A big theme leading up to last night’s game was Jaromir Jagr playing in Pittsburgh. Nine seconds into the game he tallied an assist. That was it for him and eventually the Devils followed suit. New Jersey built up a 3-1 lead but squandered it away with penalty trouble. This allowed the league’s best power play to go to work. They did and cut New Jersey’s lead to 3-2. After that it was all Penguins.
Here are some various thought about the game:
Root Sports is a second rate broadcast. I tuned into their feed with the sole purpose of seeing the Penguins faithful give Olli Maatta his well-deserved ovation on Hockey Fights Cancer night in Pittsburgh. What I got was Steigerwald and Errey bloviating about the game. Nobody cares about that. As a local broadcast you should have your finger on the pulse of the team and what the important thing are surrounding that team. Not showing Maatta’s ovation is gross negligence. What is the point of a local broadcast if not for showing things like that? Total failure. You had one job last night Root Sports…
The last time the Penguins scored 8 goals on the Devils was in the fall 1991, Jagr’s second season in the league. Here is the boxscore from the Penguins for that game:
I can’t think of too many times a Jagr team has scored 8 times and he had no hand in it. This may be the only time that happened.
The Penguins power play is number one in the league at 40.6%. The next best is Arizona at 26.7%.
It is tough to be critical of the #1 power play in the league with those numbers, but I do have an opinion on it anyways. The more Geno drops bombs the more successful the power play will be. Geno’s shot should be the #1 option. If the Penguins are going to employ both Kunitz and Hornqvist on the #1 unit then it should be a shoot first power play while letting Hornqvist and Kunitz do what they do best, clean up the trash. Who better to shoot than Geno? You can see the damage Geno’s shot can still do. He let that thing rip last night. More of that please.
Kris Letang has done alright quarterbacking the power play, but he needs to let it rip too. Teams need to respect the potential of shots coming from his location, it will spread the penalty killers out more and allow the Penguins to work their magic.
The Penguins did give up a shorthanded goal last night. The optics of the play made it look like Evgeni Malkin was at fault, but he wasn’t. His teammates put him in a no win situation. Having four forwards on the power play had nothing to do with that shorthanded goal. Incredibly poor puck management while trying to force the play through Devils players created that situation. Malkin was stuck in an all or none proposition. Those other players know better than that.
The Penguins penalty kill has killed off 18 consecutive penalties.
Sidney Crosby (14) is one point behind Tyler Seguin for the league lead despite playing in one less game so far. His seven goals is two behind the league lead held by Corey Perry despite playing in two less games. Crosby had two goals last night and it was an afterthought. Things are going good when that is the case.
Simon Despres is a mixed bag lately, and that is OK. Despres is going through the learning curves of playing every game minutes and there are bound to be ups and downs. While he should have already been given the opportunity to go through this process we cannot change the past. He is getting that chance now.
Despres is a minor penalty factory to this point. He has five minor penalties. This is certainly an area which he will need to clean up.
That said, there are certainly some positives. He does the difficult things right. He can make the skilled plays with the puck that lead to opportunities for the Penguins. His feed to Patric Hornqvist was simple, but assertive. Hornqvist did not have to slow down to receive it and it allowed him the space to go bar down.
The play I was more impressed with was when he joined the play as a fourth forward and skated the puck through the neutral zone with speed while backing the defender off enough so that he could pull up and get the puck on net. Getting the puck on net with traffic creates random events, this one led to Sidney Crosby having an open net. Without Despres’ ability to create offensively, Crosby doesn’t get that lucky bounce. Those are the kinds of plays that the Penguins defense can make.
Despres was rewarded and saw time with Christian Ehrhoff later in the game. Despres isn’t through the woods yet but there is plenty to build on and if he is the kind of guy in your bottom pairing, things aren’t too bad at all.
It was a big night for the Craig Adams fan club, all three of you, as he found the scoresheet. Steigerwald couldn’t believe it and had a Freudian slip as he claimed:
"That is Adams first goal 297 games, no that’s not right…
Prior to scoring Adams was pinned in the defensive zone and took a bad boarding penalty. The game was still tied at this point.
In a case of timing is everything, Adams stepped out of the penalty box where Brandon Sutter laid a perfect tough pass to him for a breakaway. I don’t know whether it was Consol’s notorious bad ice or Adams less than silky hands but the puck rolling fooled Schneider for the goal. Not sure that goes in with a flat puck.
Schneider agrees.
I wasn’t a goalie by trade but I have played in net enough times to know that a flubbed shot can foil the best laid plans for making a save.
It doesn’t change the fact that it broke a 3-3 tie and was a big goal. Kudos to Adams for finishing the rare breakaway opportunity. However, one play doesn’t make him a serviceable NHL player much like how one power play turnover that leads to a shorthanded breakaway makes Crosby unfit for power play duty.
Marc-Andre Fleury doesn’t get off the hook just because Pittsburgh scored 8 goals. That goal nine seconds in was atrocious. Totally unacceptable. The rebound on third goal wasn’t very good either. Obviously breakaways are never on the goaltender. Breakaways are actually a strength for Fleury as he holds the career best shootout save percentage (.771%) in NHL history, but still, breakaways are never on the goaltender. The power play puck management is to blame there.
That said, chances are you won’t win too many hockey games if you goalie is sporting a .842% save percentage.
Don’t look now but Pascal Dupuis has eight points in eight games. Not bad for coming off of major knee surgery and leaving a game on a stretcher.
The trap has eaten the Penguins up for a few years now but last night wasn’t one of those games. The Penguins were able to generate speed in the neutral zone which led to their success. Speed through the neutral zone isn’t just for carrying the puck in with possession, it is also very useful for strategic dump-ins. The Penguins did a nice job of putting the puck into spaces where their teammates could fly in with speed and win battles for the puck. You don’t generate that speed without skilled play from the defense corp. Sometimes hockey is just a glorified geometry exam and the Penguins passed last night’s test.
Guess who has a point in every single game so far this season? If you guessed the Penguins lazy Russian center you’d be correct. Evgeni Malkin has 4 goals and 11 points in the 8 games played so far. You know who else has a point in every game this season? Ryan Johansen of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has 5 goals and 12 points in 9 games. It’s almost as if the preseason and training camp are overrated for skilled players…
Steve Downie and Blake Comeau combined are making only $500,000 more than Tanner Glass made for the Penguins last year.
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) October 29, 2014
#Pens 8 goals tonight tied for most goals in a single game at @CONSOLEnergyCtr. It's happened 7 times total by PIT -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 29, 2014
The Buffalo Sabres have scored 11 goals in 10 games this season. The Penguins scored 7 goals in a 27:44 stretch tonight.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_Trib) October 29, 2014
Pascal Dupuis has already seen more power-play time in 2014-15 (12:52) in 8 games than he did in 39 games last year, when he saw 11:21 PP.
— John Toperzer (@JohnToperzer) October 29, 2014
The Kings roll into town on Thursday night fresh off of a loss to the Flyers. Will Anze Kopitar be back in the lineup?
Thanks for reading!