The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their five game winning streak to a Marc-Andre Fleury shutout. Given the circumstances the loss wasn’t all that bad and was actually a well-played game by the understaffed Penguins.
Even after you take score-effects into the equation the Penguins owned 58.33% of the shot share which is tremendous considering the team they were playing, the team they had on the ice, and the second night of a back to back. There were some surprise scratches right before the game in Jared McCann and then Brian Dumoulin. We knew McCann was dinged up even if it wasn’t expected he would miss the game. The surprise was Brian Dumoulin. At least the timing of the announcement. I noticed Dumoulin hobbling off the ice late in the game against the Stars. They had a close up of Kris Letang holding the puck for a line change in front of the Penguins net and in the background you could see Dumoulin skating off gingerly. I thought nothing of it because nothing was ever mentioned, but clearly something is up.
The vacancy next to Kris Letang was filled by John Marino who saw some improvement in his on-ice play. Here was his previous five games spent between Erik Gudbranson and Jack Johnson.
Pretty ugly. Last night he spent time with Kris Letang and finished CF 19 CA 7 for a team best 73.08%. Looks like John Marino might have some of that Olli Maatta chameleon gene in him. Johnson again finished at the bottom at 47.37%. He was the only Penguins player under 50%. Doesn’t ever seem to matter who his partner is. His colors remain the same.
Not much has been made about the Penguins rostering nine defenseman during the winning streak, but it deserves criticism. How much longer is this going to go on for? They have been forced to use Juuso Riikola twice on the wing instead of having a player who actually plays the position. Riikola hasn’t been “good enough” to play his natural position, but they have no problem with him playing on the wing and on the second power play. You need to bend logic quite a bit to get to this kind of usage. Are they really worried someone might claim Chad Ruhwedel? Lack of roster planning rears its head again.
Tristan Jarry had his second consecutive solid start for the Penguins. He stopped 21 out of 22 shots and that is good for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious, Jarry’s save percentage was really good (.955). The second was the fact the Golden Knights were only able to register 23 shots. Again, a very impressive loss for the Penguins all things considered.
The Penguins had four power plays and there were a few moments where a goal was on the cusp. However, most of it was blah. The Sidney Crosby on the left wall setup doesn’t maximize their best player’s skill set and to me it is unacceptable. Overthinking the obvious is something that plagues professional coaches in all sports.
Over the course of the night Dominik Simon was replaced by Patric Hornqvist on the top line. This is fine and was situational. The Penguins were trailing and they needed a goal. They felt like Hornqvist had a better chance of finishing one off than Simon did. It makes sense to do it once and a while. I don’t think Hornqvist can keep up for a full game, but when you’re in a pinch you can utilize a specialist like Hornqvist to try and get that tying goal. That said, if Hornqvist would have lifted the puck Marc-Andre Fleury wouldn’t have had a shutout last night.
In Sunday’s youth hockey advice section we will talk about protecting the most dangerous areas of the ice on the penalty kill. You young kids out there are going to want to protect in front of the net because that is where forwards like to score their goals. You don’t want to give up easy back door shots that are incredibly difficult for your goalie to save. When you are going from one spot in the defensive zone to another you’ll want to take a direct path and never never go behind the net when there isn’t either the puck nor an opponent.
Thanks for reading!
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