PHILADELPHIA — A sense of elation was quickly followed by a sense of determined calm in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ dressing room. The joy of winning Game 4 faded fast into thoughts of Game 5 and the challenge, nay, opportunity that lies ahead.
Seemingly every answer given in the postgame room finished with a reference to doing it again Monday in Game 5.
There is a little reason for optimism. A 3-1 series deficit differs greatly from a 3-0 deficit, especially when the next game is at home, when coach Dan Muse gets the last change, and the Penguins are beginning to dial into what is necessary.
“(Game 4) was a good step in terms of getting to our game. I don’t think we’re not fully there yet. I think we can–there’s always going to be going back and looking at the things that we can do better,” said coach Dan Muse Sunday morning. “We always want to be looking at the things that we like from a game, and we want to carry with us. And I think there was more in terms of us playing our game, but concurrently, I think we can be better without question. And so we need to continue to elevate.”
Somewhat surprisingly, in the Penguins’ best game of the series, the scoring chances were dead even (16-16), and the high-danger chances were barely in the Penguins favor (7-6). Yet the game seemed to be in the Penguins’ control for most of the 60 minutes.
3 Little Things to Like
As this space has harped upon for large portions of the season, the Penguins’ game begins with, and is often dictated by, their breakouts.
When they move the puck quickly and connect with the next level, everything else falls into place, from zone entries to their attitude.
“Obviously it’s a unit to break those pucks out. And thought we did a good job quickly supporting each other,” defenseman Parker Wotherspoon said. “Yeah, it was a good breakout night. Guys were moving their feet. I felt (we had) just a little bit more poise. Guys seem to settle in a little bit more.”
One immediate result of a better breakout is transitioning to attack faster than the Flyers can transition to trap. In other words, the first person to the table gets the first hand on the cornbread, and the Penguins were finally that team.
2. Dan Muse
The bellyaching about Muse not making adjustments was more painfully wrong than a crosscheck, a hair pull, or being kicked with a skate blade.
To wit, the Penguins’ breakouts have been markedly different and evolving through the series, and have been increasingly successful as Muse probes the Flyers’ blue line stack. There was the Game 2 double reverse–up the middle–and read breakout. In Game 3, before the penalty parade, the Penguins were able to drag a forward laterally on the blue line from strong side to weak side to engage the first level of the 1-1-3 and then getting the red line with quick tap passes to play a dump-and-chase game. And in Game 4, the breakouts were quick, but they were no longer using the center of the ice as much as the right wall and going forward.
The Penguins were able to execute quickly and spring into the offensive zone with genuine success along the right, which opened up the rest of the ice and other breakout options.
That doesn’t happen with a coach who isn’t making changes. Give Muse his deserved credit. He tried different lineup combinations, different goaltenders, and continued drawing up new ways to attack.
The NHL situation room might give Muse a raw deal, but Penguins fans should not.
3. Depth Grit
Fourth-line winger Noel Acciari, and defensemen Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea have been quite good for most of the series. Each has submitted some of their very best hockey of the season, and done so with a physical edge.
All three were quite good on the wall throughout the series, but especially in Game 4 when the Penguins took over pucks on the yellow.
“You know, you can’t be afraid to make mistakes. And knowing that if I’m stronger on wall battles … I know if I lose it, someone’s there to back me up and pick up the slack there,” said Noel Acciari. “We’re a little more desperate. If we lose a game, we go home, so we want to go as long as possible.”
Whether that means only through Game 5 of some magical comeback, those three are significant and unheralded pieces of the Penguins’ puzzle.
Wotherspoon and Shea have also been strong in getting the puck to the forwards on the breakouts.
Worry?
There are two worries for the Penguins, and even as both are under their control, each has proven to be a self-destructive vice which the team cannot avoid.
The power play woes are not about a lack of goals. In fact, the Penguins have power play tallies in each of the last two games. However, there was the shorthanded backbreaker in Game 2, the gift wrapped breakaways and odd-man rushes in Game 3, and more gift giving in Game 4. If not for spiffy saves by Stuart Skinner in three and Arturs Silovs in Game 4, the Flyers might have finished enough shorties to easily snuff out any Penguins hope.
The lax power play puck management has been extreme. And that’s being kind. It is one problem to have such a weak advantage as to cede moment, but it’s another entirely to essentially put the puck in your own net.
2. Assumption
The Pittsburgh Penguins assumed they were better than the Philadelphia Flyers. From dressing room conversations on and especially off the record, the Penguins viewed themselves as better, and the Round One series to be a strong matchup for them.
They played like they expected to win Game 1, and never really came close to being their best. They showed some emotion in Game 2, but again the entire vibe felt as if the Penguins were surprised they were losing; how could this be? Don’t worry it will change.
But it did not change.
The Penguins’ reaction to getting a lead in Game 3 was to immediately abandon their simple game. The only explanation was that the team played presumptuously, but of course, no, the Flyers did not submit to the Penguins’ expected reality.
Game 4 was the first time the Penguins were able to impose their will on the Flyers and the first time the game mattered more than emotion, as they maintained their poise and self-control.
In fact, the Penguins’ greatest enemy aside from a hot goalie or mischievous hockey gods delivering a wonky bounce, could be themselves and the expection of winning. They were much better playing a humble, honest game.
Categorized:Penguins Analysis
