There Was a Game Today? Pens lose.

Main Storylines:

- The big buzz of the morning is certainly James Neal’s new 6 year, $30 million extension!  Check out the previous post on the left for my thoughts on that.

- Brent Johnson gets the start today in Buffalo.  His career numbers against Buffalo are pretty bad, 6-4 with a 3.60 GAA and .873 Save %.  But, Buffalo is pretty awful right now as well.

I don't expect you to get a shutout...but I expect you to finish the game.

- Buffalo has allowed 5 powerplay goals in their last 3 games.  If the game is called anything like yesterday’s 6-4 win over the Flyers, that could be the key matchup in this game.

Result:

Sabres  6  Pens  2

Goals:  Engelland (3) from Malkin

            Staal (19) (PP) from Neal, Sullivan

               

The Good:

- Special Teams:  Despite losing 6-2, the Pens managed to go 1 for 4 on the PP and 5 for 5 on the PK.  Sadly, that couldn’t make up for piss poor play during the rest of the game (including a shorthanded goal allowed)

Zbynek Michalek – Z was the only defenseman that didn’t screw up at some point during this game.  Despite his blueline mates being awful, Michalek played a strong and dependable game, blocking 7 shots and playing through 6:31 of the 8 minutes of powerplay time the Sabres had.  His game has been very steady over the past couple weeks, though the team defense has disappeared.

The Bad:

- The Pens let up 2 goals in the first period for the 4^th time in 5 games.  A Cup contender does not continually put themselves in that hole, regardless of where the fault lies between defense and goaltending.

Missing:  Defense.  Please notify if found. 

Brooks Orpik – The first 2 goals were on him (though Johnson shared credit on the 2^nd one).  Orpik missed his coverage on Pominville for the first one, giving him all day to beat Johnson.  On the 2^nd goal, he let Dreek Roy go past him to throw a backhander past Johnson.  It was hardly the start the Pens wanted.  He was steady after the first period, but the damage was done.

Kris Letang – Letang just couldn’t seem to be bothered with playing defense today.  I put this largely on the fact that the Pens fell behind so quickly, but Letang was out of position for much of the game, most frequently too far in the offensive zone.  He finished the game with a -4 and only played 18:52 in this game, the least we have seen him play in a while.

The Ugly:

- How about letting up 6 goals to Buffalo?  Or the whole game?

Brent Johnson – The defense surely deserves a lot of blame in this, but Johnson’s 2^nd goal was very weak, and he doesn’t inspire confidence in pretty much anyone at this point.  Fleury has already played a lot of games, more than one would like, and if Johnson can’t spell Fleury for a solid 7 or 8 more games this season comfortable, the Pens may have to look into another back up.  Calling up Thiessen isn’t out of the question.  Remember – the year the Pens won the Cup, they ditched Sabourin as a backup and picked up Garon to do it.  It’s not out of the question right now.

Paul Martin  - I try to defend him when I can, but his play was bench worthy today.  He was also a -4 today, though much more directly at fault for the Sabres goals.  He completely missed his coverage on 3 of the goals, giving the Sabres all the time in the world to make perfect plays.  He was caught behind the SABRES net 3 times as 2 on 1s broke the other way, but he got lucky and none of them turned into goals.  Martin’s play at this point just brings down his partner (see: Orpik and Letang who were paired with him at times today, and Michalek who wasn’t).  Lovejoy shouldn’t be on the bench for this.

Martin skating away from a goal celebration...not a rare picture.

Thoughts:

- For as nice as the win over Philly was yesterday, today pretty much wasted it.  The Pens have to beat the bad teams to make a move in the standings, and a game like this is pretty much unacceptable.  The one nice thing is you know they will be very fired up for the Rangers on Tuesday

- The team defense has been incredibly inconsistent over the past month, something we aren’t used to seeing with Bylsma’s team.  They’ve allowed at least 4 goals in 4 outta the past 7 games, that needs to change.  Fundamental coverages are being missed in front of the net.  Offense is fun, but the D needs to go back to basics.

- The first line is starting to cool off again, not just in production, but largely in chances created.  It's just an observation for now, but it will be interesting to see over the coming weeks how teams continue to defend Malkin's line.  The last 3 opponents have done a great job of it.

Teams are checking Malkin and Neal tightly, time to make adjustments.

Pens Record: 33-21-5, 71 pts, 3^rd in the Atlantic, 5^th in the East

Next Game:  2/21 vs NYR, 7pm