Penguins Shut Out Rangers, Fans Back Away from Ledges

Main Storylines:

• The Penguins claimed Zach Boychuk (will wear #17) off of waivers from Carolina.  Boychuk has 18 points in 73 games.  They also placed Matt Niskanen on IR to make room for the move.
• Robert Bortuzzo will get into the lineup for the first time this season.  Ben Lovejoy is a healthy scratch.
• Tomas Vokoun starts in net.
• The Pens will be using an old new look on the powerplay, shifting Evgeni Malkin back to the point and James Neal up to the slot.
• Former Penguin watch: The Rangers will have Rupp, Asham, and, though you never saw him in Pittsburgh, Benn Ferriero in the lineup
• The 3rd line of Cooke-Sutter-Kennedy is reunited and Dustin Jeffrey joins Malkin’s wing.

Result:

Pens 3  Rangers 0

Goals:  Malkin (2) from Despres, Letang

            Neal (5) (PP) from Crosby, Malkin

            Despres (1) from Dupuis, Adams

ESPN Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=400442569

Stats:

Vokoun says no for 1 of 28 times.

• Tomas Vokoun recorded his 49th career shutout, recording 28 saves.  Per ESPN, Vokoun is the only goalie entering this season with at least 4 shutouts in every season since the ’05-’06 season
• Sidney Crosby led the team with 6 shots
• Robert Bortuzzo played 12:11 in his debut.  Paul Martin was the leader at 26:23, Craig Adams had only 9:33 (6:57 at even strength, the rest on PK)
• Evgeni Malkin continued his faceoff problems by going 2 for 8.  Meanwhile, Crosby went 16 for 28.

The Good:

Hard work and pure effort from Glass

• Tomas Vokoun:  The number one star of the night made his 28 saves look easy as he recorded his 49th career shutout.  Anyone watching Vokoun through 3 starts has to admit he brings about a calming veteran presence and poise to the crease.  Just as in his previous 2 starts, Vokoun demonstrated perfect positioning and simply dealt with the game as it came to him.  Can’t argue with perfection on the night!
• Tanner Glass:  Glass only played roughly 10 minutes, with 3 of that on the penalty kill, but his limited TOI was quite possibly the most productive minutes of the night for the Penguins.  Glass was a force on the PK as he pressured the Rangers blue liners and he also managed to draw two penalties as well.  It was a perfect 4th liner game for Glass and then some.
• Simon Despres:  Despres certainly suffered through some growing pains in this game with a hooking penalty, a couple turnovers, and some weak clears, but he made up for it with offensive poise that left everyone’s jaw dropping.  It began with his set up of Malkin on the 1st goal of the game and ended with a beautiful backhand goal on a breakaway to ice the game at 3-0.  Overall Despres was still a little inconsistent but showed tremendous change as the game continued on.  He became a completely different player as his confidence grew with each shift and demonstrated significant potential to handle the puck and also separate opposing forwards from the puck.
• James Neal:  Aside from the beautiful deflection Neal had for a powerplay goal, he really earned this spot through superb backchecking and forechecking.  I didn’t have Neal marked for a single negative thing all game as he simply skated hard at both ends of the ice and was careful with the puck.  The interference penalty he drew didn’t hurt his cause either.  One thing to note is that Neal played 18:41 in the game, with 8:14 of that on the powerplay to help his case.
• Penalty Kill:  The PK went 4 for 4 and looked much more active and aggressive than they did against the Islanders.  Orpik and Engelland worked to clear out the crease and the forwards chased the Rangers to the blue line…and by that I mean the Rangers’ blue line.  Puck pursuit and support was excellent as the Rangers never had a chance to fully set up their powerplay. 

The Bad:

• Kris Letang:  Letang played a solid defensive game in his own end.  However, that’s not his only talent on the ice and he was quite disappointing on the offensive side of the rink.  He had multiple turnovers on the powerplay and seemed to struggle with pass/shoot decision in general.  Two of his giveaways occurred when he had an open shooting lane but opted to pass.  Meanwhile, two of his shots were blocked easily by Rangers.  Letang’s pass/shoot decisions will have to improve for the powerplay to truly improve.

