So recap, here we go. UGH. Does that suffice as a recap? 18,507 people got together for a Consol Energy Center record crowd on a beautiful Friday for playoff hockey. 18,507 people were subsequently part of the largest disappointed crowd in Consol history.
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| The Penguins thank you for attending, even though they did not show up. |
Tampa started off the scoring 2 minutes into the game, as Kris Letang made an ill-advised pinch at the offensive blue line, leaving Orpik to defend a 2 on 1 with Eric Brewer coming down the left side. Rather than passing it, Brewer decided to just fire the puck and beat Fleury glove side to give Tampa a 1-0 lead. The Pens received a powerplay shortly thereafter, but I don't need to recap that as we all know they didn't score and seemingly never will score a powerplay goal. Jordan Staal took a boarding penalty about a minute later, and the Lightning scored on their powerplay as Vincent Lecavalier put one past Fleury during a scramble in front of the crease.
Down 2-0, the Penguins knew there was no margin for error. This team hasn't been able to score many goals, and a 3-0 deficit would surely be too big of a mountain to climb. And yet, there was the defense making ill-advised mistakes again. With 3 minutes left in the first, Paul Martin decided to get caught pinching, sending the Lightning on another 2 on 1. Steve Downie took a shot, which Fleury made the initial pad save on, but the rebound went directly to Nate Thompson who fired it into a wide open net. It was a bad rebound to give up and even worse that there was no defender in sight to help out.
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| Damn you Mother nature |
There was pretty much nothing positive to say at the end of the first. The Penguins looked terrible, barely testing Roloson, the defense couldn't play defense or offense, and Fleury looked shaky in giving up 3 (though you have to factor in the two 2 on 1s). The second period was a completely different story for 19:46 of play.
The Penguins came out in the 2nd period as a completely different team, led by the line of Asham-Adams-Rupp. The team was winning every puck battle, wearing down Tampa deep in the offensive zone, and controlled the puck for the most of the period. There were a couple of powerplay chances, but those were a couple of failures as usual. Finally, Craig Adams put the Pens on the board as Dwayne Roloson went out to play a puck that ended up in the no-play zone. Roloson was handcuffed and Asham got the puck to the front of the net. The puck bounced to an open Adams in the slot, who buried it to make it 3-1.
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| I bet his kid cures cancer. |
The crowd was back into it, the Penguins believed, and the team moved into an even more dominating style of play. The biggest issue was they could not finish (or even get many shots) off of their puck possession. Letang, Martin, and Michalek all failed to control passes at the blue line with no pressure on them, inevitably slowing down the Penguins' attack. Orpik then took a cross-checking penalty with 20 seconds left in the period. After a period of domination, the Lightning put a dagger into the Penguins on the powerplay. Martin St. Louis shot the puck across the goal line as Fleury left his post, and the puck banked in off of Fleury to give Tampa a 4-1 lead. The goal was a back breaker and took the crowd and team completely out of the game.
The third period was clearly for show only. The Penguins failed on another pair of powerplays and never managed to get the spark of the 2nd period back. Mattias Ohlund capped off the scoring when the Penguins pulled Fleury with 3 minutes left, while on the powerplay. Ohlund sent a wrister from his own blue line to score a short handed empty netter and make it 5-1 Tampa. Game over.
3 Stars:
#3 - St. Louis (1g, 1a)
#2 - Gagne (0g, 3a)
#1 - Brewer (1g, 2a)
Notes/Thoughts:
- The powerplay is now 0 for 13 in the series. A powerplay goal at any point in any game for the Penguins will be game changing and maybe series changing. I'd honestly rather they practice that for a full session rather than any other drill, especially with Tampa's style of standing 4 at the blue line to stop them.
- James Neal continues to draw penalties, play great in the defensive end, and pretty much do everything right...except for put the puck in the net. Neal came over for his finishing ability, not the rest of his game. He's going to have to score (on the powerplay maybe?) for the Penguins to go anywhere in the playoffs.
- A bad game for Fleury, but I refuse to place all of the blame on him. A horrible game for the defense trumps it. At no point should I be thinking that Lovejoy and Niskanen are the best 2 defensemen in a game, and yet that's what happened.
- Letang and Martin both played the worst games I have seen them play in months, since the very start of the season. Not the time for one of them to do that, let alone both. Their cold streaks hurt the powerplay as much as anything, along with the defense.
Game 3 on Monday. Expect something very low scoring as defense and low risk plays will be the focus going to Tampa Bay. LET'S GO PENS!!
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