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The Penguins are some ill birds + some Crosby and Letang criticism |
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Due to a Malkin suspension and players going down during the game the depleted Pittsburgh Penguins were able to muster up a point against the New York Islanders. They were ultimately defeated in the shootout.
The Malkin thing was selfish and self-inflicted. He has three more games to go. It is what it is.
The players leaving the game last night was one of those things you have to navigate. Nobody did anything wrong. It doesn’t help the cause to win, but what can you do? Per Josh Yohe of The Athletic the team has had a bug running through the team. Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues the latest to suffer from it and why they left the game last night.
Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues left the game because of what Sullivan referred to as “a non-COVID illness.” Last week when the Penguins played in New York against the Rangers, Sidney Crosby, John Marino and Radim Zohorna were unable to play because of a “non-COVID illness.”
The week before that, Evgeni Malkin was unable to play in New York in a previous game against the Rangers. Last week, three players — Kasperi Kapanen, Danton Heinen and Anthony Angello — were unable to practice because of a “non-COVID illness.”
Given everything going on I think taking a point from last night’s game is a quasi-win. They started the game poorly and bounced back. They had the shot attempt advantage 58-48. Their xGF% was 69.06. They won the high-danger chance battle 11-6. Given the circumstances I think these are acceptable results.
The issues I have last night were not at 5v5. The overtime power play was disgraceful. They had a real chance to take both points and they squandered it away playing patty cake on the perimeter. Kris Letang does so much for this team (especially when you see what Brian Dumoulin looks now) and takes more criticism than he deserves on average. He deserves criticism for how he performed on the power play. It was a cornucopia of indecisive decisions and a lack of willingness to shoot the puck. It destroyed whatever chance they had to get something going. Jake Guentzel was on the cusp of a hat trick and he barely got any touches of the puck because of the lack of imagination up top. It was really frustrating to watch because this was one of the few times the Penguins were in control and had the personnel they needed to have expected success. They totally whiffed.
If that wasn’t enough the shootout was the cherry on top. I’m not going to get on Jake Guentzel for his attempt because it was fine. He kept the puck in a shooting position with an option to deke and tried to hit his spot and Sorokin was able to make the save. I think Jake Guentzel is a great shootout option because he is very clever and has shown the willingness to deke or shoot and I don’t doubt the other goaltenders know this if they do their homework. Him shooting and getting stopped is something that is going to happen at times.
Sidney Crosby? Dude, enough already. It is really weird to be overly critical of one of the best players of all-time, but his shootout attempts in the last few years are some of the lamest and predictable things in the league as far as shootouts are concerned. He is a super hero that utterly refuses to use his super hero skills. He is insanely dull and it is maddening. It feels like the last time he deked a goalie on a shootout was against Jose Theodore in 2005. Sid could pretty much do anything he wants in shootout. If he wanted to do the things Patrick Kane does, he could. If he wanted to do the things TJ Oshie does, he could. Hell, if he wanted to do the Erik Christensen move from back in the day, he could. What do we get? Snap shots from distance every single time. EVERY SINGLE TIME. I want to live in the world where Sidney Crosby loves displaying his raw talent like Trevor Zegras does. Could you imagine the things we could be seeing? And I’m not talking about doing it for the sake of doing it. Crosby would know the proper time and place. Instead, he remains regressed good hockey culture boy.
Letang deserves some more criticism. Get a shot off. He has a great track record in the shootout, but much like Crosby he has gotten stale and predictable.
The good news is the shootout isn’t a thing when the games really matter. It used to be a strength with the shooters and Fleury. Not so much anymore.
Lastly, Brian Dumoulin is entering Rob Scuderi territory. He either needs some nights off for rest and collect himself or this is the new standard. I’ve suggested trading him while his perceived value was higher than his actual value going back to last year. I think we are entering or already arrived to where this is no longer the case. Play him on the bottom pairing if you play him. Look to move on in the offseason. A bounce back to his form from a few years ago isn’t likely and the risk to find out if he can isn’t worth it to me. I think a lot of the aura surrounding him has been his proximity to Kris Letang all these years. A decent enough generic player who has no problem fitting in, but isn’t driving the bus, either. The issue is he cannot fit in at the present moment. Mike Sullivan has taken the first step in recognizing this by playing him away from Kris Letang. He is going to have to now re-evaluate his spot on the middle pairing as well.
In other news the Penguins (who are now owned by the same corporation as the Red Sox) will be playing in the Winter Classic in Boston.
Can’t say this is too surprising. It makes a lot of sense given the dynamic now.
Thanks for reading!
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