Pittsburgh dominated a bad Ottawa Senators on Saturday night while only taking away one point in the standings. Outplaying teams and not coming away with a victory is something that happens to every team in the league multiple times a season. It’s one of those losses that you shouldn’t really think too much about. The Penguins dominated.

Here is the domination in visual form





How dominating was it? Jack Johnson was only on the ice for three shot attempts against and 18 for. Marc Pettersson wasn’t on the ice for a single shot attempt against and neither were Jean-Sebastian Dea, Derek Grant, or Garrett Wilson. There’s a reason Ottawa is 31st in the NHL in their ability to drive play.

Look at Kris Letang. He was on the ice for 43(!) shot attempts last night at 5v5. It was ten more than any other game from this season. The October 18th game against Toronto he had 33. There was little pushback from the Ottawa Senators. With the star players having their way driving play all night long against the Senators it is only fitting that the lone goal they scored was by Jean-Sebastian Dea who the team just re-claimed on waivers. Dea’s stay with the NHL club will probably be short lived as Patric Hornqvist and Matt Cullen are both on the road trip and close to returning to the lineup. I could see a situation where Dea was reclaimed by the Devils when he is exposed to waivers again.

Craig Anderson was the difference in the game as he turned away 35 out of the 36 shots he faced. An average performance would have resulted in a blowout. Casey DeSmith was also strong in net. He certainly played well enough to earn the team the win. It appears this hasn’t been the norm for Craig Anderson this year. He’s on the wrong side of this graphic. Casey DeSmith on the other hand has given the Penguins acceptable goaltending while Matt Murray has been absent

Goalie charts are updated.

Gibson's saved 12 goals above average. In part, ANA's given him the opportunity to do this by letting him get shelled for months. On the other hand, a mortal goalie would've collapsed by now facing his workload.https://t.co/9B9vfHAW7F pic.twitter.com/zHChmxjUyz

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) December 9, 2018

Pittsburgh only had two power plays in the game despite controlling the entire game flow. Needless to say the officiating wasn’t great for either team last night. It was well below what should be the accepted standard of the best league in the world. Star players taking elbows to the face on multiple occasions with some of those sequences going uncalled is a bad look and once again shows the NHL has it backwards. People want to see star players thrive, not hit in the face.

One penalty that was well earned happened in overtime. Evgeni Malkin jumped out early on a line change for a breakaway before Jake Guentzel made his way onto the bench. It was the right call and ultimately cost the team the game. It’s one of those things where I wouldn’t beat up Guentzel too much, but I would suggest entering the defense door to get in sooner in the future. Sometimes that distance is the difference between a game winning breakaway or a penalty that loses the game.

Pittsburgh will be back in action on Monday night where they play the Islanders for the second time in four days. The standings are really tight at the moment. Pittsburgh started the night in third place in the Metropolitan Division and by only taking a single point the Islanders reclaimed third place with Pittsburgh dropping to fourth place in the wild card. The Penguins can start to gain ground and separate themselves by beating some of these Metropolitan pretenders in regulation.

Thanks for reading!

Join the Discussion: » 340 Comments » Post New Comment

» Getting your Penguins fix

» My thoughts on Penguins thoughts

» It's their fault

» Still alive, for now

» Going to need some help now