Pittsburgh kicked off their western road trip with a regulation loss. This halts their four game winning streak. The two teams traded chances the first two periods and Pittsburgh poured it on in the third period to no avail.
After taking a 1-0 lead on John Gibson at the end of the first period the Penguins were unable to score another goal at even-strength. Their power play remains a strong asset for the team as they added another two goals on that front. The 5v5 scoring issues have been a theme this year. Pittsburgh is only better than Arizona and Buffalo in GF/60 at 5v5. Thank god for the power play. Here is a rundown of 5v5 goals by the team this year at the forward position:
Phil has been the Penguins best forward and he’s having a nice year. For all the criticism that Conor Sheary gets perhaps it should be levied elsewhere. It’s a problem when a player of Josh Archibald’s caliber is in the middle of the pack despite not being on the team anymore and only playing in 13 games total. The guys below him need to get it in gear especially Carl Hagelin and Bryan Rust. The team needs players like that to contribute offensively more than they’ve been.
One positive to take from this is that Daniel Sprong should continue to climb this list and his specific skill set was sorely needed on this team. You go back and call him up earlier than they did, but he’s here now and he is certainly filling a need.
Sidney Crosby has been on a nice hot streak point wise and some of that has been at 5v5. Overall he’s way down this year at even-strength.
On the defensive side of things Ian Cole continues to sit. I do believe he is one of the Penguins six best defensive options right now and considering the team is in a dog fight for the playoffs it is probably in their best interest to ice their best team. This isn’t a situation where you are protecting an asset like John Tavares. It seems silly to continue scratching Cole.
Daniel Sprong played three minutes less than Ryan Reaves last night despite the Penguins trailing. As shown above Sprong has the same amount of goals as Reaves despite the 209 minute difference in ice time. It was a season high for Reaves with 10:52 of ice time. It is only the second time all year he has eclipsed the 10:00 mark. Even with the extra minutes it didn’t prevent Kris Letang from being targeted by a cheap shot from Corey Perry.
Reaves gave Perry a stern talking to. This should help Letang’s head feel better and deter future malpractice from Perry. Did I mention that Reaves was actually on the ice during this? He was.
I’ll beat this horse until its bones are powder. It’s one of the dumbest concepts in sport and deserves to be treated as such. To invest in this concept at more than league minimum and to trade out of the first round is laughable. After I beat this horse down to powder I’m going to take a mortar and pestle to it to grind it more. Enough is enough.
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