Pens look to rebound from first shutout of 2012-13 in Game 2
Strong Game 1 start can help Pens from eventual 3-0 defeat
Jeff Jimerson kicks off national anthem. I’m wondering if the Pens should switch singers and go back to Sgt. Bob Timney after Game 1 loss – an anthem controversy’s brewing already.
:05 Zdeno Chara just pushes a charging Chris Kunitz like he doesn’t exist.
:21 Sidney Crosby backhander hits post seconds after he knocks puck down out of air to keep zone possession alive.
:38 Kunitz steal puck from Brad Marchand in Boston end.
:43 Crosby pass from behind Bruins net deflects off Bruin player right to Kunitz, who’s all alone inside the right circle. Perfect scoring opportunity as he moves into slot.
:44 Puck slides off Kunitz’s stick as he keeps his head up to pick out a spot to shoot. No shot is taken.
:47 Boston skates the puck out of its own end for the first time in the game.
:49 Kris Letang obliterates Marchand with a crushing neutral-zone check.
Spotted Andrew Ference on the ice. Thought he was questionable for game.
See Jaromir Jagr getting ready for draw 2:50 into game.
Pierre McGuire mentions "Kris-to-pher" Letang for first time. McGuire’s annoyance quotient would drop dramatically if he referred to players using the same name every other analyst refers them by ie “Kristopher” is simply “Kris.”
Marchand knocks Letang off puck, Jagr carries puck 3-on-1, passes across slot but holds puck too long, no play develops. Letang has to be stronger on the puck there, can’t allow odd-man rush on such an innocent looking play.
Patrice Bergeron offsides on Marchand entrance 3:22 into game but no whistle. Marchand’s long-range shot saved by Tomas Vokoun, cleared out of zone, but question remains how linesman could miss call so easily.
Evgeni Malkin tripped by David Krejci exiting Pittsburgh zone with puck. I thought Malkin went down too easily, but Krejci definitely put his stick between Malkin’s legs as he was striding. Penguin power play.
Letang sets up high at the point in the middle of the ice, Malkin on the left boards, Kunitz in front of the net, Crosby down low on the right side and James Neal five feet above the right circle.
After a quick clear following a Kunitz shot, Letang brings puck up to his blue line, passes quickly to Malkin at center red. Malkin one-touches pass to Crosby at Boston blue line. Fantastic puck management.
Crosby carries puck along right side into circle. Chara defends pass to a streaking Neal. Goalie Tuukka Rask covers up before Crosby can follow up. Chara negates play.
Pens’ second power-play unit comes on ice with 57 seconds remaining on penalty. Matt Niskanen at the left point, Paul Martin at the right point. Jussi Jokinen along the right boards, Jarome Iginla in the slot and Crosby on the left side down low.
Instead of shooting from the right circle, Jokinen forces a pass to Crosby, who has moved back to his customary right side. Jokinen’s pass literally hits Johnnie Boychuk’s stick on a play the Penguin center had a look to shoot. Puck deflects off Boychuk’s stick for an easy pop-up floater of a save by Rask.
Kind of a waste of power-play time.
First unit back on ice after sitting for 15 seconds of game-time. Smart to get top unit back on ice after quick break.
Kris Letang whiffs on blind back-handed pass inside his own blue line in space. These are the careless kinds of plays that get the Penguin defenseman into trouble, but that’s his style. The bad goes with the good. Crosby skates back to his own blue line to puck, beating Boston’s Gregory Campbell.
Malkin takes puck at his own blue line, carries it the whole way into Bruins end, gets off quality backhand. Rask stops but allows big rebound right to Crosby. Crosby has so much time I’m not sure he knows what to do with it. He chooses to puts a slapper on goal from the inside right circle Rask saves.
Crosby seen getting attention on bench. Trainer has white towel, looking at Crosby’s tooth-reduced mouth.
Martin wrister from point deflected by Matt Cooke and puck harmlessly goes off-line into end boards.
Two-minute power play over, game still scoreless six minutes into action.
Boston has weathered Pittsburgh’s perfect storm.
At the 8:23 mark, David Krejci takes a slapper from high in the slot. Martin goes down in no-man’s land five feet in front of Vokoun, deflects Krejci’s pass. Puck goes five-hole on Vokoun and a bad goal is given up.
I’m not certain puck would have trickled past Vokoun had Martin simply not gone down. Either way, Bruins score first goal in a game they would go on to win 3-0.
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-- Judging by the number of empty seats in the last 10 minutes of Game 1, the Penguins had no chance of making a comeback.
-- Kris Letang has to tighten up his vision in this series. The Pens can’t afford his high-risk passing turnovers against the Bruins.
-- Sidney Crosby chatting with Zdeno Chara at the end of the second period was comical. Crosby needs to stay focused, regardless of how he feels the game is being called.
-- Whether you believe Tuukka Rask was “marvelous” as Doc Emrick called him or not, credit him with a solid game against a team he had lost four of five lifetime decisions against prior to Saturday.
-- Jaromir Jagr was sneaky good, with four credited shots (and it seemed like more). He even checked Doug Murray along the boards early in the third period. Fortunately, Tomas Vokoun was up to the task against the 41-year-old.
-- Vokoun played decently, but he wasn’t outstanding. The first goal was probably on Paul Martin as much as him. The sequence leading up to the second goal can be blamed on Vokoun. He went behind his net to stop a Boston dump in and missed the puck. Mark Eaton then lost a one-on-one battle that never would’ve taken place had Vokoun stopped the puck. The Bruins scored seconds later. The third goal was a team letdown.
-- Vokoun has been named the Game 2 starter. If the Pens lose again -- whether it’s Vokoun’s fault or not -- then Marc-Andre Fleury would likely get the nod in the next game.
-- It’s bad enough that the Pens lost 67 percent of faceoffs, but to do that at home is even worse, considering the visiting team’s faceoff men have to get their stick on the ice first for each draw. The removal of the jaw guard didn’t help Crosby in the circle. He went 6-11 on draws.
-- Chris Kunitz was active, but active didn’t translate necessarily into good play all the time. He did hit a post in the second period, but his timing seemed otherwise off. The Penguins need him to step up like he so often has. Hopefully he’s not nursing too big of an undisclosed injury.
-- I wonder if the Penguins could trade for Toronto Marlies center, Mike Zigomanis, for help on faceoffs. It worked before. Either that or get Joe Vitale back in the lineup.
-- It wasn’t encouraging to see Bergeron and the Bruins get some stellar looks short-handed as the game went along. That’s got to stop. Short-handed goals are bad in the regular season and worse in the playoffs.
-- Credit the Pens’ penalty-killing unit. They looked sharp.
-- Jussi Jokinen looked more like a guy who passed through waivers than the player who scored seven goals and 11 points in 10 games for the Pens at the end of the regular season.
-- Boston Bruins – 1, Jarome Iginla – 0
-- Sidney Crosby (24:21) saw more than five minutes of action than any other forward. Pascal Dupuis skated 19:10. Of course, some of that time was on the power play (7:08) and some because Evgeni Malkin (18:19) was sitting out due to his Bergeron fight. Crosby has averaged 22 minutes in the playoffs after skating 21:06 in the regular season.
-- Brenden Morrow missed a shot from just outside Rask’s crease Saturday. He tied Pascal Dupuis the Penguins with four hits. This is the series Pittsburgh traded Joe Morrow for Brenden. Scoring is a bonus, but Morrow needs to give the Bruins a physical smackdown of sorts.
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