Well no shortage of things to sift through after this one. The Pittsburgh Penguins gutted out a 5-4 victory in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead. The Islanders tried their best to make it a muck fest in the third period, but it wasn’t enough.
The Penguins consistently answered back in this game when the Islanders tried to throw both their literal and figurative punches. When the Islanders tied the game in the third period, Jeff Carter said not so fast. When the Islander tie it again and had aspirations of overtime Brandon Tanev quieted things down for good.
The man, the myth, the maniac.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 21, 2021
Brandon Tanev is an absolute beauty. pic.twitter.com/lk9eNILkgB
The Islanders tipped their hand in the third period. They don’t believe they can skate with the Penguins so they will try to drag things into the mud. It worked to an extent as they got the entire Penguins top five man unit to go into the penalty box, but it doesn’t have to. It’s easy to succumb to emotion in the playoffs. If the Penguins can absorb some hits and keep pushing north it will only further frustrate the Islander players. The Penguins have the firepower to make them pay on the scoreboard via the power play if necessary now that the #71 dude is back in the lineup. Evgeni Malkin returned to game action and had two assists including one on Jeff Carter’s power play goal. It is pretty wild the Penguins only had two power play opportunities all game considering how things went. It was also pretty wild the Penguins ended up shorthanded after the big scrum in the third period considering Scott Mayfield went full Tom Wilson on Brian Dumoulin
Mayfield punched Dumoulin right in the back of the head and didn't get any penalty for it pic.twitter.com/u0yxq45itA
— Dad Chad (@madchadd412) May 21, 2021
The officials certainly played a huge role as they usually do through negligence impacting both teams. I would argue being negligent the way they were tonight largely benefits the Islanders who have no interest in pretending they can play a skilled game.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Jeff Carter is a good Pittsburgh Penguin. He scored twice within two minutes of an Islanders goal to keep the Islanders from feeling too good about things. For those keeping track at home Carter has 12 goals in 17 games as a Penguin. A big part of the trade was always going to be shooting percentage regression for Carter who was shooting a 14 year low. The course has corrected and then some.
Sidney Crosby might not have had a point in this game. He did have the best save of the night late in the third period
Is there anything Sidney Crosby can't do? pic.twitter.com/0bdZQTUTNz
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 21, 2021
Who led the Penguins in points in Game 3? Jeff Carter? Evgeni Malkin? No it was defender Kris Letang who had a goal and two assists. He’s had a strong start to the postseason.
Letang (1-2-3) tonight with his first 3-point playoff GP since Game #6 vs. Flyers in 2018.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) May 21, 2021
Not everything was great. While Malkin generated two points his line was hemmed in their own zone most of the night. The Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen line had a CF% of 30.77 and xGF% of 21.86. Jason Zucker was on his way to having another clunker of a game until he pulled off an amazing backhand forehand release to score the third goal of the game. I still think there is merit to seeing if he can thrive on another line. Whether that is flipping spots with Jake Guentzel or Jared McCann I think it is worth looking at. I don’t expect Sullivan to change a winning lineup.
Tristan Jarry was so so. He got unlucky with the second Cal Clutterbuck goal, but I have no idea what he was doing on the Anthony Beauvillier goal. It looked like he was trying to block the pass across leaving his five-hole wide open. Let the defenders take care of the pass. You have to have some level of trust on the penalty kill. You can’t just let the player directly in front of you get a free jam goal like that.
John Marino fell victim to the new helmet rule in the NHL. He lost his lid in the corner and immediately went to the bench. The Islanders did the right thing by getting the puck to the net with one less Penguin defender and were able to generate a goal in what was like an organic mid-game power play. Per the NHL’s rule Marino could have put the helmet back on strapped or not and played, but he chose to head to the bench.
The two teams will face each other on Saturday in what *could* be the final game at Nassau Coliseum.
Thanks for reading!