There are games where you play bad the entire game, get all the bounces, and squeak one out. There are games where you play well and win comfortably. You can for sure play poorly and lose by multiple goals. Then there’s whatever that was last night for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Up 3-2 on the Anaheim Ducks the Pittsburgh Penguins somehow took an offensive zone faceoff with 18 seconds left, while on the power play, and turned it into a game tying goal for the Ducks with 0.1 seconds left.
Unacceptable sequence
To borrow a phrase from Mike Lange, “you’d have to be here to believe it”. Unfortunately, when Mike would use that phrase something great was happening to the Penguins. In this instance it is one of the absolute worst ways I’ve seen a team throw a game away in all my NHL viewing history. It isn’t quite as bad as the Patrik Stefan empty net blunder, but both these sequences hang out at the same family parties.
To give up a shorthanded goal when the penalty was taken with 18 seconds left is crazy. By default you are already starting in the offensive zone which should eliminate most of the risk, but the Penguins took it even further. They had full possession of the puck in the neutral zone with time and space for a D to D pass. One pass is enough to shed a couple seconds off the clock. Instead, they dumped the puck in. Even then, you’re still in good shape.
This was a pathetic turn of events for a Penguins team who otherwise put together a quality performance. They had a 78.0 xGF%. They were also a 97.5% on the MoneyPuck Deserve to Win O’Meter
As Snoop Pearson once said, “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it”
As such, the Penguins lost out on a regulation win. Despite the terrible finish to the third period the Penguins did not lose the game at that point, they still had a power play to start overtime for 1:36. Yet, we arrived at…
Another shootout…
The Penguins survived an overtime session against the younger and faster Ducks team. Their reward? Well, it was of course another shootout. I bet you can’t guess how it played out for the Penguins.
The Penguin shooters once again failed to register a goal.
I will give Dan Muse some credit. He did change up the shooters. Tommy Novak led things off while Ville Koivunen went after Sidney Crosby. The coach can’t score the goals for them.
I will say that Sidney Crosby is putting his rookie coach in a pretty bad spot. You don’t want to sit Sid out of the shootout because from a talent perspective he 100% should be in it, but man is he pushing the boundaries of good taste with it.
For whatever reason Sid refuses to change up his stale approach. I get that he’s a creature of habit in a lot of ways, but what if that habit was just scoring shootout goals by whatever means necessary. Where the hell is this guy?
I do think the players are pressing and are very aware of their shortcomings in this area of the game. Winning a shootout would do a lot to alleviate the gripping of the sticks. I don’t think they are going to magically have shootouts become a strength after one shootout win, but it should get it from looking like whatever we’ve been subjected to thus far this season.
Big picture
Last night’s loss should leave a bad taste in everybody’s mouth from the players, to the coaches, to the front office, to the fans. It was egregious. That said, the team earned another standings point against a division leader and the fourth best team in the league in Anaheim. Pittsburgh is the sixth best team in the Eastern Conference with some games in hand. Overall, their surprising season continues to roll on.
They have very good special teams and the goaltending, sans the shootout, has held up to this point. They are underperforming their offense and overperforming their defense. If they can start to cash in on the expected goals and the goaltending holds they can make a little noise.
The leadup to Thursday’s home game against the Montreal Canadiens might be one of the most important times in Dan Muse’s debut season as coach. He needs to get the team re-focused after an emotional letdown and back to business. Their overall caliber of play was very good. They need to repeat that kind of effort and eliminate the abysmal brain farts which led to Tuesday’s result.
They cannot go and lay an egg. Stacking the Anaheim loss with underwhelming performances is how a season starts to spiral in the wrong direction.
Given that Sidney Crosby is the leader of the team and their opponent is Montreal I expect the captain to be at his best on the ice and in the room.
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Tagged: nhl, Pittsburgh Penguins