First things first, my condolences to the Letang family on the death of Kris’ father, Claude Fouqet. Things have been hard enough for Letang in recent weeks with the stroke diagnosis and his recent injury. This transcends hockey. My best to the Letang family.
Fenway Park makes for a wonderful TV venue for the Winter Classic. Per the TNT broadcast it is the first venue to host a second Winter Classic game and a very suitable choice. The aesthetics were great and the players were pretty pumped to be playing there. For all the things the NHL gets wrong the NHL the Winter Classic isn’t one of them.
The Penguins entered the game struggling for points and playing a behemoth of an opponent. They put together a solid performance through two periods and were unable to sustain it heading into the third period. The team looked like it ran out of gas and weren’t able to keep doing the things they were doing well the first two periods. I believe this was directly tied to the coaching choices made before and during the game.
In a strange move the Penguins went with an 11 forward and 7 defense setup despite having Drew O’Connor available for the game. Making things even tougher on the forwards was the allocation of ice time by Mike Sullivan. Kasperi Kapanen and Danton Heinen finished the game with only ~5 minutes of 5v5 ice time each. The team was visibly tired towards the end. You can understand why. The Bruins out-attempted the Penguins 15-8 at 5v5 in the third period. The Bruins had a high-danger attempt advantage of 7-0 in the third. Boston finished the third with an xGF% of 82.28. This was a direct result of Sullivan’s choices.
Given the ages of the players in the top six this is putting the team on a path to be completely gassed by the time the playoffs start. The ice time choices made today are not sustainable.
Also, going with seven defensemen is still not going to make you immune from Brian Dumoulin. It was Dumoulin’s penalty that led to the Bruins first goal and here he is on the Bruins second goal of the game
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) January 2, 2023
This is reminiscent of the Jack Johnson stuff from a few years back. Stop playing the players who aren’t good. This is wildly obvious and it is costing them points in the standings.
When the players did have legs they were able to get in on the forecheck and make life tough on the Bruins. The lone Penguins goal was a great example of this.
HOME RUN, PENGUINS! pic.twitter.com/eeEYEvuaEY
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 2, 2023
Today was a great day to play a hard forecheck because of the conditions. The ice conditions made controlling the puck tougher which in turn would make breaking the puck out cleanly a lot harder to do. This means the risk of being caught with an aggressive forecheck are lower in a game like this than normal. If the Penguins had 12 forwards and utilized the bottom six a little more things could have been different. This was one of those games where talent level isn’t as important as getting north and south, but the Penguins didn’t lean into it.
Tristan Jarry tweaked something on his right side early in the game. You could tell he was laboring and eventually he removed himself from the game. I’m certainly not happy he was hurt, but I am glad this wasn’t yet another case of a Penguins player staying in the game only to miss a bunch of time after. Casey DeSmith was put into a really tough situation and played well all things considered.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have played in six outdoor games. They have a 2-3-1 record. They have also only scored a single goal in four out of those six games. They just don’t light the lamp in outdoor games
The Penguins are now on a five game losing streak. They travel to Vegas Thursday where they will try to right the ship.
Thanks for reading!