The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to play winning hockey. Last night they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 3-2.
It wasn’t without cost though. Goaltender Matt Murray sustained a lower body injury and had to leave the game. Marc-Andre Fleury provided solid relief and earned the victory. It remains to be seen what the extent of the injury is to Murray. Mike Sullivan will be addressing the media at some point today.
Before Matt Murray left to injury he stopped 25 of 27 shots. Fleury stopped 19 of 19. Pittsburgh was not on the proper end of the shot volume on this night. Carolina was dominating. Nobody on Pittsburgh was above 50% on the possession front.
The above chart was created by Micah Blake McCurdy (@ineffectivemath). These charts are free at his Hockey Viz website after 2PM Atlantic time.
Fleury’s goaltending in relief bailed the team out from a poor performance.
Guess who scored again? If you guessed Sidney Crosby you’d be correct. I’m really running out of ways to compliment him this season. Here’s his latest.
It’s just fun to watch.
With Crosby’s 26th goal he is now the leading scorer in the league
Considering the caliber of player McDavid is and the fact Crosby missed six games to start the year it is amazing that Sid is where he is on the list now. Could we be looking at a career year from Sid?
Carl Hagelin has been struggling so far this year to match his offensive output from last year when he was an integral part of the vaunted HBK attack. Last night by scoring it was the first time since April 3rd and fifth of last year where he scored in back to back games. Patric Hornqvist is known for sacrificing his body to make plays, but isn’t known for his zone entry ability. His play on the Hagelin goal was tremendous. His entry is what created all the time and space to make Hagelin’s goal happen. More of that please, Patric. The Hagelin goal was the game winner.
Keeping with the theme of wingers who haven’t scored much but found a way Chris Kunitz finally scored another one. It was his first goal since November 12th. Kunitz is clearly not the goal scorer he once was, but this was a nice throwback to all the times where he buried one timers on a regular basis. Kunitz’s main function these days is possession so any goals from him are nice to see.
After a rash of injuries to the defense corp. it was nice to Trevor Daley back on the ice even though the flow of play was a net negative for the Penguins when he was on the ice. Daley’s presence on the ice was positive as far as shot attempts for were concerned. When he was on the ice no other Penguin did better in that department. Daley’s offensive ability can sometimes offset his defensive shortcomings.
The Penguins will have off until Saturday when they take on the Montreal Canadiens to close out the year 2016.
Thanks for reading!