Penguins tank against Flyers
Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Last night was an ugly showing by the Penguins. They had 4 objectives. First, stay out of the penatly box. Second, put the puck on net and score. Third, use the powerplay to its advantage. Fourth, Win and pick up momentum. Unfortunately, the Penguins were unable to accomplish any of those tasks.
The Penguins faced off against their biggest rivals last night in hopes to build momentum towards the playoffs but instead they were halted by a wall. A wall which they built themselves. The impedements they created for themselves include ridiculous amounts of penalties reaped throughout the season and a lethargic powerplay.
Are the Penguins faced with a shortage of players? Yes. Are they facing salary cap issues? Yes. Did one of their most important forwards, Malkin, not play last night? Yes. Does that mean they can just lay down and get run over by the Flyers who knew it would be extremely easy to get the Penguins off their game? Not at all. The Penguins need to get more from their forwards who do not wear 87 or 71. The defense needs to be able to move opposing players from the front of the net and protect the crease. Rob Scuderi was very successful at that last night by putting his body on the ice to block shots and passes. That is the kind of effort the Penguins need to see from all of their players.
Sidney Crosby scored his 300th career goal in the 1st period to take a 1-0 lead but the Penguins managed to squander that momentum by the end of the period. They lost the lead and their composure. The Penguins went to the box a total of 5 times last night for a total of 12 minutes. The amount of penalties this team takes during a game is more than disconcerting, it is downright dispicable. At this point it looks as if the Penguins will make it to the playoffs but their propinquity for penalties will result in an early exit.
The Penguins did not seem excited about playing a big rivalry game last night at home. However, the opposition seemed to love it. "“I wish we had more games here,” Flyers coach Craig Berube said. “We get excited, and we play well against the Penguins. It's one of those teams that brings out the best in us. We feel pretty comfortable in this building, that's for sure,” (http://triblive.com/sports/-topstories/8083347-74/flyers-penguins-goal#ixzz3W9qeEYOa). The Flyers feel comfortable playing in Pittsburgh, really? The Flyers should be dreading to skate on Pittsburgh's ice, not the Penguins.
As I alluded to earlier, the Penguins are only playing with 5 defenseman. Christian Ehrhoff is out with an upper body injury and Kris Letang is out indefinitely with yet another concussion. The Penguins almost lost Paul Martin at the end of the 2nd period when he took a slap shot to the right side of his head. Hit him squarely on the ear. Thankfully, he returned in the 3rd. The defensemen did work extremely hard Wednesday night due to the amount of penalties they had to kill off and were praised by their head Coach.
After Johnston praised the defense for their valiant efforts he then blamed the forwards for taking bad penalties. It must be nice to be able to place blame on someone else. I do not think anyone was convinced by this Head Coaching hiring in the offseason and it is starting to look worse everyday. The penalties and mistakes this team makes every game has to be addressed by Johnston. The Head Coach is responsible for how is players perform on the ice. He needs to make it clear to them that penalties, no matter what kind of game it is, will not be tolerated. If he has to start benching guys for committing penalties or invoking fines then that is what he should do. As a fan it is great to see your team make it to the playoffs and make a run for the league championship. However, if your team consistently dissapoints themselves there is no way they deserve to be in the running.
