BOSTON — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse showed his angry teacher side Tuesday as the Penguins started terribly and struggled throughout the game to overcome the results of their poor start and generate offensive pressure.
The Penguins gave up a pair of goals just 50 seconds apart early in the first period, and that was the difference in a 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins Tuesday at TD Garden.
The worst part was that the players knew the boards were an extra bit lively at the Garden. Players admitted they talked about it after the morning skate. Yet, they still gave up a pair of glorious chances in the first 20 seconds following their spectator defense on Marat Khusnutdinov, who had an uncovered point-blank chance before the game was 10 seconds old.
Those were issues and problems that have nothing to do with missing centers Sidney Crosby and Blake Lizotte, though their absences were felt in other ways.
Muse called his only timeout after the second goal, which Casey Mittlestadt scored at 6:00 of the first period. When asked about the timeout, Muse talked about the message during the stoppage, and then continued with everything the Penguins weren’t doing and didn’t do, his voice sharp with a deep base and a flat tone conveying an angry coach.
“Yeah, we just had to reset and get to work. (The message was) we can’t change it now. But, we have to play a much better brand of hockey,” said Muse. “I thought we were just disjointed. (We lacked) support defensively. I thought we were giving them–I think on both goals, they’re just breakdowns and (we were) just not in the right spot, or we end up doubling up on one.
“And so you’re not going to be perfect on a given night, each team gets chances, but I just didn’t like the types of chances that we were giving up, and how many and how often they were happening early in the game.”
It seemed the Penguins never really pushed Boston in the offensive zone. The Penguins had possession, especially in the latter second period and third, but didn’t force goalie Jeremy Swayman to make enough difficult saves. Compounding the Penguins’ difficulty puncturing the Boston defensive clog, they won just 33% of the faceoffs, losing 32 of 48 (scorers updated the tally well after the game).
“Yeah, they’ve been down quite a bit. I mean, that’s obvious. You can’t use (absences) as an excuse. Keep working with the centers, keep looking at things,” Muse said. “Those guys are putting in the work. I know that we’re going to, we’ve gotta, we’ve gotta win more faceoffs by committee. You know, we can ugly it up. We can get the wingers in there and get help, and even off of that, if we do lose (the faceoff), I thought we needed to get better pressure off of the losses.”
An Angry Muse:
Penguins Analysis
The Penguins were awful in faceoffs all night, but it’s not just about who wins the puck drop. Success is also achieved with aggressive pursuit, contact, and fighting for possession. The centers were awful, but so, too, were the wingers in creating a forecheck push or pressure following the 32 losses.
Evgeni Malkin took eight faceoffs–he hasn’t taken more than four in a long time, and he lost six. Ben Kindel has a 46% faceoff win rate, but he lost nine of 12. Kevin Hayes, who drew into the lineup for the injured Blake Lizotte, lost all five that he took.
The only Penguins pivot to win more than he lost was Tommy Novak, who won six of 11.
The lack of possession meant the Penguins had to play 200 feet. They had to enter and re-enter the Boston zone against a team very happy to cover the middle of the ice like slip covers over grandma’s furniture, and take away chances, rather than push for more.
Boston made their zone quicksand, and the Penguins sank in it.
“I think, especially a team like (Boston), if you get behind early, they’re just going to sit back, and they’re going to clog things up even more,” Muse said. “That’s what you saw for a lot of the game. And yeah, (our game) wasn’t good enough.”
The start was a killer. Letang watched Khusnutdinov skate past. Boston executed their set play to perfection after winning the opening faceoff. The unfolding action was a microcosm of the Penguins’ struggles.
It was not entirely a lost cause for the Penguins. They hit three posts and had a couple of breakaways, any one of which could have changed the game.
Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson was quite good Tuesday. After shedding his defenders in the third period, he was able to tee up a perfect shot, low glove, on Swayman, but the Boston goalie made it one of his 34 saves.
Rickard Rakell, who centered the top line for the first three games out of the Olympic break in the absence of Sidney Crosby, slid back to his customary wing position against Boston. He had a few ideas on how the team needed to overcome both the Boston clog and themselves, too.
“We had the looks to score more goals. It was there for us, but we just couldn’t seem to find it,” said Rakell. “But obviously, we’re going to work really hard, but it’s going to be some ugly games where we have to score all the goals; we have some injured players, so we have to find different ways to win games.
Penguins Report Card
Team: C+
The Penguins were not lifeless or abjectly terrible. They were disjointed, struggling like a team underwater without their top center Sidney Crosby, and their integral fourth-line pivot Blake Lizotte. Not only did the team win only 34% of the faceoffs through two periods, but they grappled with the basics of connecting on clean passes, finding the open spot, and winning key puck battles that would have pushed them to the next level.
It was a team wrestling with itself, with one arm tied behind its back.
Stuart Skinner: A
The pair of Boston goals in the first period could succinctly be blamed on blown defensive coverages. For a moment, Skinner may have felt he was back in Edmonton. The big goalie kept the Penguins in the game even when they seemed determined not to be. He stopped 21 of 23 after 40 minutes.
By comparison, Arturs Silovs had a 22-save shutout vs. Vegas on Sunday.
Erik Karlsson: A
He was the only Penguins player really on his game. The neat little spins, the one-man breakouts, the blue line moonwalks, and sneaky passes into the scoring areas were all there.
Kris Letang: B+
If you zoomed out and looked at the statistics and the on-ice results, one might conclude that Letang was decidedly not good. He again had a negative Corsi, while he and partner Sam Girard are still workshopping their pairing. However, the number of little plays, including strong stands at the offensive blue line and tight gaps to disrupt Boston rushes in the neutral zone, showed well.
Egor Chinakhov-Tommy Novak-Evgeni Malkin: Disjointed
Cutting to the chase, Malkin had the puck on his stick an awful lot, but he looked frustrated. There was a moment in the second period when he didn’t connect with Novak in the defensive zone, and the head tilt and look were telling.
Malkin’s future is being decided amongst Penguins management, and there was to be a meeting between him and GM Kyle Dubas this week. After Malkin voiced his frustration following the shootout loss to the New York Rangers Saturday, he was obviously not “Happy Geno” on Tuesday.
Take it for what you will.
Egor Chinakhov passed up far too many shots. The Russian with the wicked wrista had a few on his stick but chose passes. None of those players was the right decision.
Novak wasn’t able to assert himself on the muddy track. He had a couple of good looks, but it was Malkin driving the offensive entries and puck possession.
Ben Kindel: Education
Tuesday was not Kindel’s best game, either. He wasn’t flat, and he certainly wasn’t bad, but it was his mistake that led to the first goal. He didn’t switch with Sam Girard, and they both covered Michael Eyssimont. Kindel needed to hold his position to take Khusnutdinov, who then took advantage of the easy path to the goal.
Kindel wasn’t able to drive enough offense with Rakell and Bryan Rust.
Notables
Justin Brazeau played only nine minutes (9:04). Muse had to downgrade his usage of the third line centered by Kevin Hayes because it was not effective, but Brazeau was largely invisible. Rather than finding other situations as he did for Anthony Mantha, Muse took away his ice time.
Kevin Hayes played only 7:26. Great guy. Tuesday was only his fourth game since the holiday break, and it looked like it. He just doesn’t have his legs.
The Penguins might consider recalling a center, perhaps a 23-year-old from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Tristan Broz), if Lizotte is going to remain out for more than a game or two.
Categorized:Penguins Analysis