The Ugly:

• Boarding Penalties:  There is still much confusion on what is considered boarding this year and Crosby getting hit directly in the numbers did not help matters.  We have seen boarding called for everything from clean shoulder hits to players actually drilling someone in the back into the boards.  If the NHL is serious about making this a safer game, they may want to get everyone on the same page.
• Powerplay:  It was nice to see the powerplay get a goal but the unit still struggled as a whole, mostly with puck management and decision making.  A change in personnel setup is not going to be enough to erase turnovers at the points and forced passes.  Even Neal’s PP goal wasn’t a true setup of the powerplay – it was great awareness and skill from Malkin, Crosby, and Neal.  The Pens looked ripe for a shorthanded goal against vs the Rangers and I can’t say I was impressed with Malkin at the point.  As usual, the team needs to just simplify and get the puck on net to get this unit going.

+/- Assessment:

Pictured: Joy, confidence, and the rising stock
of Simon Despres

• 1st GF (Malkin): + for Letang (puck retrieval, pass), Despres (pass), Malkin (goal)
• 2nd GF (Neal): + for Malkin (carried puck up, pass to Sid), Crosby (pass), Neal (deflection goal)
• 3rd GF (Despres): + for Adams (flicks puck up), Dupuis (races to puck, pass), Despres (goal)
• Season +/-: http://www.crosbyftw.com/p/plusminus-spreadsheet.html

Thoughts:

Bortuzzo survived his season debut with flying colors

• Powerplay:  The PP went 1 for 6 but I’m not sold on this setup still.  If there is one man at the point, it should be Letang instead of Geno.  If there are two players on the blue line, make it Martin and Letang with Crosby, Neal, and Malkin up front.  Is there anything Kunitz can do that Crosby can’t?  Martin has shown fantastic puck movement so far this season and might be a much safer and steadying option on the powerplay.
• Lines:  Dustin Jeffrey looked much better than anyone else has on the 2nd line and even had some nifty passing plays with Malkin.  The two clearly had more chemistry than Tangradi or Kennedy had on that line.  The third line remained quiet, though much better defensively with TK on the line and there were a couple offensive chances for them.  The 4th line was pretty much perfect all around with Glass, Vitale, and Adams.  There is really no reason to change the lineup for Saturday, but it will be interesting to see when newcomer Boychuk gets his chance.
• Defensive Pairings:  Orpik-Martin was solid as usual (as of this season) and Letang provided great support for Despres.  The third pair of Engelland - Bortuzzo had some issues clearing the puck at times but received enough support from the forwards to succeed.  Bortuzzo looked more comfortable than I was expecting after sitting the first 6 games and certainly played well enough for another game.  It appeared that the Rangers were targeting him heavily with their physical game, but he stayed the course and never looked rattled throughout.
• Goalie “Controversy”:  There is no goalie controversy.  Vokoun is a superb backup and will start at least a third of the games.  He’s a great calming influence and I imagine he will also mentor Fleury quite well.  Make no mistake though, Fleury has more potential, more talent, and is the unquestioned starter of this team.  Vokoun may play more right now since he’s hot, but this is still Fleury’s team, as it should be.  If Fleury learns a bit of Vokoun’s poise and positioning, his athleticism will put him over the top to be a Top 5 goalie in the league. (That is still a big if though.)
• Difference from the Isles Game:  The biggest difference I noticed immediately was the amount of support the forwards gave the defensemen to clear the puck and for breakouts.  Instead of having one forward lingering at the blue line and two further into the neutral zone, there was usually 1 forward in the D zone, 1 at the blue line, and 1 at the red line.  This gave the defense additional help in their zone and also provided for a natural progression of chipping the puck up to get to the offensive zone.  When puck management is a problem, additional forward support can be the rescue option.  This theory worked to perfection against the Rangers.  As you noticed, once the giveaways and turnovers decrease, this team is very difficult to play against.  Credit to Bylsma and the coaching staff for making that adjustment, even if it’s temporary.

Pens Record: 4-3-0, 8 pts

Next Game:  2/2 vs NJ, 1pm