On a night where the national broadcast suggested Sidney Crosby learn from a player whose own team didn't value until they were forced to play him, the Captain scored his first career overtime goal.
Sidney Crosby did not mess around.
Same OT beauty, new angle. Check it out. Full replay: https://t.co/Vb6KBXz4P7 pic.twitter.com/ImANDCcFyW
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 17, 2016
Brian Dumoulin made the play happen. He earned the puck in the neutral zone and picked his head up to hit a streaking Bryan Rust for the zone entry. Rust who is not known for being a pass first guy moved the puck to Crosby. I would hate to have been Bryan Rust back at the bench if he neglected to pass the puck to a screaming Crosby on that play. He did and now the series is tied at one game apiece.
Rust said Crosby yelled to him to pass on OT goal: "when one of the best players in the world is wide open, you definitely look for him"
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) May 17, 2016
Crosby had a great game where his line controlled much of the game action. He was out for 24 shot attempts for and only 11 against. Mike Sullivan may have had a hand in that.
In 8:52 of TOI, Cullen had 12 shot attempts for and 2 shot attempts against last night vs. Hedman.
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) May 17, 2016
The Cullen line ate up over eight minutes of Hedman's even-strength ice time. Not only did they eat the ice time up but they ate the Hedman pairing up too. Matt Cullen scored the first Penguins goal. Great job by Matt Cullen's line.
As the game wore on I grew increasingly frustrated as I watched a lot of the work Crosby and Malkin were doing going fruitless. The way the game was going screamed for a Crosby-Malkin duo at even-strength. Eventually Sullivan sprinkled in some time for both of them together. The results were good in their limited time together (1:22). They generated one of the best scoring chances of the game which resulted in one of the best saves of the playoffs
Vasilevskiy save on Crosby pic.twitter.com/QuAMNAOicd
— Stephanie (@myregularface) May 17, 2016
There was also an effortless controlled zone entry by Malkin which led to a drop pass to Crosby and unfortunately the pass by Crosby to Letang ramped up his stick and over the glass. That sequence had promise. Crosby and Malkin need more time together and it is obvious. With the Cullen line doing good things there is no reason to avoid loading up and shortening the bench in certain game situations. Sullivan did change things up in the third period when he spotted Hagelin a few shifts away from HBK, but Malkin still found himself with Tom Kuhnhackl and Bryan Rust as his wingers. Anybody can see that Geno is begging to bust into machino mode but he just needs some assistance to get there. Let him run wild. Give him help.
Matt Murray allowed two goals in the span of five minutes at the end of the first period which ignited the goaltender conversation. Those were the only two goals he gave up in the game. A game in which he earned another quality start. When a goaltender gives his team a quality start the chances of winning are 75%. The goal Murray allowed on Jonathan Drouin was a bad goal. The shot was nice but it was a bad goal and needs to be stopped. You would think that Murray was the first starting goaltender to allow a bad goal and certainly the guy backing him up has none of those on his resume.
Murray: "That second one was on me. That was just a bad goal... I just overplayed it and it beat me between my body and my arm." -MC
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 17, 2016
The first goal was a great play with some good fortune for Tampa Bay. The east to west pass that Jonathan Marchessault made to Anton Stralman was tremendous. The lane was available because Sheary and Crosby got mixed up. Power plays kill to get a lane like that let alone during even-strength action. The mess of bodies in front make a pass like that nearly impossible to track as can be seen here
GIF: Anton Stralman’s Game 2 Goal: Stralman goal pic.twitter.com/FUuRGi0Gam —… https://t.co/BYcmwq4TMj via @LightningShout #TBLightning
— TB Lightning Feed (@TBLightningFeed) May 17, 2016
Making things more difficult for the goaltender was the fact that Stralman flubbed the shot. Anybody who has spent time in goal knows how difficult it is to stop shots that don't come off true from the blade of the stick. Then there's the possibility that Murray actually made the save
Whether it went through his glove or not (I think it went over the glove) doesn't change the fact it was an incredibly tough save to make due to the screened pass through a wide open lane and the flubbed shot. Drouin goal bad, Stralman goal not bad. A lot of overreactions on the goalie front as a result.
Anton Stralman now has five goals in four games against Pittsburgh this year. He has five goals in the 70 other games he has played against other teams this season.
Murray's counterpart was excellent in defeat. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves on 41 shots which was highlighted by the save in the video clip above. The only way to beat a hot goaltender is to keep shooting and that is what the Penguins did. Shot volume over larger samples will yield goals. The Penguins kept increasing the sample. The past two games they have launched 70 and 69 shot attempts. That is good and the odds Pittsburgh scores three or more goals with that volume is a hell of a lot better than only getting one goal like they did in Game 1.
Pittsburgh has suffocated Tampa's attack relative to how things have been going in the playoffs for them. Games 1 (42) and 2 (44) were two of the three lowest shot attempt totals for the Lightning this postseason. Only Detroit's 2-0 victory a month ago saw the Lightning generate fewer attempts (36)
I don't know about anybody else but I have had my fill of analysis that focuses on "momentum". The whole concept of momentum as a talking point is flawed. It is all hindsight based. Tampa scored twice at the end of the first period stealing all of Pittsburgh's "momentum". Pittsburgh went on to play their most dominant period of the game in the second period. Pittsburgh led in shot attempts 20-8 that period which was good for 71.43% of the attempts. It is a lazy analysis tool that many use because it is easier than putting in actual work. With the benefit of hindsight they can mold "momentum" to whatever they want it to say.
The coach killing, fat, lazy, hot dog having bastard was at it again last night
— Stephanie (@myregularface) May 17, 2016
Phil Kessel maintains point-per-game playoff career pace. That goal was his 19th goal, 35th point in 35 career postseason games.
— Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) May 17, 2016
Chris Kunitz had a decent Game 2, but that wasn't to say there weren't some low moments. In warmups he hit Patric Hornqvist in the dome with a puck and his whiff on a one timer led to the first goal for Tampa. He did however find himself with multiple scoring chances and the play was consistently in Tampa's end when he was on the ice. The scoring chances did highlight that his time as a top six winger has come and gone. He just doesn't have any finishing ability anymore. He can still provide the Penguins decent play, but he is elevated in a role that doesn't suit him anymore.
Kunitz has not scored an even-strength goal in his last 20 playoff games and has 3 in his last 56 playoff games.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) May 16, 2016
Unfortunately, the depth chart dictates he stay there. It is what it is. Just have to hope some of those chances go in the net. At least the puck isn't in their own end.
Conor Sheary struggled to make controlled plays throughout the night and was benched for the third period. This is another reason to think about putting Malkin on Crosby's left wing because if that doesn't happen then Malkin or Crosby is going to have Sheary or Kuhnhackl on their left wing and that isn't ideal.
The series shifts to Tampa Bay for Game 3 on Wednesday night. If the Penguins have a showing that is similar to Game 2 they should do just fine.
We're not crying. You're crying. pic.twitter.com/7j3ColS5X5
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 17, 2016
Thanks for reading!