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The Pittsburgh penguins losing streak will reach at least 3 games after dropping a 2-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night. The Penguins were able to generate some good scoring chances but were unable to actually cash in with the opportunities.
Penguins controlled the flow for much of the game
The 1st period provided a proper microcosm for the entire game. The Penguins put on some intense pressure but were unable to score while the Flyers were able to make good on the opportunities they created.
Robert Bortuzzo gets the dunce cap on the Flyers first goal as he lost a puck battle that he had no business losing. The Penguins had 4 players in the zone to the Flyers 1, yet found themselves giving up a goal.
Bortuzzo’s partner needs to be communicating better to tell him to chip the puck along for one of the other Penguins to gain control and avoid the 1 on 1 battle in the corner. Obviously this is an egregiously poor sequence for the Penguins. Pretty unacceptable.
The lone goal that the Penguins were able to generate was a result of the power play. Specifically it was the result of a power play that did not feature Crosby at the furthest point away from the Flyers goal cage. Crosby is most dangerous near the net and in the dirty areas. Let’s please retire the Crosby on the strong side point power play look. I’ll continue to beat this drum because I believe very strongly that it is a total waste of Crosby’s elite skill set.
Over the course of the broadcast you probably heard that windbag Pierre McGuire implying that the flyers were getting the better end of the line matchups. On some nights Dan Bylsma could do a little beter job with how he allocates his forward usage, tonight was not one of them.
The bloviating McGuire consistently pointed out that Malkin was getting the Lecavalier line and not the Couturier line. My reaction to that was “great, don’t change a thing…. Given Couturier’s past success against Malkin why would Bylsma want him going up against Couturier again? To take things further I bet a good amount of fans would have complained if Malkin was up against Couturier for much of the night.
Fact is that Malkin played a great game against the Flyers and was noticeable all night long. Not really sure why Bylsma would want to get away from that matchup given how successful it was.
The Penguins controlled much of the game flow, who was really winning the line matchups?
I really don’t care what Malkin’s goal totals are if he plays as well as he did against the Flyers, the goals will come. Malkin has 6 points in 5 games and has a jump in his step right now. Things aren’t that bad for 71. The key will be getting James Neal up to speed after his long layoff.
A player that does deserve some criticism right now is Kris Letang. Letang was victimized on the flyers power play goal that ended up being the game winner. He had poor position in front of the net and compounded the issue with a weak defensive attempts after he was boxed off of the puck.
Can’t be making elementary mistakes like that. With Scuderi and Martin out of the lineup you need to be able to lean on a guy like Kris Letang to be steady. This is not good enough from the Norris nominee.
We all know that Letang is bound to make the occasional error on defense. I am willing to live with that, but his offensive production needs to counter balance those defensive miscues. He has 4 points in 8 games and that is normally good for a defenseman, but not good enough if he continues to have gross miscues.
Letang had a few sequences on the power play in which his teammates were able to find him back door through the open seam but he was unable to bury the puck home. You need those goals to go in if those mishaps on the PK are going to happen.
Part of the offensive problems for the Penguins this year have been because of their lack of scoring from the third line. I see no reason why Jayson Megna should not be given the opportunity to try and stick on the third line with Sutter and Bennett. D’Agostini has been ineffective and Megna has made the most of his chance so far this year.
Penguins need to figure out which defenseman they want to call up from WB/S because regardless of whom they have ranked as the next call up, they will be better than Engelland.
The Penguins will have to wait a while before they can get another crack at the flyers this year. The two teams don’t face eachother again until after the Olympic break.
It’s never ideal to be on the losing end of things but I really don’t have a huge issue with how the Penguins played against the Flyers.
Penguins will look to right the ship against the Nashville Predators on Friday night
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Shout out to nh4442 who was looking good on national TV during the game. He was invited into the Penguins locker room as the Penguins honored some of our nation's finest veterans.
Thank you for your service!
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The Buffalo Sabres finally decided to relieve longtime General Manager Darcy Regier from his duties. The Sabres have brought in Pat Lafontaine as the President of Hockey Operations and Ted Nolan as the new Head Coach.
Lafontaine has already said that he will not be the acting GM and that he will be seeking out a new person for the job. One of the potential candidates for the Sabres GM position is the Penguins own Assistant GM Jason Botterill. Botterill is one of the most highly regarded GM prospects in the league and eventually he will get an opportunity to steer his own ship. Will this be the job opening that provide him that chance?
Thanks for reading!
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