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It wasn't perdy but it's a win |
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How did the Nashville Predators lose this hockey game? In what could only be described as a disaster for the Penguins they somehow found a way to win the hockey game. Nashville was the better team from the opening faceoff, yet managed to mangle their territorial advantage as well as their comeback attempt after tying the game. The Penguins were held to only 12 shots and eight of those were in the first period. They scored on five of them.
The person most responsible for ruining Nashville's chances for winning was Pekka Rinne. He was terrible. He finished with a .623 save percentage which is unacceptable. Pittsburgh scored four times on 11 shots that Rinne faced.
It looks as though the Conn Smythe favorite is regressing
This was a huge missed opportunity for the Predators. Not only did they control play, but Matt Murray only finished with an .885 save percentage. Out of his 27 career playoff games he has only been at .885 or worse five times.
Here are a few stats to put this victory into context
Rare company. To earn a victory in a Stanley Cup Final this way is huge.
This has been the theme of the 2017 Penguins. It doesn't make much sense. They must have a horseshoe where the sun doesn't shine.
There are a lot of details to talk about. Let's go through them sequentially
First period
The Predators were active from the opening faceoff. They were controlling the shot volume in the early goings (and for the whole game). You can already see a big difference between the 1-3-1 the Senators ran and the one the Predators are using. Nashville is aggressive with their F1 in an attempt to force the Penguins to aimlessly move the puck up the wall. This is a theme that was evident all night long. Pittsburgh's defense was losing the battle to the Predators forwards in the battle of mediocrity. The Penguins forwards didn't get too many chances to challenge the Predators defense because Pittsburgh could not generate a controlled exit to save their lives. Nashville was incredibly effective with causing Pittsburgh's defense to commit turnovers. Pittsburgh's defensemen were handling the puck like a live grenade. It was a pathetic display.
The only solution here is for the Penguins to play with more risk. What I mean by that is the team will have to use a center breakout down low in the defensive zone. Passing in front of your net *can* be risky, but it isn't any more risky than throwing the puck up the boards blindly into the teeth of the opposition's forecheck. Nashville wants the Penguins to go up the wall. And up the wall the Penguins went for the entire game. Pittsburgh's centers need to curl low and become available for their defensemen. If they are able to successfully do that then one of the wingers could go long to stretch the defense thin in the neutral zone. Either the stretching guy will be open or the other winger can cut across into the void left from the Predators defensemen covering the stretch guy.
There were a couple early examples of Scott Wilson stretching the ice on the breakout that led to some mini-breaks that ultimately weren't fruitful. It did show that the Predators do not sit as far back as Ottawa did and that you can slip behind them and their forecheck.
Pittsburgh's ability to create controlled zone exits is the biggest thing to track moving forward in this series.
The first controversial moment of the Stanley Cup Final came on an offsides review. PK Subban scored on a great wrist shot, but Filip Forsberg was deemed to be offsides because the toe of his skate was apparently off the ice on the entry. These replay reviews for offsides haven't improved the quality of the sport and many of them have no bearing on the play whatsoever. Leave it to the NHL to come up with rules nobody asked for or wanted to take goals off the board in an offensively starved league.
Don't expect these reviews to go away anytime soon either
It was a big call that went in the favor of the Penguins.
It wasn't long after that the Penguins found themselves on a 5 on 3. James Neal added an unnecessary crosscheck which is sometimes called and sometimes not, last night it was. Pittsburgh's power play was a mess until Evgeni Malkin let a bomb go from the point on a beautiful interchange with Trevor Daley which created the shooting lane.
Sidney Crosby probably got away with some interference on the play. Sometimes that is called, sometimes it isn't. You'll notice that's kind of a theme with this league. There is no bias with it either. It happens to every player. Incompetence isn't the same as bias.
It was a heavy shot from Malkin, but Rinne flubbed it with his glove. This was just the beginning of his horrible night.
