The Dallas Stars came into last night unbeaten in regulation this season and left Pittsburgh being able to make the same claim after defeating the Penguins 4-1. For the Penguins it was the first game of their season long four-game homestand. Dallas is a quality side and the result isn’t overly surprising. How we got there was disappointing.
I thought the Penguins played one of their better games of the season outplaying Dallas for a sizable chunk of the game. It didn’t matter. They let the Stars hang around long enough to cash in on their chances. The Penguins didn’t make the most of their opportunities and struggled to beat Jake Oettinger, who played great. This was the type of game the Penguins needed to take after giving away points in this early season. They showed up ready to take those points. They couldn’t make it happen. What they have going for them is nobody in the Metropolitan has gotten off to the same kind of start Boston, Colorado, and Vegas have. They remain four points back of first place. The flip side in this early season is they are only three points better than the bottom feeding Sharks.
The Penguins seemed in control until the unfortunate sequence when John Ludvig stepped up to make a big hit and caught his head on the Dallas players helmet. After the hit I thought there was a drop off in play which for human reasons is understandable. For competition reasons it changed the game flow and things kind of fell apart from there. Even though the Penguins were trailing the entire third period they were out-attempted 13-22 in a game script that usually favors the team trailing. You never had the feeling the Penguins were going to make a charge the second half of the game.
Pittsburgh did have a power play opportunity in the third period when it was still a one-goal game. It went by the wayside like many of the power plays have so far. There are flashes of a successful approach to scoring on the power play. I thought Bryan Rust being put back on the first unit was a good choice. You could see he brought assertive energy and puck retrieval with a purpose. Oettinger just read everything and shut the whole operation down. When you have an anemic bottom six the power play has to shine. It has not done so to this point and here we are.
Another issue with the power play is they aren’t getting a lot of opportunities. They’ve only had 16 power plays so far this season. This is one off the league low held by St. Louis at 15. The majority of the teams are already in the mid-twenties. Between the low opportunities and the scoring rate things look about as bad as they could for this unit in the early goings. Not that I am predicting this to happen, but if they score on their next two power plays they would go from 12.5% all the way to 22.2%. The sample is still small and volatile compared to other groups.
I think we are starting to see the first minor cracks in Sidney Crosby’s game. More and more I see plays where he is forcing pucks to players who are covered and creating turnovers. It sticks out so much because it literally never used to happen, like at all. Sometimes when he is forcing the play it works. More times than it used to it does not. The margin for error is so thin so when you see Crosby contributing negative plays it feels that much more damning.
Erik Karlsson continues to make the games fun to watch. His ability to dictate the flow on a breakout and through the neutral zone is pretty awesome. He manipulates the time and space so well and a lot of times the end result is a short pass to a player in full speed who is rewarded with an easy zone entry with pace. These are the little things that will eventually yield some goals. Especially, when it is the top six who is on the ice with the entries. Even if he has to dump the puck in he does it with attention to detail and caroms the puck tape to tape to a streaking forward. Regardless of the team’s record Karlsson is going to add a ton of entertainment value and keep the games watchable.
The fourth line flat out stinks. They have a CF% of 35.87 and an xGF% of 41.59. Expectations were low and they’ve managed to underperform them to this point. Jeff Carter was a known commodity heading into the season. We knew he was cooked and ate up valuable cap space. I’ll believe he’ll be scratched when I see it. Noel Acciari? Why exactly did he get a 2M contract for multiple years? The Penguins have a CF% of 55.32 and an xGF% of 55.43 when these players are not on the ice. It’s time to see what Alex Nylander can do. Put him on the second or third line and bump somebody off the fourth line. Something has to give. The current setup is not working at all.
Drew O’Connor’s preseason is way back in the rear view mirror. He’s a player who was put in a position to give the team more and so far he has not passed the test. He has one assist so far this year and it isn’t close to being good enough. To be fair, if you need O’Connor to produce like a third liner giving him an actual third line center should be a realistic expectation. Problem is the Penguins committed to Lars Eller who is looking more like a fourth line center than being able to produce as a third line center. Their xGF% percentages are solid, but you need offensive production at some point. The team is drowning without it.
Things aren’t going to get any easier. The undefeated powerhouse Colorado Avalanche come to town on Thursday. It is the type of game where the Penguins can string together three solid periods and still lose. If they don’t show up for three periods they could get blown out. Pittsburgh desperately needs some standings points and Thursday will be one of the biggest uphill battles they’ll have this season.
Thanks for reading!