After a 3-day break following the OT Victory vs Chicago on Saturday, the Penguins are taking on the Rangers at MSG. The Rangers managed to acquire Artemi Panarin from the BJs in the off-season because anywhere is better than being stuck in Ohio. The Rangers also managed to luck their way into the 2nd overall pick in the Draft after they only tanked well enough for 6th worst record last year. With this pick they drafted Kaapo Kakko Krappo Cock-o (Got ‘em), who seems to be trying to acquire all the Ks known to man.
At least in Shot Quantity, this is the best team in the league vs the worst team in the league.
The Rangers team is exceptionally average this year with a record of 7-6-2 and a goal differential of 0. They have also managed to go all the way from 6th worst in the league last year to 9th worst in the league this year.
No Crosby (boo). Lafferty is back (yay).
Bad PP
We won without Malkin, now we need to win without Sid.
Sounds like someone is hiding…
If you missed the beginning of the game, it’s ok because the Penguins did too. For the first several minutes, the Rangers had all the momentum and were burying the Penguins in the defensive end. Matt Murray was able to make a nice save and an even better follow up save from his back on a breakaway. The bad news was that he wasn’t able to stop Cock-o on the second breakaway that was given up. C-O-C-K-O and cock-o was his name-o. 1-0.
After this goal, the Penguins seemed to realize that the game had in fact started and evened out the play. They went to the powerplay, but didn’t have any good attempts (0-27). They then went back to the powerplay and the only thing of note was that BJugs was hit hard and was down flat on the ice for a few seconds, but managed to get back up and finish his shift. (0-28)
The Penguins finished out the period by giving up a goal to Adam Fox with 10 seconds left in the period. I’ll save everyone from having me try to make a fox pun. 2-0.
Not a great start to the game
The only good news is that the Penguins only seem to be able to win when they spot the opponents at least 2 goals to start. That is real sportsmanship.
The penguins came out in the second with a ton of energy. They were able to keep the puck in the Rangers zone for the first minute or so of the period. Malkin found Sergeant Schultz near the left dot who was able to walk in toward the net and score through some traffic. 2-1.
Justin Schultz (2) Assisted by Malkin(5) and Pettersson(5) @ 1:13
The game continued with the Penguins getting the better of the chances. On a rush, they drew a penalty. On the powerplay, something unexpected happened. Not the Penguins coming back from a multi goal deficit, that’s normal now (I guess). The Penguins scored. The first PP goal since October 13th. McCann sniped one over the shoulder of G-or-G-ev. 2-2
Jared McCann(6) Assited By Simon(8) @ 12:33
I feel we should pause here to think about the children who grew up and lived their whole life in a world never knowing a Penguins PP goal. Sad.
Nothing much happened the rest of the period. Kakko tried to steal the K from Skjei since he’s not using it.
5 minutes into the period, The Pens took a penalty. The first PP of the night for the Rangers. Good News: the penalty kill has been almost as good at not having goals scored as our Power Play. The PP was killed without any real opportunities.
The Penguins were getting a ton of pressure. At one point they kept the puck in the zone for about a minute straight and it resulted in Lafferty putting one off the post. This was immediately followed by Murray making an enormous save, followed by 1 or 2 more on the next shift along with Petterson stopping a puck from going in on a rebound.
With 4:10 to go in the period, Dumoulin was sent to the box for tipping our old friend Greg McEgg. This was not great timing considering how much momentum the Rangers had leading into the PP. However, this too was killed and the game returned to 5 on 5.
Dumoulin almost scored with 3 seconds left in the game, but he was stopped, and the Penguins were headed back to OT for the 4th time in 5 games.
McCann and Guentzel held the puck for over a minute between them and somehow kept it alive, but couldn’t get anything to go in. The Penguins managed to make a full change and keep the rangers from changing who were dead in their own zone. A bad pass from Dumoulin made its way past everyone and down to Murray. The Rangers were able to change all 3 players. Then on a rush from Malkin, he dropped the puck to the slot, where it was picked off by the Rangers, who scored on the 3 on 2. Kakko Taco 3-2. Final.
Thoughts
- Malkin and Rust together have been carrying the offense the past few games. They have been in on almost every goal for at least 3 games. Since Malkin has been back, his line has been almost as dominant as Crosby’s was to start the season.
- 1st team with 4 straight 2 goal comebacks in the NHL since 1989-90. It’s impressive, but not a great strategy for success.
- It’s not great losing to the Rangers, but at least we got a point out of it. Before the Edmonton game, we’d only lost games in regulation this season, so at least we can pick up some loser points.
- Schultz looks good, especially when he’s on the ice with Malkin. They seem to play well together. His pairing with Pettersson is a solid second pairing.
- The pass from Dumoulin to let the Rangers change in OT and Malkin’s drop to no one were not great.
BREAKING NEWS FLESH:
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