Main Storylines:
- Brad Thiessen gets the start tonight as Fleury rests up for a big Atlantic Division matchup against the Devils tomorrow.
- With the Rangers losing to the Sabres last night, the Pens have a chance to take over 1st place in the Conference tonight. The Rangers do play the Leafs though, so no matter what happens the Pens will have one less game played after tonight and be in striking distance of 1st.
- Tangradi and Lovejoy get back into the lineup as Park gets a healthy scratch and Niskanen sits out with an upper body injury. Vitale remains hurt as well.
Result:
Sens 8 Pens 4
Goals: Cooke (18) from Engelland
Cooke (19) from Crosby, Martin
Kennedy (9) from Sullivan, Staal
Crosby (3) from Asham, Dupuis
Stats/Milestones:
- Matt Cooke added to his career high goals total, making it 19 now. He’s had 7 goals in his last 6 games with Crosby.
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| How do you score over a 6'7 goalie?? |
- Pascal Dupuis added an assist to extend his career high scoring streak to 9 games
The Good:
- The game is over and the Pens get a chance to rebound immediately against the Devils at home tomorrow night.
- Honorable mention to Engelland and Lovejoy, who didn’t do anything spectacular, but I felt played very solid and responsible games on a night where no one else felt like doing that. Also, it was very nice to see Sid get his first goal in his 2nd comeback.
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| One of the rare reasons for everyone to smile tonight. |
Matt Cooke – Another 2 goal game for Cooke, his 3rd since Crosby’s return, has him vying to become the 6th Penguin to hit the 20 goal mark this season. He pretty much has kept it simple with Sid, either going directly to the net or getting the puck to the net. It’s a shame he got called for a complete BS penalty, but that hardly nullifies his new found scoring prowess.
The Bad:
- Forwards in their own end. Everyone got caught up with watching the puck in the zone on three of the Ottawa goals. There were signs of this in the Nashville game as the Preds certainly had their chances from in close. The Pens are going to have to start watching closer for players on the backside sneaking in looking for passes.
- The powerplay. Ottawa played a very energetic and aggressive large box setup against the Pens and it disrupted them completely. The powerplay couldn’t complete passes, got very few chances, and allowed a shorthanded breakaway goal to Daniel Alfredsson as well. This powerplay is simply too talented to get caught by Ottawa’s aggressiveness like they did. We need to see more instinct and less thinking in those situations.
- Odd Man Rushes. The Pens allowed a disgustingly high amount of odd man breaks and breakaways to the Sens. Thiessen surely didn’t bail them out on anything, but the defensive was pretty much horrible in providing support. There were 2 breakaway goals and 2 odd man rush goals against the Pens tonight. That’s absolutely pathetic. You can add another goal to that list where an Ottawa player skated in 1 on 3, got through 3 Penguins, and slid the puck over to a wide over Alfredsson. A horrible effort on defense by the Pens.
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| A goal celebration covering half the zone shouldn't be this devoid of Penguins. |
- Steve Sullivan left at some point in the late 2nd or early 3rd period (I didn’t catch when clearly). Reports seem to be that whatever injury has is minor, but we shall see tomorrow.
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| This is the last play I recall seeing Sullivan, maybe overextended something? |
The Ugly:
- The anthems before the game were seriously horrendous. The singer sounded like Ms. Piggy, botched the words, and held both anthems out to a total of over 6 minutes. She even paused at one portion to ask the crowd to get into it. The Pens bench was laughing the whole time and it was seriously just an embarrassment to both countries. I won’t even give you a youtube link because you deserve better than that.
- The Penalty Kill was uncharacteristically inattentive tonight. Both powerplay goals were scored on cross-ice passes where the Pens simply weren’t watching the backside. There was just a serious lack of focus by the Pens in the defensive end. I am just going to call it a lapse in judgment for the night and leave it at that.
Orpik/Michalek – By far the worst pairing of the night, they put up a -4 and simply never got to their styles. Orpik wasn’t very physical and got caught in the offensive zone a few times, including on Spezza’s breakaway from his own blue line. Meanwhile, Michalek was wandering too far away from the crease looking for stick checks and checks instead of doing his usual good job of blocking passes and shooting lanes. Both players simply did not stick to their strengths and Thiessen is the one who paid for it.
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| Uh yeah, one of you should probably cover the future Hall of Famer. |
Brad Thiessen – Speaking of Thiessen, his effort wasn’t exactly sharp either. He had issues controlling rebounds and simply looked small in the net. I can’t blame him solely for this game as the Pens gave him no help, but he also has to come up with a couple more big stops along the way. 20 saves on 28 shots looks bad for pretty much anyone.
Thoughts:
- I didn’t want to see Bishop injured for Ottawa necessarily, but after the major dive he took when Cooke skated past him, you couldn’t help but think the Hockey Gods were getting him back for that move. Especially since Ottawa scored on that powerplay they never should have had.
- This team can clearly score. This team clearly has a Cup winning goalie in Fleury. But the defensive effort over the past week has been all over the place. Winning the Cup requires defensive consistency just as much as goaltending and probably moreso than scoring. So while this team can light it up, the kind of effort they showed tonight is the type of effort the Caps showed in previous years with early exits in the playoffs. This needs to be fixed immediately.
- The Pens looked more tired/sluggish than the Senators did today even though Ottawa played last night. With the Sens slumping, I wonder if the team got caught being a little too excited about the Nashville win and looking ahead to NJ tomorrow night.
- Everyone get over Thiessen getting the start. The argument that the Pens could get first place is not a reason to start Fleury for every game for the rest of the season. The playoffs are more important than first place, so Fleury will need to sit sometimes. He will likely sit March 29th as well. Johnson looks to be healthy again, so I’m pretty sure this was Thiessen’s last start and Johnson will get the nod on Thursday. Regardless, if Fleury goes out in the playoffs, all is lost anyways. So protect him, not a chance at first place.
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| Guess what, not many goalies are stopping one timers from the crease |
Pens Record: 46-22-6, 98 pts, 2nd in the Atlantic, 4th in the East
Next Game: 3/25 vs NJ, 7pm
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