The Pittsburgh Penguins exposed Minnesota’s 30th ranked goaltending and earned what would have been bowl of chili for the fans with their seven goal output. David Perron earned the chili goal and between the uniforms and the scoring output you could almost believe that the time was wound back to the early 90’s when the Penguins used to wear these uniforms.
Here are all the goals from the game:
This loss is going to further put Wild Head Coach on the hot seat but that team is going nowhere with the situation they have in net. Chuck Fletcher's inaction has cost Minnesota their season, not the coaching.
David Perron is quite the smooth customer. It is very fun to watch a player who has the kind of hands that he does. Perron picked up two goals and an assist in the victory. He now has four points in four games and while he may not be able to sustain a point per game average, he will come a hell of a lot closer than he ever has so far in his career playing with Crosby.
The “slumping… Sidney Crosby had three helpers and is five points off the Art Ross lead with a game in hand on Jakub Voracek.
Congratulations to Marcel Goc on doing the impossible.
It appears as though Evgeni Malkin is dead set with puttin’ on the ritz at least once per game in the offensive zone. Nobody can do it quite like him when he is feeling it. His size and skill set is unique to this generation of players right now.
Chris Kunitz picked up a goal and an assist. Some feel as though he hasn’t played up to par this year that would be incorrect. In 2014-15 he has a goals per game average of .38 and a points per game average of .79. In the six years prior with the Penguins he has had a goals per game average of .37 and a points per game average of .81. He’s producing exactly how he always has been, which is plenty good.
He has also been strong on the possession front. The foot injury was a mild detour and it appears Kunitz has already left that ailment in the past. The foot injury looks to have impacted games 24, 25, and 26 but that’s it.
Classic Brandon Sutter goal. Not many guys in the league can come down the wing on their strong side and consistently score goals the way he does. These moments of brilliance do a good job at buying him extra leeway from the fan base.
Marc-Andre Fleury played well in period one before the barrage of Penguins goals came about. I will have something on Fleury tomorrow that concerns me. However, it isn’t anything that he is doing on his end.
Ryan Suter will be given a phone hearing for his blatant elbow on Steve Downie’s head. There was no penalty on the play.
I don’t expect much to come from this other than the standard 2-3 game suspension. It will do nothing to deter future behavior. Throw in the fact it is Steve Downie and it might just be a 1-2 game suspension. The NHL desperately needs an objective rubric for how they handle suspensions. Too often they take into consideration who gave the hit and who was the recipient of the hit. Anybody care to wager how long the suspension would be if Steve Downie was the one elbowing Ryan Suter? That highlights what a farce the whole system is.
After the game Ryan Suter claimed he isn’t that kind of player, but his actions here say otherwise. That was no accident but when you consider the risk reward of the penalty he’ll receive I understand why he’d do it.
Who knows, maybe this was Ryan Suter’s way of getting some time off from playing damn near close to 30 minutes every single night. He leads the NHL in TOI/GP at 29:35.
It has been made official, Olli Maatta will be having season ending shoulder surgery. Everything about this situation reminds me of the Crosby concussion/neck issue. Best wishes to Olli Maatta in his recovery.
Battle for first place on Friday night against the New York Islanders.
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