Given recent events, it was not a very positive feeling to go into tonight's game against the Rangers without Brooks Orpik. His absence meant the elevation of Paul Martin to the top pairing, and a little physical play with a tough Rangers team coming into the CEC. The Rangers, who are running away with the Eastern Conference were looking to avenge a home ice loss against Pittsburgh the last time these two teams played, and the Penguins were coming off of a horrid 6-2 loss to Buffalo, in which the defense looked porous. To add to the intrigue going into the game, the Penguins recalled both Eric Tangradi and Brad Thiessen from the WBS Penguins, making Dustin Jeffrey and Brent Johnson healthy scratches for the Pens. They added Tangradi to get some size into the lineup against a physical Rangers team, and they added Thiessen presumably due to the ineffective play of usually reliable backup netminder Brent Johnson. On to the game. The first period ended up in a 0-0 tie, despite the Penguins dominating zone time, and at times looking like they were on a power play even at 5 on 5. King Henry was his usual self, acting like a brick wall in the net. Early in the second period, the ice was broken. Off of an ill advised pass by Michael Del Zotto in the Penguins zone, Kris Letang intercepts the puck and springs Evgeni Malkin on a breakaway. Malkin held onto the puck, Lundqvist goes down, and Geno pops a backhander into the cage for his 33rd goal of the season at 1:05 of the second period, assisted by Letang (22) and Pascal Dupuis (21). Pens lead 1-0. Then at the 11:14 mark, Steve Sullivan connected on his 11th of the season, a power play goal, assisted by Evgeni Malkin (40), and Matt Cooke (13). The goal was Sullivan's first power play goal in 24 games, and Malkin's assist added to his league leading 73 points, 3 points ahead of Steven Stamkos and Claude Giroux. The game ended 2-0 as the Penguins played a complete 60 minute game, something we will need to see more of down the stretch. The shutout was Fleury's 3rd shutout of the season, and 22nd of his career, tying with Tom Barrasso for the most shutouts in Penguins history. It took Fleury 418 games to get his 22 shutouts, 20 less games than the 438 it took for Tom Barrasso. The Penguins improved to 19-0-2 when leading after two periods, and like Geno have 73 points. Some other notes and thoughts from the game.
Ben Lovejoy showed himself to be a valuable depth defenseman, stepping in and playing a solid game for the Pens. The game was BY FAR the best that either Paul Martin or Zybnek Michalek have looked in a long time. In Martin's case, the best he looked all season. Given the tough free agent market, we may have to hope that those two can use this game as a springboard to newfound confidence, and a return to form. Though he did not score in this game, I wanted to note that Jordan Staal has 19 goals in 40 games, a 38 goal pace. Not bad for a guy who "can't score" and is "only a third line center." Also, given the early season issues, it is important to note that since 1/13/12, the Penguins are 7-2 v playoff teams, and 4-0 against the top three teams in the Eastern Conference. As far as Geno, he has slowed a bit, but remains the league leader in points. Against Atlantic Division foes this season, Geno has 16 points, or 8 goals and 8 assists in 14 games. Also, after Duper missed a wide open cage that would have been a back breaker for the Rangers, I got to listen to some typical anti-Duper rhetoric from the fans in front of me. Well, think about this ladies and gents. Despite enduring a long stretch without scoring, and not getting time with Crosby this season, Duper is 4th on the team in scoring. That's right, FOURTH. He has 34 points thus far. He has 8 points in his past 14 games, including the game winning goal in Saturday's contest against Philadelphia. That would be his 5th game winner on the season, tying a career high set in the 2009-10 season. Does Dupes come up big? Consider that 13 of 48 of Dupers goals over the past 3 seasons have been game winners. That means that 27% of them qualify as game winning goals. That is BIG TIME. Pascal's 21 assists are the second most in his career,(28 is the most), and let's not forget his PK abilities. For 1.5M people drink a big tall glass of shut the fuck up when it comes to Duper hate. The Penguins have 7 players with double digit goals this season including Malkin (33), Neal (30), Staal (19), Kunitz (16), Dupuis (13), Cooke (11), and Sullivan (11). Cooke is heating up down the stretch with 9 points (4G-5A) in his past 12 games. Finally, special teams have been key for Pittsburgh. The Penguins power play has now scored goals in 8 times in the past 13 games, and during that span, the power play is clicking at just over 25%! The penalty kill is second in the league overall, and first on home ice. Over the last 8 home games the Penguins have killed off 23 of 25 opposition power plays or 92%, and during their last 16 games overall 50 of 53 opposition power plays or a litle better than 94%. Those numbers will win you some hockey games. Next up, another set of back to back matinees against Tampa and Columbus. Go Pens!
No comments:
Post a Comment