Bruins 3 Pens 1
Goals: Cooke (6) from Vitale
Top 3:
1) Joe Vitale. When Vitale originally made the roster out of training camp, supposedly for his faceoffs, I didn’t expect anything near the type of play we saw from him tonight. He had a great game in every facet. He went 6 for 9 in faceoffs, blocked 2 shots, picked up a couple of takeaways, and set up the only Penguins goal. On top of it, he fought Greg Campbell shortly after the Penguins scored, getting the mostly listless crowd completely fired up. Park’s injury was a blessing in disguise to get Vitale in the lineup, he earned it tonight.
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| Spark plug of the game. |
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2) Matt Cooke. Something about Boston just brings out the physicality in Cooke. Though he has turned down his hitting game a bit this season, he came up with a team high 5 hits against the Bruins. His play on the penalty kill was superb as usual where he came up with a takeaway and deflected a couple of passes. He then added the Penguins only goal on a great setup from Vitale. Cooke played solid all around in this one.
3) Sidney Crosby. Though he didn’t get on the score sheet, I felt Crosby had a decent game when you take into account that he had to go against Chara for much of the night. He took an unusually high percentage of the team’s faceoffs (31 out of 75) and won just over half of them. He also managed 5 shots on net, getting a couple very good chances that Thomas was just flat out better on. The biggest disappointment was that he couldn’t help the Pens powerplay click, but that goes well beyond being his fault.
Bottom 3:
1) Matt Niskanen. Niskanen’s increase in minutes over the past few games (due to injuries) has led to frequent misplays and some downright awful defense at times. The Bruins powerplay goal was solely Niskanen’s fault, as he completely misplayed the man and the puck, letting up a 2 on 1 that turned into an easy one-timer goal. He has seen his penalty kill and powerplay time fall, getting less than a minute on each tonight, which makes him less useful than one would like when half the defense is hurt.
2) Simon Despres. Despres finally looked his age in this one, which is really a testament to how well he has played in his first 2 NHL games. Boston’s forwards attacked Despres frequently, forcing him to turn the puck over twice behind his own net and also to take 2 minor penalties. He looked completely outmatched against Boston. Luckily, this should be the toughest test he faces this season, and things will go up from here for him.
3) Jordan Staal. For this game, I’ll blame it on the visor, but Staal looked quite off tonight. He had trouble handling the puck frequently, even when he was completely alone with it. Staal was wearing a visor to protect his swollen and stitched up nose after he took a puck to the face on Saturday. I’m not sure how tough it is to go from no visor to visor, but Staal’s play indicated that it is a rough transition for him. He was only 35% on faceoffs and just generally played a much a lower level than we have gotten used to this season.
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| Safety vs. Playing Well, I'll understand if you choose the latter, Jordan. |
Injury Report:
- Brian Strait (elbow) is 2-4 weeks away.
- Ben Lovejoy (wrist) will be out for about 2-4 weeks as well.
- Dustin Jeffrey is on the IR as he rehabs his knee
- Steve MacIntyre is on the IR for a lingering upper body injury
- Kris Letang has been diagnosed with a concussion and was placed on the IR
- Zbynek Michalek was also diagnosed with a concussion and is out indefinitely
- Deryk Engelland sat out and is day to day with a lower body injury
- Jordan Staal played with a visor after receiving about 8 stitches around his nose
- Richard Park sat out and is day to day with a lower body injury
Random Notes:
- Tyler Kennedy and Evgeni Malkin both attempted 10 shots each, leading the Penguins onslaught of shots in an effort to boost Thomas’s save percentage.
- Asham only played 7 shifts for 4:58. Despite the low amounts, he still managed to be a -2 as the Bruins depth really attacked the 4th line.
Random Thoughts:
- Brad Marchand slew-footed Niskanen, leading to their fight in the 2nd period. Shanahan better take a good look at that one since it was a flat out dirty play.
- The Bruins had a goal waived off due to incidental contact with the goalie and had a goalie interference penalty later on. Meanwhile, Crosby and Vitale both had run-ins with Thomas late in the game. The protection of goalies is going to turn into a very interesting topic quickly.
- As I hit on after last game, the Penguins continue to take a high number of low percentage shots. It’s great for boosting opposing goalie stats, and not much else.
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| Stay in the blue paint, Fleury. |
Takeaways:
1) 5 on 3s. The Penguins had 3:10 of 5 on 3 powerplay time. It resulted in 3 shots that actually got to Thomas and 0 goals. For 1:10 of that time, Norris candidate Zdeno Chara was off of the ice. This type of failure is flat out inexcusable for a Cup contender. The Penguins looked indecisive and flat out lazy as no one moved around the net. It’s amazing how this team is stronger with 4 on 3’s than 5 on 3’s, it’s almost as if there is too much talent and too many options on the ice. Whatever the problem is, the Penguins need to fix it fast if they want to compete as they should.
2) Transition Game. Many people blame the losses of Michalek, Letang, and Engelland to injuries as the reason why the Penguins lost this one. Do people realize how that affects the team though? Defense is not so much the issue. The transition game to the offensive side has suffered greatly though. Michalek is an expert and long , breakout passes. Letang fluidly skates the puck from behind his net to behind the opposing net. Meanwhile, Engelland has recently gotten the handle of skating the puck to the blue line and letting everyone get in the zone and set up. Take away all of these abilities, and you end up with Orpik turning it over in the neutral zone and Boston coming back into the zone with the puck to make it a 2-0 lead. It also takes away from any quick shots the Penguins could get in transition that might surprise a goalie like Thomas. This is going to be the biggest issue for the Pens to deal with during these injuries.
3) Realignment. The Penguins kept their Atlantic Division foes, and have added Carolina and Washington to their conference under the new realignment into 4 “conferences.” They now play every other team twice, and every team in the conference 5 or 6 times. Personally, I think realignment will be a lot of fun for the Pens, and will help out the West teams greatly. My next post will tackle this issue further.
Pens Record: 16-8-4, 36 pts.
Goals For: 86
Goals Against: 69
PP %: 18% (20 for 114)
PK %: 89% (86 for 97)
Next Game: 12/8 @ Phi, 7pm LET’S GO PENS!!!
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