There was more good than bad for the Penguins against the Flyers, but it didn’t matter. They lost again 5-2 and are now 0-2-0 on the season.
I’m going to start with the bad and then talk about some of the good.
Tristan Jarry has been pathetic. You cannot win games in this league when your goaltender goes .760 and then follows it up the next game with a .500 performance which gets him yanked you are nowhere as a team. You cannot and will not win. This is especially true when Carter Hart is in the other net going .925 between the two games. Nothing about the roster will matter until they get better goaltending. You can attempt to defend Jarry by saying the team should play better defense in front of him, but it would be a feckless argument. This is the NHL. There are going to be scoring chances and the goaltender is expected to save some of them. He was expected to save a lot more of those chances because this is where he stands on the expected saves scale so far
If you are looking for something positive about Jarry’s game his high-danger save percentage is what was great last year. Usually, the high-danger save percentage is more defining of actual skill than maybe some of the other areas like medium and low danger.
If the high-danger percentage was a mirage then things probably won’t go great. You can hope for league average, but realistically get less.
Fortunately, Casey DeSmith came in and played at a .923 clip and is the likely starter for Sundays matchup with the Capitals. Somebody has to give the team league average goaltending and if it is DeSmith so be it.
Evgeni Malkin has been nowhere to be found. He usually gets so much unfounded criticism, but this is not one of those times. He needs to be better. The entire structure of this team relies on both he and Crosby to be great. Crosby is holding up his end of the bargain with two goals in two games. I have been watching Malkin, like many of you, for 15 years. We know what to look for even when he doesn’t find the scoresheet. I’m not seeing him create the time and space and get quality touches on the puck right now. You can’t even blame the quality of Malkin’s linemates which is usually a thing he successfully powers through. Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust are both good players. They could probably stand to play a little better (more Rust than Zucker), but this isn’t a situation where you give Malkin Scott Wilson and say go win us a Cup. Fortunatley, unlike Jarry, Malkin has a huge sample size of being awesome. He was tremendous last year. This would be a historic drop if this is due to an aging curve. I don’t think it is. I just think it is a rough start to the year. Geno will be Geno. He just needs it to show up Sunday due to the 0-2-0 start and the short season.
Evan Rodrigues cannot play on the top line, but we already knew that going in. If you are going to be mad at somebody Rodrigues isn’t the person to be upset at. Mike Sullivan has to own this decision because not only is he putting Rodrigues way above his pay grade, Rodrigues is also leading all forwards in ice time this year. Yes, you read that correctly. I personally think you are asking a lot of Rodrigues to have a regular third line role let alone a first. The only reason he played the top line with Buffalo for a little while is because he was Eichel’s linemate at Boston University. Rodrigues is a fine fourth line player. He’s being put in a position to fail on a team with minimal options at the moment. Bad situation all around.
Kris Letang was on the ice for all five goals. Not a great night for him. I’m not worried short or long term.
Speaking of the defense the move to put Pettersson back with Marino was a good one and I hope they stick with it.
Let’s hear it for Chad Ruhwedel. He had a 97.38 xGF% last night in relief of Cody Ceci. No idea why the Penguins thought they had to bring in a “veteran” to play the bottom pairing role. Ruhwedel IS a veteran at thirty years young.
Also, what the hell was that play Matheson made early in the game when the Flyers had a delayed penalty? The Flyers took a penalty, Matheson had the puck with full possession inside the Flyers zone with no forecheckers close to him and he voluntarily left the zone and completely flubbed the regroup. I get it if it were a 3v3 turning into a 4v3 situation, but not 5v5 to 6v5. It was so bizarre I had to confirm what I saw was true. The Matheson train is going to be a wild ride and the ticket is good until 2025-26.
There was also this one
Anyways, I said there were some good things and there were. The third line continued to provide some offense. They added another goal when Jared McCann utilized the class “pass off pad” move when he shot low far side for the rebound to kick to Brandon “on pace for 56 goals” Tanev. It is now two goals in two games for Tanev. Logic would dictate if the third line is playing well and contributing with tangible offense the team would be winning, but it hasn’t been the case. That isn’t good, but the third line has been.
Only problem with the third line is that they might need a new left winger after McCann committed a completely foolish elbowing penalty. He should probably see a suspension for it, but who knows with this league.
Update: And there it is
Overall the Penguins dominated the Flyers in Game 2. The underlying numbers were really good even taking score effects into play. Carter Hart was just good. Penguins had an xGF% of 61.95 and a CF% of 59.62. This is the sport, though. You don’t always get a W even if the team plays well.
The Penguins will be taking on Washington in their next back to back. I don’t know if I want to say this is necessarily good news because the Capitals certainly are a team similar to the Penguins where they have some high end talent and then an unknown goaltender situation, but they didn’t exactly dominate the Sabres. Through two games they are 48.55 CF% team which is, fine, on the surface. The xGF% has been 40.29%. So the Penguins aren’t getting a hot Capitals team. They are getting a 2-0-0 team, though.
The Penguins need to show up against the Capitals because things can get late early in a season like this.
Thanks for reading!
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