Pittsburgh scored again to make it 2-0. This time it was Conor Sheary's first goal of the 2017 playoffs
Brian Dumoulin made a really nice play to keep the puck in and Sidney Crosby did what he does below the goal line and that is find open people. Chris Kunitz was in the same exact spot he scored his double overtime goal from except on this occasion he executed a wonderful no look pass which froze Rinne. Somebody turned the clock back these past two games for Chris Kunitz. He has made some excellent plays. Aside from the great assist Kunitz led all Penguins in possession last night with 70.59%
Right before the end of the period Nick Bonino shoveled a one-handed pass in front of the Predators goal mouth. It went off a defenseman's leg and into the net and just like that the Penguins had a 3-0 lead. This was the last positive for the Penguins for quite some time. They did not register a shot on goal for the entire second period.
Second period
The second period saw Nashville score on the power play. Millennial Hornqvist (Arvidsson) set up a nice screen on Murray and the shot squeaked in on the short side from Ryan Ellis. That was it for scoring that period. Despite the territorial advantage at 5v5 and the Penguins not registering a shot the Predators only won the period 1-0. Up until this point Matt Murray was a .950 goalie.
During this period Mike Sullivan moved Hornqvist from the fourth line to the Malkin line. This bumped Kessel down to the third line with Bonino. Scott Wilson remained with Evgeni Malkin and that should be changed for Game 2. I have no problem trying out players like Wilson in bigger roles, but you need to know when to pull the plug. He isn't a regular top six guy, he's a placeholder which can help spread the offensive wealth when playing well. He has been ineffective in that role.
Third period
The third period saw the Predators continue to clog up the wall and the Penguins defenders obliging them by throwing it up the wall.
One of the turning points in the period was when Evgeni Malkin was called for slashing PK Subban. I thought it was a great backcheck by Geno and I also thought it was a slash. Again, this is a common slash that is allowed most of the time. It wasn't this time. It should be called all the time. Nashville scored on the power play to cut the deficit to one goal. Pittsburgh got a lucky goal when Bonino scored. Nashville got a nice bounce off of Colton Sissons leg here.
Nashville cashed in again to tie the game up at three when Frederick Gaudreau buried the puck after Austin Watson abused both Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley
Watson beats out the potential icing and then puts on a puck protection clinic as the Penguins defenders clumsily allow passage to the front of the net.
At this point in time the Penguins haven't had a shot since the first period. Nashville literally shutdown Pittsburgh and scored the three goals they needed. Things were going perfect. That is until the playoffs leading goal scorer found his touch again.
Matt Cullen forced Roman Josi into a lame attempt off of the boards, which ironically was Pittsburgh's problem the whole game. The puck comes back to Cullen and he quickly got the puck into space for Guentzel to skate through it. The controlled zone entry allowed for Guentzel to create space between him and Ryan Ellis and the release was insane. Pekka Rinne is a .556 goaltender at this point.
It had to be gutting to the Predators skaters to battle back and play flawless only to see the first shot they allowed go in. Not even Marc-Andre Fleury's low points from 2010-13 were as bad as this game was for Rinne.
Pittsburgh managed to get an empty net goal from Nick Bonino and that was that. Pittsburgh wins Game 1 despite playing terrible and their goalie playing below .900.
This will be a difficult game for Nashville to digest. On one hand they played a great game and totally shut the Penguins down. On the other hand you can't be throwing games away like that. The odds of Pittsburgh playing that poorly again are slim. That doesn't mean Nashville can't outplay the Penguins, just that they won't hold Pittsburgh without a shot for half the game.
A lot will be made of the 37 minutes Pittsburgh went without a shot and it should. However, not enough will be made of Nashville's inability to generate more shots themselves during that stretch. Nashville only had seven shots at 5v5 in the second period. You need to have more than that when the other team doesn't have any. This is where Nashville's underwhelming forward group comes into play. Also worth noting that the Penguins out attempted the Predators 9-6 in the third period.
Mike Sullivan knows that his team was garbage in Game 1. Look for the team to make adjustments to their breakout.
Sometimes hockey doesn't make sense. You can file this game with the other ones that don't make sense.
The teams will get back to it on Wednesday night
Thanks for reading!
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