The Penguins suffered a little bit of a letdown after Crosby’s 500th goal and the comeback against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs are a quality side and if you don’t bring it things can unravel fast due to some of the players they have. The Leafs scored 21 seconds into this one and the Penguins never were able to cash in on all their shot attempts.
Auston Matthews was a handful and that is true pretty close to 82 times per regular season. He’s fantastic and was the one who scored 21 seconds in.
It isn’t common to see Bryan Rust mishandle a puck like he did in the slot there. It is also unlike Crosby to lose a player like he did Matthews even if he was already covering for Brian Dumoulin who was pinching hard. Structurally, things weren’t as bad as they turned out to be. The physical error compounded everything after it. I don’t mind the defense pinching with F3 support. In fact, I think it is a must in the modern game to maintain pressure. This time it didn’t work and they let the last player you want to see get behind you.
The Penguins went with new lines because Kasperi Kapanen is unable to play in a top six role at the moment. Considering they will never entertain breaking up the first line I don’t mind what they tried to do. Kapanen and Evan Rodrigues had some positive time together earlier in the year so seeing if Rodrigues can play center and get something out of Kapanen is worth a shot (didn’t work yesterday). I think putting Heinen up with Malkin is a good choice. Heinen has the kind of skillset that can complement a star player like Malkin as long as the third linemate is pulling their weight. We’ll see if Jeff Carter is up to the task playing wing on the line. Early returns were decent
It was too little too late, but they did score the only goal of the gam.
I’m also open to moving Carter back to the third line and letting Rodrigues play with Malkin on the second line. With Kapanen stuck in a rut this is now a top heavy team for the time being. Make sure you give the top six what they need to be dangerous and let the bottom two lines tread water for a bit. Until Blueger is back and Kapanen gets his act together it is what it is.
Not a great night for Tristan Jarry, but hard to be upset considering the year he’s put together combined with the workload he’s been given.
The power play has seen better nights. Mild competency with the man-advantage could have perhaps salvaged a point out of this game. Instead, it was a 0-5 disappointment.
The team will have a few days to collect themselves as they don’t play until Sunday when they host another quality team in Carolina.
Thanks for reading!