Main Storylines:
- Tomas Vokoun makes his
first start as a Penguin after Fleury had an outstanding opening game.
- Arron Asham makes his
season debut with the Rangers. He hasn’t
played since Game 3 for the Penguins in the Pens-Flyers series. He finished off his 4 game suspension by
sitting out the Rangers opener last night.
- Tangradi stays on the 2nd
line, Vitale enters the lineup for Jeffrey.
Scratches: Jeffrey, Bortuzzo, Lovejoy
Result:
Pens 6 Rangers 3
Goals: Neal (2) (PP) from Malkin, Letang
Kennedy
(1) from Vitale, Despres
Niskanen
(1) from Crosby
Dupuis
(1) (PP) from Malkin, Kunitz
Neal
(3) from Malkin, Martin
Letang
(1) (EN) unassisted
Milestones & Stats:
- From the opener, Kennedy’s
opening goal has now been credited to Paul Martin
- Despres only played
10:41, a bit lower than expected in a back to back situation
- Crosby (6 for 21) and
Malkin (2 for 10) were dismal in faceoffs
- Neal led the team in
shots again with 7
- The 1st PP
line received 5:46 of PP time, the 2nd PP line had only 37 seconds
The Good:
 |
| Great puck movement on the PP had NYR lost. |
- Neal-Malkin: After watching 30-some KHL games, I had spent
a lot of time clamoring for the chemistry between Malkin and former Magnitogorsk
teammate Sergei Mozyakin. James Neal
might as well be Mozyakin at this point.
Malkin and Neal might as well have a 2 player line (and they pretty much
do) with the passing and anticipation they show with each other. The two complement each other’s game perfectly
and combined for 5 points in this game.
- Powerplay: It was another
strong game for the powerplay as they went 2 for 5. The key against the Rangers defense wasn’t
player movement as much as quick puck movement.
The Rangers D wasn’t able to shift their box in time to cover the old
Whitney play on Neal’s goal. They also
were flat out lost on a line change as the Pens fired the puck up the ice for
the Dupuis goal. Puck movement has been
exceptional for the Pens PP so far.
- 4th
Line: The biggest key to this victory was the hard grinding work down low by
the 4th line of Glass, Vitale, and Adams. Vitale proved to be a huge upgrade over Jeffrey
for the forecheck and puck possession.
The second period domination by the Penguins was largely due to hard,
aggressive work by the 4th line deep in the corners.
- Tomas
Vokoun: Vokoun had a stellar debut for
the Pens and pretty much stopped everything he was expected to stop. Though he allowed 3 goals, they were on a 5
on 3 PP, a shorthanded breakaway, and a missed coverage on the crease by
Engelland. Though he doesn’t seem to
glove many pucks which creates some crazy rebounds, he played a strong stand-up
game.
The Bad:
- Sidney
Crosby: Crosby is off to a slow start
this season (much more about that below) and looked a little out of sync this
game. Aside from the pathetic 6 for 21
faceoff performance, he committed a couple turnovers, most notably on the
powerplay. His patience is there, his
mind seems to be clicking, but I don’t think he is at game speed yet. Again, scroll down to get more on him.
- Faceoff
Violation: Brandon Sutter learned a big lesson yesterday as did the rest of the
NHL. One of the new rules this season is
that centers cannot use their hands to win a faceoff until a 3rd
player has touched the puck.
Unfortunately, the violation happened with Despres already in the box,
but the Pens caught a break since Sutter and Despres technically had penalties
at the same time on the box score and could let Sutter out first after the
ensuing PP goal.
The Ugly:
 |
| Solid fight, questionable timing. |
- Eric
Tangradi: Quick question for you to run through your head. Who do you think had more playing time, Glass
or Tangradi? The answer is
Tangradi. Who did you notice more? I’m guessing the answer is Glass. Tangradi still looks too slow for the 2nd
line. I thought he looked better than on
Saturday, but he appears to be a poor fit for Bylsma’s system and especially
the second line so far. The Pens might
need to adjust to and accept the fact that Tangradi is a checking line forward
at best on this team.
- Glass
Fight: While the fight between Glass and Asham at the opening faceoff was
entertaining, it was also stupid. The
Rangers gained additional momentum instantly off of the fight and the only
reason this isn’t a big deal is because Brad Richards took an interference
penalty 37 seconds into the game. The
Rangers dominated that first shift though and that is never something I want to
see on the road.
- Shorthanded
Goal Allowed: It was the sum of all fears, forwards caught up in the neutral zone
with the puck on the powerplay and no real defenseman to cover for it. The shorthanded goal by Nash was certainly a
beauty but the Pens will have to be careful with their forwards handling the
puck as the last guys back. There is no
question that opposing coaches will look at that goal as an example for putting
pressure on the Pens forwards in defensive positions.
MY Plusses & Minuses: (I'll find a better way to feature this on Wed)
- At the great suggestion
of @drkdstryer, guys in the box will get minuses as well.
- 1st goal
(Neal): + for Kunitz, Letang, Malkin, Neal
- Kunitz gets credit for the screen in front
- 1st goal
against (Callahan): – for Despres, Sutter
- Both in the box for a 5 on 3
- 2nd goal
(Kennedy): + for Engelland, Despres, Vitale, Kennedy
- Engelland got the puck and sent it across to Despres
to set the play in motion
- 3rd goal
(Niskanen): + for Crosby, Kunitz, Niskanen
- Kunitz tied up Girardi in front of the net, puck went
off Girardi on the way in
- 4th goal
(Dupuis): + for Neal, Kunitz, Malkin, Dupuis
- Neal with a fantastic breakout pass to Kunitz
- 5th goal
(Neal): + for Tangradi, Orpik, Martin, Malkin, Neal
- Tangradi drew the attention of 2 players away from
Neal, Orpik set it up with the first pass
 |
| Can't give up shorthanded breakaways |
- 2nd goal
against (Pyatt): – for Despres, Engelland, Glass
- Glass peels off of Pyatt, Despres and Engelland aren’t
properly spaced/covering guys
- 3rd goal
against (Nash): – for Malkin
- Committed the turnover as furthest Penguin back
- 6th goal
(Letang): + for Letang
- Overall: http://www.crosbyftw.com/p/plusminus-spreadsheet.html
Thoughts:
- I’m over the Tangradi
experiment already. Vitale showed that
he belongs in the lineup last night just through pure effort. Jeffrey seems to have more potential than
Tangradi at this point and has better speed to keep up with the second
line. It’ll be very interesting to see
where this goes.
- The Engelland-Despres
pairing still scares me to death.
Despres looks very unsure of himself when deciding whether to be
aggressive or not. Meanwhile, Engelland
just doesn’t have good closing speed.
When both are playing well, the pairing will work fine. But if one makes a mistake, I have no faith
that the other can cover for him.
 |
| Orpik had enough energy to lay out Kreider though. |
- Orpik had an awful 3rd
period after playing great in the first 2 periods. I would generally attribute this to back to
back games, but the bigger concern to me is Despres only played 10 minutes last
night and Engelland only had a couple more. With
a tight schedule, the Pens D is gonna have to even up a little on playing time
as the season wears on instead of leaning on the top 4, especially Orpik, too
heavily.
- Paul Martin had another
strong game…keep it going Paul!!
- And finally, the Sidney
Crosby thoughts. He looks off, but as
the tweets below suggest, he is a slow starter every year. Huge props to @Allie874 for all of this:
What say we wait a week or two before worrying about Sid?
Pens Record: 2-0-0, 4 pts
Next Game: 1/23 vs Tor, 7pm
