The New York Rangers were able to bounce back and even the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. After a thrilling triple overtime victory the Penguins were humbled by their situation. They are dealing with injuries and they are playing with a third string goalie. Nobody is going to cry the blues for Pittsburgh’s situation, but it is the reality of the situation.
Louis Domingue played fine all things considered. The issue is he needs to match the other guy at the other end of the rink and it isn’t a reasonable ask for him. Quite frankly, it isn’t a reasonable ask for Casey DeSmith, either. Igor Shesterkin is an excellent goaltender. Through two games he has an overall save percentage of .952. The Penguins are going to have to do more to get the same amount of output the Rangers do. The Penguins are indeed trying their best. They played a solid Game 2.
The Penguins out-attempt Rangers 56-49 at even-strenght.
They had an xGF% of 63.54.
They owned shot quality with an 18-5 in high-danger chances at 5v5.
This is very impressive considering the roster issues at the moment. Again, back to reality with the goaltending situation. We knew things were going to be iffy at best when Jarry went down. With DeSmith down the team is up against it. This is not meant to slander Domingue because he was awesome in Game 1 and things could have easily gone the Rangers way in overtime if not for his amazing job stepping into the fire after sitting cold on the bench all night. He was .875 last night and Shesterkin was .951. You can’t win with such a mismatch unless everything goes your way.
One thing the Penguins will have to do is something they were pretty good with in the regular season and that is not take penalties. They have been a disciplined team and started the series being disciplined. However, special teams is going to be an advantage for the Rangers based on the goaltending situation.
The Penguins had the third best penalty kill during the regular season. It was driven by the 4th best penalty killing save percentage. Without Jarry that advantage is no longer there. The Rangers were the fourth best power play in the league this year. This is now a mismatch.
Another huge issue is one we have talked about throughout the year and it is depth scoring. The Penguins literally have none of it through two games. So far the Penguins have scored six goals and they come from the players you would guess they are from. Jake Guentzel has three goals while Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Evgeni Malkin each have one. The other players have to step up and do something tangible. Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen, Evan Rodrigues, Danton Heinen, Brock McGinn, and Brian Boyle consider yourselves on notice. The team can’t win without some of you scoring. End of story.
Is it bad that when the Jeff Carter/Igor Shesterkin collision happened late in the game my first reaction was “well maybe Jeff Carter will be suspended so he can’t play for a while…. That’s where the Penguins are with their third line center at the moment. He has been atrocious. I can’t believe this is the same player they acquired last year. Sure, his shooting percentage was absolutely juiced up and it was always going to come back down to earth, but his skating was still solid and he was making nice passes to open up time and space for his linemates. I don’t see any of it anymore. Teddy Blueger needs to get the 3C icetime. If (haha) the Penguins get healthy Jeff Carter is on the healthy scratch list for me along with Brian Boyle who looks absolutely gassed out there, too.
I want to give Sidney Crosby his due. He has been amazing. He is leading through action. I yelped out a f**k yeah last night when he took on the Rangers defense and scored a goal. I really miss the days when Sid would take on defenders liek he did there. I understand he isn’t in his mid-twenties anymore. He can still do it, though. I can’t help but think we’ve missed out on some other amazing plays because he doesn’t take on the defenders like that anymore. I was just really happy to see him do it again. It was also a huge goal at the time even if things didn’t play out the way the Penguins wanted.
Just Sidney Crosby things. Pulls his team within one with this score. pic.twitter.com/qFm0PCenDS
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) May 6, 2022
Vintage Sid. Keep it up.
Let’s talk about injuries heading into Game 3. Jason Zucker took the ice for warmups. He didn’t dress for the game and it feels like one of those situations where if the Penguins were down 0-1 instead of up 1-0 in the series he might have played. I think we’ll see him in Game 3.
Brian Dumoulin was a late scratch due to a lower body injury. He is listed day to day. This is the right call whether he is healthy or not. He looks slow and Mark Friedman can move better out there. You can’t lean into Dumoulin’s career contributions as a reason to keep playing him. Either he can perform or he can’t. Did anybody miss him out there last night?
Right now the Crosby line is the only line doing anything at 5v5. If by some miracle the Penguins can get Jason Zucker and Rickard Rakell back I think Malkin’s line will be able to some consistent damage as well.
We got a Saturday night home playoff game. Should be fun. More details on player news as it comes in.
Thanks for reading!