|
Murray, Hornqvist, and Hagelin Get The Best Of Malkin and Maatta |
|
|
|
|
|
The World Cup of Hockey is in full swing and that means we have some Pittsburgh Penguins who were in action. The Penguins have six players competing in the tournament including: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Matt Murray, Patric Hornqvist, Carl Hagelin, and Olli Maatta.
I will be keeping the Sidney Crosby related items confined to my Canada blogs. Updates for the other five players will be here within the Penguins blog.
Sunday saw some Penguins teammates facing off against one another. During the day it was Russia against Sweden and during the nightcap it was Team North America vs. Finland.
Patric Hornqvist and Carl Hagelin got the last laugh in this one as Evgeni Malkin’s Russian side was unable to complete their late game push.
In somewhat shocking news Henrik Lundqvist was ruled out of the game because of illness. You would think that by having Jacob Markstrom in net the Russians would be shooting from everywhere. That wasn’t the case. Many times the Russians looked for the extra pass or the better shooting angle. This included Evgeni Malkin on a few occasions. Malkin did however have a positive impact on the game as he was one of the best possession drivers of the afternoon.
Carl Hagelin was the best possession player of the match and had the primary assist on Victor Hedman’s game winning goal. It was a good one.
Hagelin is widely known for his blazing speed but it’s little plays like this that contribute to his high 5v5 points per 60 on the HBK line.
Patric Hornqvist has been doing Patric Hornqvist things throughout the past week or so. He’s been actively screening goaltenders which has led directly to power play goals (Landeskog goal) and has even sniped a goal skating down the wing. On Sunday he didn’t have any points but as you can see above he is contributing to the overall game flow in a positive way.
The battle between Matt Murray and Olli Maatta was rather one sided. Team North America is just too damn good. Olli Maatta was unfortunately tasked with the responsibility of playing top pairing minutes against one of the most offensively electric teams in recent memory. The results weren’t kind to him (or any other Finnish player). While he did almost score on Murray (hit his butt end) it was a very forgettable night. He did lead all Finnish players in even-strength ice time (20:08), but again it wasn’t a fun night for him. He was a 32% possession player (CF14 CA29). The best anybody on Finland did was Jussi Jokinen’s 43.75%. So yeah, Team North America is good.
Matt Murray could have gone with Hank Scorpio to the Hammock District to make a new purchase because he wasn’t a very busy goaltender for much of last night. At even-strength the North Americans out attempted Finland 74-34 which is incredible. There are some people who are concerned with Team North America’s ability to “defend” or win faceoffs and personally I don’t think it matters. When you play with the gas pedal down with the kind of talent North America has you will do more good things than bad things and that is how you win in sports.
Counting exhibition games Matt Murray has faced 65 shots and only allowed two goals for a .969 save percentage so far in the World Cup of Hockey. So far he's looked how he did last year. Calm body language, on his angles, minimal movement. Similar results.
It remains to be seen if Team North America will go back to Murray on a back to back, but if they do he is going to face some better shooting talent (if they shoot) in Russia.
UPDATE: Matt Murray will be in net again
A loss to Team North America today and Evgeni Malkin's tournament is going to be a short one.
Former Penguins Beau Bennett added some humor about the World Cup of Hockey
Here are updated odds for the World Cup
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»