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Penguins category 4 another lead

March 20, 2019, 4:16 PM ET [34 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Pittsburgh and Carolina combined for 105 shot attempts at 5v5 in what was a fast paced and entertaining game. The game wasn’t decided at 5v5. It needed overtime where we saw 4v4 action as well as 4v3 action. Even that was not enough. The shootout saw Carolina prevail to take the two standings points. One point is better than none, but another game blown in the last minute is a bad trend for the Penguins.

Did it hurt their playoff chances? No, both Pittsburgh and Carolina sit at 95% to make the playoffs per Hockeyviz’s model. Missing out on that extra point does hurt their pursuit of the New York Islanders who lost again last night. I think a best case scenario for the Penguins would be a first round matchup against the Islanders with home-ice advantage. This is still something that can happen. What you don’t want to do is slide further down and go on the road against the Washington Capitals or… Tampa Bay.

I think Carolina is finally living up to their ability combining their ability to drive play with a respectable PDO. I don’t think the Penguins played a bad game. It was a bad result.



It was great having Kris Letang back in the lineup. He is a high event player as you can see on the chart above. He was on the ice for 27 shot attempts which accounts for half of what Pittsburgh created. It isn’t easy to generate like he does and what he generates far outweighs the negatives. I don’t know how people can watch what he does and not think it doesn’t immensely help the team. Yeah, he lost Justin Williams on the game tying goal. He also scored and created the majority of the Penguins chances. If Peter Mrazek was just average last night his contributions would have yielded more than the two goals the Penguins scored.

Erik Gudbranson was on the positive, yet again. The sample of success grows by the game. The Penguins did shelter the Pettersson-Gudbranson pair by predominately playing them against Wallmark, Martinook, and Ferland, but they didn’t lose the battle and waste the shelter. If you are going to get favorable deployment make the most of it. They did.

The Johnson-Schultz pair continues to flounder. They can’t be played like a second pair at this point. They matched up against the Staal line and got obliterated. Jack Johnson did make a great block in overtime to save the game when Sebastian Aho had a wide open net. That was very good. His other nice play of the game was when he stopped a semi-breakaway. It was a breakaway he caused because he literally can’t get his shot through the front line and get the puck deep. He shot it right into the Hurricane player’s shin. Even when he does a good thing there’s a 50% chance it is because he’s already done a bad thing. Then there was this foolish and selfish penalty at the end of regulation




The fact no pairing with Jack Johnson can generate anything is holding the team back. Johnson is incapable of helping the team in the offensive zone. He kills the team offensively. He kills the team possessionally. He deserves to consistently be called out for his poor play. It’s an obvious problem.

Matt Murray was great again. Stopping 37 out of 39 shots is a solid night. If you get .949 goaltending you got enough to win. Problem was Peter Mrazek was just as great stopping 36 out of 38 shots (.947).

Think the Penguins power play misses Malkin? It looks pretty bad right now. Malkin has been more careless with the puck this year than I can remember in previous campaigns, but like Letang his positives far outweigh those other errors. He is a commanding presence that either earns time and space for others or the opposition just gives it to him out of fear he will beat them if they step on him.

I liked that Sidney Crosby tried deking in the shootout. He doesn’t do it nearly enough for the hands he has. He got unlucky this time with Mrazek’s butt end catching the puck. Crosby had him beat.

Jake Guentzel scored his 37th goal of the season. It is not power play driven which puts him in unique place in the league




He’s a gamer

One positive of the Penguins losing was getting to see Carolina’s celebration at the end. They didn’t disappoint.




The only thing that would have made it better was if instead of plush ducks falling from the sky they were plush Penguins.

Penguins get another quality opponent next when they face the Nashville Predators.

Thanks for reading!
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