It was an entertaining game on Tuesday. There were twists and turns. However, the Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision after losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout.
The Flyers deserved to win the game and earn the two points. This was a game where the Penguins weren’t very good at even-strength and were also bad on the power play. Arturs Silovs was the only reason the Penguins were even in a position to steal the loser point.
Fun but flawed process
The Penguins have been a super fun team to watch for the majority of the young season. It has been a great blend of the superstar veterans playing like it is ten years ago and having young promising faces in the lineup. Combine that with some of the best goaltending this season and you can get some really good results, and they have.
However, there is not a lot of room for error if the goals and goaltending dry up. Three out of the last four games the Penguins have been markedly bad at 5v5. Here are the xGF% results from the most recent four games
Living in the 30’s is bad business. It puts the onus on your team’s PDO to be sky high otherwise things look a lot like they did last year. Now that was a really boring season with mediocre at best 5v5 play and pretty bad goaltending.
That hasn’t been the case at all this year. The team has been a great watch so far this year and the Penguins have won the majority of their games. It is OK to acknowledge the PDO isn’t likely sustainable and it has been a great time watching the team so far.
PDO feelings
PDO is an awesome drug. When the numbers are high things feel great. When the numbers are low and xGF% is good, it is like having the next day completely free to sleep it off. However, when PDO and xGF% are low it feels like having the worst hangover ever and still having to go to work the next day.
The glass half full look is that this is a recent trend and they just finished playing three games in four nights. Earlier results in the year haven’t been poor like this. Overall, they are a 48.43 xGF% team with the recent stretch dragging them below the 50% mark where they had been for the entire season.
They don’t play again until Thursday when they visit the Wild. This should give them a few days to get their legs back and hopefully start getting back to better 5v5 play.
Silovs steals a point
The only reason the Penguins earned anything tonight is because of Arturs Silovs excellent play. He stopped 32 out of 34 shots for a .941 save percentage. Silovs felt like he needed to take it upon himself to buy his team time, and he did.
Arturs Silovs has a .919 save percentage this year and thus far is making the most of his latest NHL opportunity.
The only warts in Silovs game have been shootouts. He has been scored on five out of the last six attempts and he is getting beat clean. It can be frustrating to lose the shootouts, but if the trade off is him playing well enough to steal games then so be it. If the league ever created a roster spot for a goaltending specialist I would sign Marc-Andre Fleury to play in shootouts only.
Captain gets one late
It wasn’t a great night for Sidney Crosby for most of the game. He finished the night with a 27.62 xGF%. However, the greats don’t need much more than a moment. Crosby got a grimy fortuitous bounce on a bad angle goal from behind the net. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
Unfortunately, he was not available for the shootout. He and Trevor Zegras earned themselves 10 minute misconducts towards the end of overtime.
It isn’t the first time those two have had words with one another
With tonight’s goal Crosby is now up to eight on the year and is tied for second place overall in the league.
Be more flexible with the lines
Dan Muse has pushed a lot of the right buttons so far this year. He commands the respect of the team and they are overperforming expectations. However, there is one area where I’d like to see some changes.
Late in games when the team is chasing a goal or on nights where there are tired legs I’d like to see him toy around with some different combinations mid-game.
If they are going to keep Ben Kindel around he is exactly the type of player you can ask to jump up in certain game situations to play with other top six players. Instead of keeping Filip Hallander on the top line while you need a goal, let Kindel take a few shifts there. You can always bump Tommy Novak to center and let Hallander play wing on the third line.
You could also choose to absolutely load up with Malkin-Crosby-Rust which still leaves Koivunen and Kindel to play with one of Hallander, Novak, Mantha, or Brazeau.
Different game situations demand different skillsets. This is an untapped area for Muse and one that could potentially be beneficial.
ESPN continues to fail viewers
One of the more disappointing things during the season is when you find out that ESPN is carrying a Penguins game and there are no Canadian alternatives to bail you out. ESPN continues to fail its viewers with a myriad of mistakes.
Towards the end of the overtime period producers felt like the viewer would be best served by making it a split screen for the finish of Penguins and Flyers while showing the beginning of the Capitals and Stars. This served nobody. What makes it crazier is they put it back on to a full screen when the action in Philadelphia was over showing the players walking off the ice. Like… what?
ESPN also makes a big deal out of their Frozen Frenzy night when they force every single team to play on a Tuesday night. They run a weak version of the NFL Red Zone with John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes which makes it dead on arrival. John is permanently stuck using vernacular you would find at a middle school lunch table while Kevin Weekes’ authenticity is that of a house flipped by a bad contractor. The broadcast is only interested in giving the look of something functional while being completely hollow and unrewarding for someone watching.
They are not the worldwide leader in hockey, that much is for sure.
Personally, I like Weekes. Buccigross can kick rocks. I am not sure what you have against Weekes but I feel he is fun to listen to. Penguins 5v5 has been struggling lately. Hallander is not the answer on the top line.