any time. That time was two games ago.

If you want to subscribe to the narrative that the Penguins are too gassed at the end of games because of Mike Johnston’s system then perhaps you should also be upset by the Penguins only having three forward lines that can be legitimately played on a regular basis. If you don’t think that will take its toll over the course of the season you are fooling yourself.

You think the Penguins have it bad? How would you like to be a Boston fan? First you have to come to grips that the salary cap situation is in shambles and you can’t re-sign Iginla to boost top six forward depth.

Then you re-sign David Krejci to a contract he will never live up to as Tyler Seguin lights the league up for 1.5M less per year.

Then instead of getting creative with the roster and shipping out guys like Chris Kelly you trade your #2 defenseman in Johnny Boychuk to the Islanders and watch him thrive.

And worst of all Zdeno Chara, who has been one of the pieces that has always held things together in Boston, is out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury, potentially longer.

Now those are legit reasons to start panicking.

Detroit doesn’t have a very good defense corp. but they are still one of the better puck possession skilled teams out there. Credit goes to the forwards as well as Mike Babcock. This team could get a lot more dangerous if they added another puck moving D man. Imagine if they left all the nonsense of the Tyler Myers rumors behind and traded for a better player in Andrej Sekera while giving up less? That would make them extremely dangerous. Sekera could be a game changing trade piece for teams like Detroit and/or San Jose.

James Neal felt “blindsided” by his trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Well isn't that appropriate.

Thanks for reading!


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