Similar to the way things played out in Pittsburgh’s season-opening loss against the Rangers, it was a divisional matchup for the Penguins to forget on Friday night.
The Penguins fell the the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, in a game that was almost entirely controlled by the team in red. The Canes outshot the Penguins, 39-26. According to Natural Stat Trick, they outchanced the Penguins 46-30. They dominated play in the neutral zone and drove the Penguins to the perimeter in the offensive zone.
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Goaltender Joel Blomqvist gave the Penguins a chance early on and through the end of the second period, but eventually, even the Canes were too much for him. He stopped 35 of 39 Carolina shots on the night.
Simply put, the Hurricanes played their game all night. The Penguins never got to theirs because they never even had the chance to.
“If you can dictate the terms, you can play in their end. If you let them, you’re gonna play in your end,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We played in our end tonight.”
Here are a few other observations from Friday night’s loss:
– Despite giving up four goals, I thought Blomqvist still played a pretty good game.
The Canes had a ton of chances early on in the game. They outshot the Penguins 10-3 in the first period, and Blomqvist had to be good to keep the game within reach. He was, and because of him, the score was tied, 1-1, heading into the second period.
The only goal he would probaby want to have back is the fourth goal, but at that point, the game was already well out of reach.
– Zone entries are still pitiful for the Penguins’ power play, which went 0-5 on the evening. And, honestly, the power play as a whole looks horrendous right now.
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It’s scored some goals in recent games, but the optics are not great. It looks like last year’s. Players moving with cement in their skates. Indecisiveness. Just a lack of urgency and quick passing. Overall, a mess.
Again, they need to get back to what they were doing with the unit in the preseason. Quick, short passes, player movement, and not holding onto pucks. They are reverting to old habits way too quickly, and they need to pivot fast before it becomes unfixable again.
– The Canes played an absolutely clinical game. There was no time and space for the Penguins to generate anything. They are terrific in the neutral zone, getting sticks on everything and suffocating with their one-on-one coverage and playing on top of opponents.
They are a really good defensive team and an opportunistic offensive team, and they swarmed the Penguins in their own zone a few times.
I think their defense-first style is probably why they seem to struggle in the postseason, but they’re a heck of a regular season team.
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– Penguins need a jolt on both of their top line left wings. Anthony Beauvillier and Michael Bunting are simply too quiet right now.
Drew O’Connor – who scored the Penguins’ lone goal to put the Penguins up 1-0 in the first period – bumped up in favor of Bunting during the second period. But with the upcoming road trip, I think it’s a good time to give some other guys a shot in the top-six and in the lineup.
Put Valtteri Puustinen, who has been scratched for all six games so far this season, in on the third line. Move Jesse Puljujarvi up, who has proven he can put the puck in the back of the net. Since teams typically like to carry an extra forward on long road trips, it’s possible that we either see a call-up or one of Blake Lizotte or Vasily Ponomarev activated off injured reserve during the trip.
They just need to change some things up in the top-six – especially on the top line, which has been largely ineffectual on all fronts – and I’m not sure the best solution to filling out the rest of the depth is necessarily in the lineup right now.
– Ryan Graves has been playing pretty well for the better part of these first six games. In fact, I thought he was the team’s best defensemen tonight, and it shows in the metrics:
I wrote about the Graves-Jack St. Ivany pairing during training camp. I think some sheltered minutes and consistency alongside a pretty sound partner are really doing wonders for Graves right now.
Hopefully, his game can grow from here.
– This was the shortest Mike Sullivan press conference that I’ve attended. A lot of one-word answers. I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.
This was just a rotten game from top to bottom from the Penguins. It doesn’t get any easier on Sunday, when they will face the Winnipeg Jets, who are one of the better defensive teams in hockey.
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It will be the first of a four-game Western Canadian road swing, so the Penguins need to bring their A-game. It certainly isn’t getting easier as the week goes on, as they will face Edmonton – a team that has given them fits – and Vancouver to close out the road trip Friday and Saturday after facing Calgary on Tuesday.
“It’s a long year,” Graves said. “We can’t dwell on certain things. We’ll watch stuff tomorrow, we’ll learn from it, and move on. That’s what you have to do. You’re just trying to get better as the year goes along. You want to be at your best, and come the end of the year, you want to be in a playoff spot. So we’re just going to have to try and get better each day.”
I expect a much better, more energized game on Sunday. The Penguins played two of their best games of the 2023-24 season against the Jets.
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