Shark Fin Soup (Penguins)

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The San Jose Sharks came into Pittsburgh and while they displayed a distinct dorsal fin upon arrival, they surprisingly lacked any kind of bite. The Penguins came away with an impressive 5-1 victory over one of the best teams in the NHL.

Tyler Kennedy’s return to Pittsburgh was pedestrian as he was unable to get anything going, much like his teammates.

Here are the game highlights:

Here is the possession chart:

As we can see the Penguins controlled the flow of the game until the score reached 4-0. There is a reason I use Fenclose% and not standard even strength Fenwick as my metric of choice. The dramatic rise in San Jose possession is due to a phenomenon called score effects. When teams have huge leads they generally take their foot off the gas which can skew the data. This game is a perfect example of that.

If you told me before the game that the Penguins would win 5-1 I would have thought a time machine took me back to the 90’s. I did not see a Penguins blow out coming. The Penguins came out with great energy and it led to great results. The Penguins were missing key players such as Evgeni Malkin, Paul Martin, and Rob Scuderi but had players like Simon Despres, Jayson Megna, and Joe Vitale step up to fill the void.

There is also a guy named Crosby who stepped up to the plate and does what he does when Evgeni Malkin is out of the lineup:

That is what superstars do; they pick a team up when they need them most.

Evgeni Malkin is listed as day to day with an unknown lower body injury. Here is to hoping his injury is true to the day to day listing and not the day to day injury that Beau Bennett had. Bennett missed 11 games while being “day to day…. It was great to see the Penguins play well without Malkin, but I would rather see them play well with the big Russian in the lineup.

Chris Kunitz continues to score goals and consistently be a thorn in his opponent’s side. Team Canada can choose to go with the sexier names for their Olympic squad but it would be their loss if they chose not to bring Kunitz. Not many players have scored more goals than Kunitz since last year and have the organic chemistry that he has with Sidney Crosby. As an American I’m fine with Kunitz being left at home for the Olympic break.

The guy who benefited most from Malkin being out was rookie Jayson Megna. Megnatron made the most of his 2nd line opportunity and potted the Penguins second goal on a nice shot to the upper corner of the net. He created multiple scoring chances and used his size and speed to create simple, yet effective plays. This is not something new, this is what he has done when given the opportunity.

Truth be told I don’t know why he isn’t given more opportunities, he should never be behind Chris Conner on the NHL depth chart.

Other role players also stepped up in the Penguins victory and notable in that grouping was Joe Vitale. Vitale was all over the ice and was consistently active around the puck. Vitale looked like he was shot out of a cannon on most shifts and he was rewarded with some time on the Crosby line.

The bad part about Joe Vitale being given the opportunity with Crosby was the fact that Pascal Dupuis left the game with an injury and did not return. There has been no update on his status. Even though Dupuis has not had the offensive year that he would like he is still an excellent penalty killer and is never a liability on the ice. That is not a loss the Penguins need right now with Malkin and Bennett already out of the lineup.

Kris Letang had a much better outing, but that should be closer to the regular standard rather than being a bullet point worthy of attention. He scored a goal, but the puck management was what I was more interested in. Letang still had an egregious turnover on the power play but that was an isolated event and not the norm for the rest of the game. Letang made quite a few crafty plays with his skill including a high flip play that allowed Letang to get the puck behind the defenders with his teammates skating full speed into the offensive zone, it led to an odd man rush.

There was also a nice breakaway chance that Letang earned in the neutral zone. It was a low risk high reward play. Letang sat on the pass as the left wing lock worked to perfection.

If that game becomes the norm, the criticisms of Letang’s game will be muzzled. I need to see multiple games in succession to start feeling confident of where Letang's game is headed.

Marc Andre Fleury earned the #1 star of the game with his 45 save performance. Fleury only gave up one goal and it was a weird deflection. Even though Fleury went 45-46 on shots he faced some of the San Jose Sharks were not impressed:

Logan Couture: We didn’t bear down on our chances. Stats aside, I don’t think that Fleury was that good. He gave up a lot of rebounds and on a lot of shots, he looked shaky on. We weren’t able to score on second chances

Joe Pavelski: "He was fighting it all night. It felt like we could have had five [goals]."

Joe Thornton: We had not enough quality scoring chances. When we did, [Fleury] played great but not our best performance

The Shark player’s comments will come off as sore losers but I do think the truth lies in the middle of Fleury playing great and the aforementioned criticism.

Hockey is an end result game and Fleury earned the positive end results for his team. I do however think that some of the bounces could have easily gone in the Sharks favor as well. I have been on the same side of the coin the Sharks were on as a player and coach, you pepper a goalie, tons of rebounds, and nothing to show for it. It is a frustrating thing and I can empathize with their “bitterness….

All that said, Fleury had some remarkable saves early on in the game and he earned the win for Pittsburgh as much as any other player did.

The win over the Sharks was one of the most, if not the most, satisfying win of the young season. Given the personnel that the Penguins were missing and the fact that the Sharks were well rested and healthy coming into the game it would be tough to not consider this an extremely satisfying win.

Was it the best game the Penguins played all year? I think I still give that award to the Capitals or Bruins game.

The Penguins don’t get to savor this victory for long, they will play another top end opponent on Saturday as the Penguins travel to Boston to take on the Bruins.

Thanks for reading!

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