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The depleted Penguins and Red Wings faced each other on Saturday night and it was the battered Penguins who came out with a 4-1 win. The Red Wings were the team to get on the board first but it was the Penguins super stars who took the game over on the scoresheet.
Here are the game highlights:
Here is the possession chart:
There are a decent number of newsworthy items from this game. So let’s get to it.
One of the most noteworthy items from this game was the Evgeni Malkin injury. Malkin injured himself backchecking hard, much like how Steven Stamkos found himself injured after working his tail end off to make a play. Just like Stamkos, Malkin was on the wrong end of the luck spectrum. Malkin awkwardly crashed into the boards and his legs split while his skates went in perpendicular to the boards, a perfect recipe for serious injury. Malkin tried to get up and was unable to put weight on his left side. He collapsed back down to the ice and needed assistance from teammates to get off the ice.
The Penguins have enough injuries/suspensions to deal with right now, to lose Evgeni Malkin for any extended period of time will be a tough pill to swallow.
Before injuring himself Malkin had 1 goal and 2 assists and was the #1 star of the game.
The Penguins will not practice today so there will most likely be no updates on Malkin however esteemed writer Nick Cotsonika passed along his observations of Malkin after the game and it is an encouraging observation:
Malkin is walking normally. Still waiting for update.
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) December 15, 2013An equally newsworthy item from the game was the hit that Deryk Engelland laid on Justin Abdelkader. Engelland stepped up in the neutral zone to lay a hit on Abdelkader and in doing so clipped his jaw. I don’t believe that was the intent of the play but that doesn’t change that it happened. The onus is on the hitter these days to avoid the head area and Engelland failed to do so. Engelland was trying to make a hockey play and failed in his execution.
Engelland was given a match penalty and with that comes an automatic in person hearing from the Department of Player Safety.
The NHL is in a tough spot though, it will be tough to justify giving Engelland more than two games considering David Clarkson (repeat offender) only received 2 games for his blind side headshot assault of Vladimir Sobotka.
It will be interesting to see how the league handles this hit given the fact that they set their own standard for a head shot earlier in the same day at 2 games.
Does anybody out there honestly think the NHL is even close to being effective in deterring head shots at this point?
On a positive note the Penguins defense corp(the players who haven’t been ravaged by injury) did a terrific job against the Red Wings. In a very surprising development Kris Letang was scratched from the game last night due to an upper body injury. This left the Penguins without every single member of their top 4 defense. Letang, Martin, Scuderi, and Orpik were all out of action. That left the lion’s share of the work to Niskanen, Despres, Maatta, Bortuzzo, and Dumoulin. Those 5 played excellent and it really goes to show just how deep the Penguins are on the blue line.
It’s never easy to lose a defenseman to ejection like the Penguins did with Engelland. It is extremely taxing on the remaining 5 players, but this group took the challenge in stride and succeeded with flying colors.
Simon Despres was a stud last night. His assertiveness while defending was superb and the poise he showed with the puck created a calming presence on the ice at all times. I don’t think he is a guy you can suppress from NHL action anymore. His time in WB/S has done wonders for his overall game. It is pretty clear that he has graduated from the AHL with distinction.
The Penguins special teams are killer right now. Pittsburgh was able to go 2 for 4 on the power play and was able to keep the Red Wings scoreless in 5 power plays. The highlight of the special teams effort was killing off Deryk Engelland’s 5 minute major. And to think, the penalty kill is only going to be better when Scuderi, Martin, and Orpik are healthy again, scary thought.
Jeff Zatkoff deserves his kudos. Zatkoff had an extremely solid game in his homecoming. In his last 5 appearances he has left with 5 victories. In his last two starts he has stopped 67 out of a possiblt 69 shots for a save percentage of .971%.
Sidney Crosby is now working on a 6 game points scoring streak. In the past 6 games he has 5 goals and 10 points.
How great is Pavel Datsyuk with the puck?
Pittsburgh was able to overcome their difficulty winning games when they allow the first goal. Penguins are now 5-8-1 when allowing the first goal. That is the 7th best winning percentage in the NHL when allowing the first goal.
Detroit is actually 27th overall in winning percentage when scoring the first goal. Surprising stat from a Mike Babcock team.
The Penguins are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. Both losses came at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
Dan Bylsma’s team was able to top a Mike Babcock led squad in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins are 6-2 in their last 8 against Detroit. Could these Bylsma Babcock trends bode well for Team USA in Sochi?
The Penguins are 1st in their division, 1st on the power play, 2nd on the penalty kill, 5th in Fenclose% , 6th in goals for per game (3.03), and 4th in goals against per game (2.18).
I suppose we aren’t firing Dan Bylsma anymore.
Penguins have today off and then they will host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.
Thanks for reading!
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