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Honestly, I thought the Penguins would be 0-2 to start the year against Tampa Bay and Florida. Pittsburgh doesn’t historically play well on their Florida trip and they were without the services of their three best forwards for the Tampa Bay game and their two best forwards for the Florida game. Losing a two-goal lead with under ten minutes to go isn’t ideal, it never is. Getting three out of four points was really good.
There were 15 minor penalties in the game. I think it is great. Set the bar early in the season and let the players figure it out. The idea that too many power plays ruins the game doesn’t resonate with me because there are too positive outcomes. The first is that the players adjust to the new standard and as a result the 5v5 action is more wide open and entertaining because the players are being held accountable for the actual rule book how it is written. The second option is that the players don’t adjust and we get to see the most skilled players in the league play more and the boring 4th line players play fewer minutes. I fail to see the problem. The only negative thing that can happen is the officiating standard lightens up over the course of the year instead of staying firm. Nobody complains about how the 2005-06 regular season went. It was very entertaining. Let’s do that again.
As for the game the Penguins got goals from Danton Heinen, Jeff Carter, Jake Guentzel, and Evan Rodrigues. It is the second goal in as many games for Heinen. So far the Heinen seinen has been good. It was a low risk acquisition with a player who showed an offensive pulse in a couple of previous seasons in the league. He wired home his shot last night
Heinen has away better chance of replacing what Jared McCann brought to the table than whatever Brock McGinn ends up being for the Penguins. So far McGinn is an xGF% player of 35.91 and hasn’t really been noticeable at all.
Jeff Carter’s goal was his 400th of his career.
Jake Guentzel wasted no time making his presence felt in the first game of his 2021-22 season. He channeled Mario Lemieux for his first goal of the year when he patiently waited for something or someone to bank the puck off of from behind the net.
Like Lemieux, Guentzel scored his first goal on his first shift on his first shot. Now he has a bank goal from behind the net. All Jake has to do now is score off of a faceoff and then score five goals five different ways.
Kris Letang has four assists through two games, which is great. The thing I am going to be tracking is his play driving, though. It is the thing to look at when trying to decide his next contract. Against the Lightning he was tremendous with an xGF% of 68.57. Last night was a woeful 8.42 despite the counting stats. This is something we’ll need a much larger sample size of moving forward to properly assess anything. Last night was literally the only single digit xGF% he has had since the beginning of the 2016-17 season. Hopefully, this was a huge exception to the rule. I was really surprised to see a single digit score.
I was also surprised to see a xGF% of 0.00 as well. Brian Boyle was the owner of that disappointing performance. You don’t see too many 0.00’s out there.
Bryan Rust left the game with an injury and did not return. Not great. We’ll find out more today.
The Penguins have the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow. IT will be the first of eight straight home games for the Penguins. Will we get another Crosby vs Toews matchup? I think we just might. Sid is close to returning.
Thanks for reading!
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