CHICAGO — Something is going wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks combined for 28 giveaways in the first two periods and 40 overall. While Chicago had more puck generosity, the Penguins’ gaffes were once again stunning. The Penguins squandered another winnable game, losing to Chicago 5-3 at the United Center Tuesday.
The list of culprits again centered on the Penguins’ defensemen, who have become problematic. A few mistakes by the Penguins’ star defensemen are expected, but when the “Oh boy” moments are from the blue liners hired for their steadiness and defensive zone awareness, there are problems.
When the other team is able to swarm the Penguins’ breakouts and the Penguins have almost no forecheck, it’s going to be a bad night. Indeed it was, as the Penguins gifted pucks, chances, and ultimately goals in the loss.
And, no, the Penguins veterans didn’t sugarcoat the reasons. In speaking with Pittsburgh Hockey Now, defenseman Kris Letang lamented the team’s inability to deal with Chicago’s intense forecheck that at times was all five players.
“I don’t think we were ready for a team that brings that much pressure on the forecheck, and they really come with five guys,” said Kris Letang. “You know, they sat on our wings, they forecheck, they forecheck hard. So when you’re not ready to outbattle the opponent, it is going to be a long night.”
One tactical wrinkle to note, as Letang alluded, Chicago jumped the walls all night and disrupted the Penguins’ breakouts, but the Penguins didn’t make big adjustments, either.
One veteran told PHN the center of the ice was there, but lamented to PHN, “The center of the ice was there.”
Of course, Chicago did not exactly play a clean game, either. Their up-tempo forecheck did yield a few odd-man rushes and chances for the Penguins, but too few of those went into the net, and the Penguins certainly did not use them to tilt the ice.
The loud chances for the Penguins were one and done, even though they had puck possession for a good bit of the third period—until Sergei Murashov’s soft goal in the final five minutes seemed to take the last bit of fight out of the team.
Also Read:Penguins Struggling, Murashov Softy Ends Another Sloppy Game“It’s the same, like last year. We had one game good, one game down. You know, we played a great game against Dallas, and tonight, they scored on the first shot, and we were not ready to play,” said Evgeni Malkin. “And yeah, we had so many turnovers, so many mistakes, and we probably deserved to lose tonight. And again, we need to play better every night.”
It was a dichotomous scene in the room. The Penguins lost yet another bad game in which they played without fundamentals or structure, and veterans called out the inadequacy of the performance, but also, they were not in dour moods.
Contrary to the factual insights from the room, coach Dan Muse took the heavy tone after the game, and the players might be in for a rough practice Thursday in Chicago before they jet off to Denver for the game against the Colorado Avalanche Friday.
“There are some structural pieces that we need to continue to look at and work at, and get better at,” said Muse. “We’ll look at those, and yeah, it’s disappointing. You walk in, it’s like we want to be stacking games together. I liked a lot about our Dallas game, but now we’re going to have to look at this, address it, correct it, and we’re gonna move on.”
Xs And Os
Somewhere, Chris Farley as Adam Sandler’s lunch lady looked down. The game was undeniably extra sloppy.
As has been the case in more games than not for the Penguins, the game was full of big mistakes, especially an inordinate number by the defensemen. One tactical thing to note was that Chicago stepped forward to the midwalls, almost with impunity, blunting a lot of Penguins chips and taking away rims by the defensemen.
And the Penguins failed to exploit the assault on the walls by racing up the middle. Or at least didn’t do it enough.
The same player who regretted not using the middle of the ice also quipped, “It’s hard to win when your face is in the glass all night.”
Without question, the Penguins defensemen are struggling on breakouts, and Chicago’s cowboy forecheck only made life worse.
In addition to mistakes coming out of the defensive zone and others trying to enter the offensive zone, the Penguins never established a forecheck, which too infrequently pinned the unsteady Chicago defensemen.
“I think they’re a really aggressive team. They play on their toes. They lean on offense a lot and they forecheck,” Letang said. “So I think the key to slow that down is to play behind them, play behind their D, make sure they have their face looking towards the glass all game. I just don’t think we made it hard for them.”
Penguins Report Card
Team: F
The Penguins outshot Chicago 27-19 and, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, outchanced Chicago 24-11.
Sure. Those numbers sound good, and things would have been different if only the game were played in Microsoft Excel. The stat sheets were a lie Tuesday. The Penguins had some chances, but they weren’t nearly as good as the chances they gifted. And certainly not as good as they gave away. Those numbers are also exaggerated based on a good third-period push.
But Malkin also hinted that the Penguins took Chicago lightly.
“It’s hard to say (if we had proper focus). I tell you, because like the last game, we like played unbelievably against a good team like Dallas. We played 60 minutes, played right, no mistakes, and we deserved to win. Tonight, we feel it’s like we’re playing against a young team, and you know, we’ll win easily. (But) it’s not like that in the NHL.”
No forecheck. No adjustments. Sporadic connectivity. After seven games, after a clean win over Dallas, the Penguins needed to be better. They didn’t earn an F when compared to other performances, but they got the big red F as a result of again falling well short of a professional effort. Instead, they again looked more like a pond hockey crew that lasted to Washington and Columbus (in a shootout).
Dewar-Lizotte-Robertson: A
The advanced stats were close to even, but Muse used his fourth line as a shield against Connor Bedard and Patrick Kane. The Penguins’ fourth line matched up against Chicago’s best, and battled to a draw. They outscored Chicago’s top line, 1-0, and the Penguins’ line had a couple more scoring chances.
Also, Muse used his fourth line at 5v5 more than any other line, including the Crosby line (10:18 of 5v5 ice time).
Sidney Crosby: B+
Crosby is just about at full stride. Two goals. He looked solid, and his line generated chances down low.
Players Who Didn’t Grade Well
Declan Carlile: There is a lot of risk in his game when there’s not supposed to be any. He is to be the Steady Eddy to Erik Karlsson’s high-wire act. Instead, it was Karlsson who cleaned up some mistakes Tuesday. Carlile had a couple of bad pinches, a couple of turnovers, and was beaten a few times, too.
There was a sequence in the third period which almost resulted in a backbreaking goal. Bo Byram powered through Carlile on the rush. The puck squirted just beyond Byram’s reach, and Murashov raced 25 feet from the net to sweep it away, thus avoiding what would have been a breakaway attempt.
Kuzmenko-Kindel-Koivunen: They were a minus-2, and Kindel has had better games. They earned a couple of pretty scoring chances, but were on the wrong side of the puck and failed to sustain offensive zone pressure. Muse may have agreed, as they played the least amount of 5v5 ice time among the Penguins’ four lines. Always check the ice time to see what the coach is thinking.
They had some chances, but were uneven.
“Yeah, obviously you want to try and score, but also we’ve got to keep puck out of our net, as well. So, definitely some room for improvement on both sides.”
Power Play: F
The Penguins were 0-for-4 and had only three shots. Two or all three of those SOGs came in the second-period advantage when PP1 stayed on the ice for the entire two minutes. The other three opportunities were otherwise a time for fans to get a drink.
“We knew before the game—going into it—they were going to pressure a lot, and with a lot of pressure, sometimes you open a big gap, but you have to be willing to win battles on the wall,” said Letang. “We have to support each other. We have to work. It’s like a power play that you have to help work, and we didn’t do that tonight. And that’s why we didn’t have success.”
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