Main Storylines:
- SIDNEY CROSBY IS BACK!!! Easily the biggest headline. Here’s #2: KRIS LETANG IS BACK!!! On a lesser note, welcome Paul Martin back to the lineup as well. Crosby will start with Cooke and Kennedy. But I expect him to take the ice with pretty much everyone.
 |
| No more comeback games, okay? Just continue playing! |
- The Pens have won 9 in a row coming into this game, and are chasing the Rangers hard for 1st place in the conference. This is as big as games get in the regular season.
- This will be just the 7th time in the past 157 games that the Pens have Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Letang, and Fleury in the lineup.
Result:
Pens 5 Rangers 2
Goals: Cooke (13) from Kennedy
Malkin (39) from Neal
Cooke (14) from Kennedy, Staal
Kunitz (21) from Crosby, Neal
Dupuis (19) from Letang, Martin
The Good:
- Make it 10 in a row!!! The Pens gain 2 points on the Rangers. They are now 4 points behind New York, with one less game played and one more game against the Rangers ahead. This will be a tight race to the finish, and don’t look now, but the Flyers are right on the Penguins’ tails as well.
- Staal extended his career high points streak to 9 games with the assist on Cooke’s 2nd goal
Injury Returns: Crosby came back with an assist and a +3 in 16 minutes of ice time. He also was 11 for 21 on faceoffs. He was able to get into the gritty areas and take hits while showing no ill-effects. Let’s hope this continues more smoothly than last time. The bigger story tonight was probably Letang though. Letang put up a +5 and an assist in 24 minutes of ice time. He was superb tonight in the defensive end, especially when he was left out to dry for three 2 on 1’s against him, none of which ended in a goal. Oddly enough, adding 2 of the best players in hockey back to the lineup tends to be a good thing.
 |
| He didn't get much help, but he didn't need it. Letang was flawless. |
Marc-Andre Fleury – Flower made some simply defiant saves, to the point that it looked like he was teasing people. He made at least 4 saves while he was flat on the ground by getting his glove or blocker up just in time. He ended up stopping 29 of 31 shots and ensured that the Rangers would not get an easy goal to try for a comeback. As Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy put it: “John Mitchell, sitting alone in the corner, rocking back and forth chanting "Fleury... Fleury ..."”
Matt Cooke – What’s Sidney Crosby doing on the 3rd line? Wait, maybe it’s what’s Matt Cooke doing on the 3rd line? His first goal was simply odd and lucky as a blocked shot went off the crossbar, a Ranger, and in the net. His second was just beautiful chemistry from the line of Staal-Cooke-Kennedy. Gotta give Cooke credit, he really can adjust to any situation, defensively or offensively, to contribute to this team.
 |
| Cooke shouts as Crosby tries to cannibalize a goal from him. |
The Bad:
- I will give this one time, but at first glance the powerplay isn’t going to work out when it’s built as a hero line. All 5 players are tremendously talented and a line of Kunitz-Neal-Malkin-Crosby-Letang has more potential than any line you’ll see, but it doesn’t seem to have a leader. The nice thing about Sullivan at the point was he took control and quarterbacked the powerplay, allowing Letang to get into a shoot first mentality and the forwards to just do their jobs. With this set of 5, no one really takes control and it leads to many awkward and unselfish passes/questionable shots. We shall see how it evolves though. (0 for 4 tonight)
Orpik/Michalek – I had gotten so used to putting them under The Good section, but they simply couldn’t handle the matchup against Gaborik’s line tonight. They were frequently caught out of position and chasing that line around. The biggest problem with that matchup was simply pure speed as Michalek and Orpik don’t have that, but Gaborik and Hagelin can skate around anyone. It was a smart matchup for Tortorella to exploit rather than have his top line against a fleet-footed Letang.
The Ugly:
- Only one shift stuck out in my mind for this, and that was when Girardi, Boyle, and Prust all hit Malkin at various times, leading to Malkin trying to line up guys and missing. The Rangers clearly wanted to take a page out of the playbook entitled knock Malkin off of his game. He was solid tonight, so it didn’t work, but I hope he can be consistent with that as it will happen more and more through the playoffs.
Thoughts:
- Bylsma went nuts with the lines, basically trying every combination that was possible for 12 forwards on 4 lines. I imagine over the next week or so, we will see even more of that as Crosby gets back up to speed and the coaches look for who gels best together. Remember, Kunitz-Malkin-Neal and Sullivan-Staal-Dupuis are great together, but there is nothing that says another set of 3 can’t be better. Tonight showed me that Bylsma won’t be complacent with his hot lines, but will keep trying to improve, and that’s a great sign.
 |
| Just look at them, you can't keep Sid and Kunitz apart!!! |
- No Rangers really took a run at Crosby, which I was rather surprised by. I think if Callahan had been in the lineup, he probably would have been the one to pester Sid. New Jersey doesn’t really have a player or line that is going to rough Sid up either. His biggest physical test will certainly be Sunday, when all of Philly tries to kill him.
- It’s a shame that the Rangers had to go without Lundqvist in this game. The Pens look great, and are hot, but the true test would have been to go against the best goalie in the NHL right now. I look forward to our last meeting with them to see the massive collision of talent there. And if you aren’t quite sure where Lundqvist stacks up right now, here’s an article I did on thehockeywriters.com that includes his (and other’s) numbers: http://thehockeywriters.com/kings-quick-making-a-strong-case-for-vezina/ They are mind-numbing.
Pens Record: 43-21-5, 91 pts, 2nd in the Atlantic, 4th in the East
Next Game: 3/17 @ NJ, 1pm
No comments:
Post a Comment