Pittsburgh dropped its second consecutive game in overtime and it was their third consecutive game that made its way to overtime. Toronto was the superior team on Saturday night.
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he above chart was created by Micah Blake McCurdy (@ineffectivemath). These charts are free at his Hockey Viz website after 2PM Atlantic time.
The Kadri line did an excellent job of shutting down Sidney Crosby's line and Auston Matthews won his matchup with Evgeni Malkin. Toronto is the best team in the league at creating shot attempts and they certainly showed that skill off last night.
Since the injury to Kris Letang the Penguins have played two games. They have scored one goal. He's a huge part of transition on a team built on transition. He's also a mainstay on the power play which was an abomination despite Pittsburgh's lone goal coming from the man advantage. Pittsburgh's setup and philosophy when they get a 5 on 3 needs a lobotomy. This isn't unique to them because I see it all the time around the league. You get an extended 5 on 3 and you feel as though you have time to make a great play. The attitude should be how many shots can I bomb towards the net. There are a few outcomes and they definitely favor the team with two extra players.
If a goalie freezes it you get an offensive faceoff where you can concoct plays to overwhelm the PK unit and maintain possession.
When there are rebounds you can more times than not win those battles with five players as opposed to their three. I like the chances of winning those battles especially if Sidney Crosby is down low.
You could score a goal and that speaks for itself.
The PK unit could ice the puck and this is the one that 5 on 3 power plays are too concerned with. Who cares? Your goalie will stretch pass it back up and you lose like ten seconds. You have a free zone entry due to the enormous advantage of having two extra players. You can get right back to unloading shots on net IE: Evgeni Malkin one-timers.
Instead the Penguins did whatever it is they were trying to do for their full two minute 5v3 and never came close to scoring. A big moment in the game that was incredibly underwhelming given the talent the Penguins have.
The game winning sequence is going to be difficult for some people to sift through. There were two Penguin players who both had really good games and both made poor plays during that last sequence.
Derrick Pouliot had a good game. On a night where most of his teammates got kicked in he was a 60% possession player which led the team. The last sequence he got overwhelmed by Mitch Marner during the 3 on 3 session. That is something Marner is going to do consistently throughout his career. His skill set was built for the 3 on 3 session. Pouliot got worked over by Marner who made a nice move to the middle of the ice. After the shot missed Pouliot picked up the rebound and attempted to go up the wall. Could he have done better there? Yeah. Should the referee have better awareness and mini-hop over the puck to not interfere with the play? Yeah. Pittsburgh can do what they always seem to do with Pouliot and that would be to punish him for that mistake by not playing him at all anymore. The result of those actions to this point is a player who thinks he has to play a perfect game every time he is given the chance. Players who try to play perfect start pressing as opposed to just playing. This is true at all levels of the sport. The Penguins are probably forced into Pouliot playing more because of the injuries and that would be a good thing for the big picture.
Marc-Andre Fleury had a really strong game and just like Pouliot he made an error on the final sequence. Fleury stopped 41 of 43 shots and helped keep his team in the game. Fleury is well known for his pokechecks and he has had a lot of success with that method. Last night he whiffed and took himself completely out of the net and also took Pouliot out as well.
Two players who had a good game and a bad moment. It's possible for both things to be true.
I talked about how Justin Schultz was terrific against Los Angeles yesterday. I also talked about how Kris Letang's consistency is why he is so great. Last night against the Maple Leafs Justin Schultz was horrendous. At even-strength he was on the ice for 32 Toronto shot attempts against. Mike Sullivan used the Cole-Schultz pairing as a number one unit and it didn't work on this night at all. They were destroyed.
The fourth line which had shown signs of life lately became dormant again. Tom Kuhnhackl sat last night out in favor of Eric Fehr.
Jake Guentzel continues to shred the AHL.
Starting on Tuesday the Penguins will have five games in a row against Metropolitan opponents (NYR, CBJ, NJ, NJ, CAR). They'll need to spend their time figuring out how to survive without Kris Letang. The early returns aren't great.
Thanks for reading!
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