The Penguins kicked off their season last night where it ended the year previously. The Penguins team that surprised the hockey world and made its way into the playoffs last year didn’t show up until it was too late in the playoffs. Something tells me, this did not sit well with them over the last six months.
The first started off innocent enough, teams getting their legs under them and what not. Then, the Philadelphia fans erupted as Rasmus Ristolainen laid out Sidney Crosby in the offensive zone. While they were still on their feet gurgling on their snot, Crosby played the role of the most famous athlete in the city as he got off the mat, made his way to the corner, snagged a puck and shouted “Yo Adrian” as he slanged a pass to Kris Letang who found Nick Robertson who put the fans back in their seats.
Nick Robertson (1) Assisted by Letang (1) & Crosby (1) @ 7:26
Despite booing him every time he touches the puck over the last 22 years, this was the 140th point Sidney Crosby has notched against the Flyers. Good hit though, Rasmus.
Three minutes later the Pens would get a power play on a Jamie Drysdale holding penalty. New look power play looked new, nothing happening. Following the advantage both teams exchanged chances but nothing too exciting. Letang did turn a puck over in his own zone that resulted in a Flyers shot on goal, some things never change.
During an innocent line change, Kaeden Korczak dropped the puck off to Sam Girard. Girard looked up and saw a splitting Ville Koivunen. He hit him with a beautiful leading pass at the blue line and slick Ville willy made Vladar look silly nilly.
VILLE KOIVUNEN (1) Assisted by GIRARD (1) & KORCZAK (1) @ 15:44
Nothing else happened in the first. The Penguins looked solid, there was minimal awkwardness between new line pairings.
Following the intermission the Flyers came out with a bit of pressure. I’m not checking the fancy stats, but maybe there was one high risk scoring opportunity that Silovs was there for. The broadcast spent an under comfortable amount of time during this period talking about and showing Rick Tocchet, now dawning a mustache and looking more like a weatherman. Hopefully he was predicting a flood warning.
After an innocent-enough save by Vladar, both teams circled around the net and Porter Martone, who sounds like a poorly thought out Sopranos character that was supposed to rival Tony at some point but ended up choking on a ham sandwich in season 2 took a stupid cross-checking penalty during the scrum. The power play went to work, the firs unit looked pretty good but couldn’t get anything to drop. The second unit came on, and Vladar either doesn’t read scouting reports or can’t read, because he did not respect the shot of Mr. 101.
EVGENI MALKIN (1) Assisted by Lapierre (1) & Novak (1) PPG @ 5:03
Give and go from Geno to Lapierre, great way for Malkin to take what was given to him. You have to love the shoot first mentality from Geno here as well. Vladar played that about as well as a rec league goalie would’ve. Slick shot by Geno.
That was pretty much the end for the Flyers. Two minutes later the Pens were in their defensive zone, Declan Carlile sent a puck up ice that was batted down by Filip Hallander…. Jimi Hendrix Lapierre slickly received the pass and broke into the zone. It was a two on one but he went for the solo.
HENDRIX LAPIERRE (1) Assisted by Hallander (1) & Carlile (1) @ 7:26
Lapierre is French for silky. Beautiful reception and again with the shot first mentality. Opportunities from transition play are very exciting to see. Before the Flyers fans could comprehend what was happening, the Penguins were in the zone again. Korczak sent a puck to the net, a scrum broke out, and Filip Hallander found the trash and sent it in with the garbage.
FILIP HALLANDER (1) Assisted by Kordak (2) & Girard (2) @ 10:23
This is laughably bad by the Flyers. After the initial shot goes to goal, they all whack at the rebound without taking any accountability for a single Penguins player. Unless they were to get a stick on that puck, this was always going to result in at least one follow up chance. Good night for Hallander.
Nick Robertson somehow got a boarding penalty at the 12 minute mark after what looked like a routine check. The Flyers power play was donuts. Somehow the Penguins didn’t score again in the second period. 5-0 Pens.
About 50% of me expected a Flyers push, 2 quick goals and a dragged out 5-3 Pens win. 10% of me thought they would fully collapse and break my heart. 39% felt they would pack it in and produce a boring third period. 1% felt the Pens would stay on the gas. Dan Muse is that 1%, he had the boys ready to play.
The Pens had about 18 seconds of power play time to start the period but that ticked by. Carlile was called for interference at 4:26 and the Flyers took their man advantage out amongst a chorus of boos from the home crowd. The Penguins had the best looks of that Flyers power play. Fortunately for the Penguins, Connor Dewar was called for interference six minutes later and the Flyers went back to their power play. Again met with boos from the crowd, the Pens continued having the best looks, and eventually Hallander hit up Robertson who let Vladar make it 6-0.
NICK ROBERTSON (2) Assisted by Hallander (2) SHG @ 11:52
UNGDITOR’S NOTE: Looks like the media didn’t want to embarrass Vladumbass any more than he had already embarrassed himself. Can’t find the video, but I can still see the play in my head. #hardasglass (ask Jovi)
The importance of getting the puck out of the zone. Nifty sweep by Hallander and Robertson stuck with it, just a back-breaking goal here on a night where nothing went well for Philly after the Ristolainen hit.
The game should’ve been over, but Travis Konecny is punk and took a really dumb roughing penalty. As he was leaving for the penalty box he took a little slash to the back of Sids legs. For once the broadcast called something right, in normal situations the Pens may have put alternate players out there, but after that Muse loaded up unit one. A big addition to unit one in the off season was adding Egor Chinakhovs sniper rifle. He didn’t use said missile here, but made a sweet deflection of a Karlsson blast.
EGOR CHINAKHOV (1) Assisted by Karlsson (1) & Rakell (1) PPG @ 16:37
What more can you want from a power play? Two goals in the game, good puck movement and a shoot first mentality.
The Penguins did not score again, leaving Dan Vladar with a .816 save percentage in game one of his new contract.
- All off season we read multiple articles about Kyle Dubas’s slow summer. That slow summer produced 3 goals and several assists in the opener. Turns out the man getting paid to do the job is better at said job than those getting paid to write about it.
- Speaking of which, Nick Robertson was fantastic. Seeing 14 on Sids wing again just feels right. Assuming he will drop down to the third line when Rust eventually returns, if her a continue playing with that edge on a third line? Wow.
- Silovs did what he needed to do, he only had 19 saves, and though shutouts are not easy to come by, this may have been the easiest shutout of his career
- Sam Girard and Trevor Van Riemsdyk led the defense in minutes (21:02 and 20:42) while Letang had 18:44 and Karlson 19:59. Karlssons total inflated with power play minutes, but I really like this distribution.
- Interestingly, Hallander had the least amount of ice time at 10:55 but finished with the most points. He had nearly 2 fewer minutes on ice than the next lowest player (Soderblom with 12:39)