The Pittsburgh Penguins went 0 for 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers this weekend. The Penguins #1 rival were the better hockey club in both games.
The Flyers jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Penguins knew what hit them. Once again the Penguins could not resist trying to prove how tough they are against the Flyers. Predictably once again the Penguins found themselves trailing on the scoreboard because of that approach.
A prime example of why the Penguins fail against the Flyers in recent memory is because of plays like the one Robert Bortuzzo made on Scott Hartnell. Hartnell delivered an awesome check on Lee Stempniak. It is the kind of hit that absolutely has a place in the game of hockey. Instead of understanding that the other team might actually try to make good plays and execute clean checks Robert Bortuzzo childishly took offense to this play. He retaliated against Hartnell’s clean check and the Penguins found themselves shorthanded. In what you could call hockey karma the Flyers scored on that power play to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Words probably can’t express my discontent with the need to retaliate because the other team made a great hockey play.
Robert Bortuzzo was playing in the place of Simon Despres. Simon Despres was benched for reasons that most likely stem from his propensity to take minor penalties. Unfortunately his replacement was just as guilty of taking unnecessary penalties. His replacement also does not possess the puck moving ability that Despres has.
One of my pet peeves is having a quick trigger finger in benching a puck moving/skilled defenseman for making mistakes, but allowing a lesser skilled defensive defenseman to “play through his mistakes…. This isn’t an issue that is limited to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization; you see it happen all around the league.
If you have two players that are going to make mistakes I don’t know why you wouldn’t stick with the player who actually has the puck skills to make good plays and has the higher ceiling.
Deryk Engelland screwed up on the power play yesterday. He slipped and fell and it led to a shorthanded goal for the Flyers. There were a lot of people questioning why Engelland was out there. He certainly isn’t the most ideal player for the situation but the other options weren’t very good either (Scuderi, Orpik, Bortuzzo). Coach Dan Bylsma certainly did not instruct Engelland to fall down and turn the puck over, but Bylsma did put his team in that situation with the Despres healthy scratch.
Despres needs to play better to earn his playing time, but I think scratching him given the Penguins current injury situation isn’t the right move at this time. They desperately need skill on the back end to help out the forwards. Despres has those skills, Bortuzzo and Engelland do not.
Taylor Pyatt is a dumpster fire. There is nothing positive that comes with him in the lineup. Based on the standard of NHL hockey, he does nothing well at this point in time. Every facet of his current game is below average. I don’t get pleasure in criticizing harshly, but I also have a responsibility of basing my opinions of what is actually happening on the ice. Right now Taylor Pyatt hurts the Penguins when he is on the ice. His foot speed is slow and he does not actively use his big frame to make plays in small spaces. Combine the two and I’m not really sure what he can offer the Penguins. He is taking the spot of a better hockey player in the lineup.
The nice thing is that the Penguins already have his replacement. He played yesterday and played quite well. Jayson Megna scored a big goal and was named the 3rd star of the game. Megna has size, speed, puck skills, and a willingness to work hard all over the ice. There is literally no reason he should continue to play behind guys who aren’t as good as him. In the salary cap era you need to trust younger players, especially when they are significantly better than the current options.
Unfortunately for Megna he was on the wrong end of a Steve Downie headshot and could possibly have a concussion. That pretty much sums up the Penguins season in a nutshell.
Steve Downie was also guilty of headbutting a Penguins player in the game. He was given a roughing penalty but he clearly led with his head with the intent of striking an opposing player. The minimum penalty for head butting is a double minor, probably should have been called that.
Dan Bylsma is not a perfect coach, no coach is. I don’t agree with the people that think he should be fired, I find that asinine. However, that doesn’t mean he is void of mistakes. His biggest mistake is his tendency to use veteran personnel who are not as good as some of the younger unproven options. Playing Pyatt over Megna is a mistake; not playing Despres with a decimated defense corp. is also a mistake. This is a potential area of improvement for him.
Evgeni Malkin took a selfish offensive zone penalty yesterday and that is one of Malkin’s biggest warts as a player. It seems every few games he gets upset and takes a frustration penalty. Its not ideal but the fact of the matter is that his good severely outweighs his momentary lapses in judgement. Malkin was terrific yesterday. He may not have shown up on the scoresheet but he was 100% responsible for Matt Niskanen’s goal. It was Malkin who curled and swooped down low with speed on the breakout and was able to fly through the neutral zone which allowed the Penguins to gain entry into the Flyers zone with speed. The resulting play was Matt Niskanen getting the puck to the net (which he does so well) for the goal. Great plays don’t always show up on the scoresheet, that was a prime example of the value that Malkin has.
Special teams were not very good against the Flyers this weekend. The Penguins went 0 for 9 on the power play and gave up 2 shorthanded goals. The Flyers power play also went 3 for 7 during the 2 game stretch.
The Flyers deserve full marks for their approach on the PK. They played super aggressive and did not let Pittsburgh set up their power play. Having James Neal and Chris Kunitz out of the lineup certainly hurts the power play but that has nothing to do with why they failed. They failed because they did not support the puck. With the Flyers playing so aggressive the Penguins needed to provide the player with the puck multiple outlets to quickly move the puck. Too many times the Penguins player only had one option, and that option was well covered by the smartly aggressive Philadelphia penalty killers.
Over the course of this season the Penguins have done a really great job of utilizing the forward in the high slot as a relief valve when the point man is covered. The Flyers did their video work and took that away. The Penguins had no answer and most times the puck carrier was out on an island and was forced into a low percentage play.
In the future the Penguins can take advantage of the Flyers willingness to play aggressive by providing puck support. Two or three quick passes could be a death blow to that overly aggressive style of penalty killing. The key is to be willing to move the puck down to the goal line further stretching out the penalty killers. To do this against an aggressive unit the player up top can make a “skip… pass that rims down below to the goal line. Simple is better on the power play, find your 2 on 1 wherever it may be, and attack. Easier said than done but the Penguins have the personnel to make it work.
The Penguins started off the game immature and unfocused again but if there is something to take away from the game it is the fact that they did seem to focus more on hockey as the game went on and that is a nice positive to take away. It didn’t lead to more puck possession but it showed that if they can focus they can score goals on the Flyers and keep them off the board. It is an encouraging sign given the amount of high caliber players the Penguins were missing and that the Flyers are pretty close to being completely healthy.
Last but not least Marc Andre Fleury was terrific yesterday. He was mercy pulled plain and simple. He deserved a standing ovation coming off the ice after that performance. His teammates let him down and he deserves way better than what he got. He has a skill set that provides one of the highest ceilings for a goaltender in the NHL, those skills were on full display. Who knows how many more goals the Flyers could have scored in that first period. Jeff Zatkoff also played well in relief of Fleury.
Today the Penguins will welcome back Kris Letang and Beau Bennett to full practice. This is a great development on the injury front. Letang has no timetable but it must be great for him to be around the team in a practicing capacity. I believe that happiness and pleasure can help somebody recover from ailments and this recent development is sure to give Letang that.
Thanks for reading!