After self-imploding against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night the Pittsburgh Penguins had an opportunity to rebound at home against the Montreal Canadiens. They did not. The Penguins put together a very lackluster effort and found themselves trailing from the very beginning of the game. Any time they tried to claw back into the game they allowed Montreal to respond right away.
The game was delayed 30 minutes because of a traffic accident. Most of the Penguins thought it was delayed by three hours.
Impressive NHL debut
The biggest hurdle the Penguins couldn’t clear was rookie goaltender, Jacob Fowler. The Canadiens rookie made his NHL debut and it was an impressive one. Fowler made 36 saves while only allowing two goals. He made multiple impressive saves when the Penguins were trying to get back into the game. He was very comfortable in net and looked the part of an NHL goalie, dare I say a very good one.
Fowler continues a Montreal Canadiens tradition of having their best goalies debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins
One game in and Fowler is on quite the NHL path.
What makes this debut more special is that Fowler grew up a Penguins fan:
“I mean, I could have played anywhere tonight,” Fowler said. “And to get your first win, it’s going to be special. But been to a lot of games here. Grew up a Pittsburgh fan. (Sidney) Crosby and (Marc-Andre) Fleury were my favorite players growing up.”
Missing Malkin
The Penguins have an Evgeni Malkin problem. The problem is that he isn’t available to play. Without #71 in the lineup the Penguins don’t have a functional top nine anymore. The Kid Line (McGroarty-Kindel-Koivunen) continues to play well. The Mantha-Hayes-Brazeau line is not worthy of their placement in the lineup.
Kevin Hayes on the 4th line is something you can live with. Playing him up the lineup is not reasonable if you are expecting positive results. It’s not fair to Hayes because you aren’t putting him in a position to succeed.
Early in the season Justin Brazeau had a scorching start, the best start in his career. In the 12 games he played in October he had six goals and 12 points. Things were going really well, but I’ve always been skeptical of the start even if you can appreciate it in the moment.
The Mantha-Malkin-Brazeau line wasn’t winning the territorial battle leading up to Brazeau’s injury. This from an earlier article I did this season:
They finished with a 33.33 CF% and a 23.37 xGF% against the Panthers. If this were to continue trending this way these are not markers for long term sustained success. I don’t think it is realistic for Justin Brazeau to continue producing the way he has. Additionally, the overall foot speed, or lack thereof, is going to give them problems on a lot of nights.
For some reason, heading into the season a sizeable number of people thought Evgeni Malkin was cooked despite having 50 points in 68 games. Certainly not up to his standard, but also not the point total of someone who is cooked. I think this led to people maybe giving Brazeau a little too much credit for his start. It was still Malkin doing the heavy lifting.
Since returning, Brazeau is 44.87 xGF% at 5v5 and has zero points. This slow start coming off the injury doesn’t mean Brazeau can’t still help the Penguins. It just means he might need different deployment, especially without Malkin as his center, and certainly not with Kevin Hayes.
Help on the way
There is some really good injury news to pass along this morning. The Penguins will be getting one of their best forwards back in the lineup after a long absence. Rickard Rakell has been cleared and has been removed from IR
Rakell has played some center for the Penguins so they could feasibly put him at the second line center spot.
My guess is that Dan Muse will slot Rakell back on the Sidney Crosby line with Bryan Rust and move Tommy Novak to the second line center position.
Either option is a better one than what the Penguins are currently rolling out there. It is really nice to see Rakell ready to go.
Pittsburgh will host Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks tomorrow night. A game they must have.
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