The Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to New York on Nov. 5 to tackle Metro Divison rival the Islanders. After taking part in a stable first two intervals, helped out by robust goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic, the Penguins fell aside within the third interval. This allowed the Islanders to come back again from a two-goal deficit and finally take the win in a shootout, 4-3.
All 4 Strains Rolling
Head coach Mike Sullivan continues to shuffle the ahead strains round, looking for one thing that works. It appeared to work within the loss to the Islanders, as all 4 strains might get themselves going and create offensively. The road of Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, and Evgeni Malkin tallied two of the three objectives (Crosby and Malkin each scored).
Associated: Pittsburgh Penguins’ Early Season Standouts
Together with that got here the offseason acquisitions of Blake Lizotte, Kevin Hayes, and Anthony Beauvillier, who brought about havoc on the forecheck and created possibilities for themselves. Seeing all 4 strains be capable to contribute in their very own approach is a much-welcomed signal for Sullivan and the Penguins.
Penguins Fail to Play a Full 60 Minutes
Within the first 50ish minutes of the sport, the Penguins managed the tempo of play due to the robust forecheck of gamers like Lizotte and Rakell. Together with that was the robust play of Drew O’Connor. He has had a sluggish begin to the season however was everywhere in the ice and was some of the lively gamers within the offensive zone. Though he didn’t money in on Ilya Sorokin at any level, the play within the offensive zone from O’Connor is a constructive, and the hope is he can break by means of sooner somewhat than later.
The Penguins as soon as once more blew a third-period lead after taking a two-goal lead nearly midway by means of the ultimate body. The loss marked the seventh blown lead lack of the season, probably the most within the league. They managed the tempo of play for almost all of the sport and stored Sorokin busy all night time. Nonetheless, the most important downside appears to be that they take the foot off the pedal once they get a lead and permit groups to get again into video games. This was the case in opposition to an Islanders staff at the moment lacking the likes of Mathew Barzal, Anthony Duclair, and Adam Pelich. The Penguins simply appeared to virtually go into auto-pilot mode, and it ended up costing them a win they need to have had.
Particular Groups Get Loads of Work
The Islanders have one of many worst energy performs and penalty kills within the league, and the Penguins’ energy play has been a lot better than final season. So once they received 4 possibilities on the person benefit within the sport, followers anticipated extra than simply the one objective they scored (Malkin’s second-period objective). Though they solely received one objective, the unit regarded robust however continued to attempt to get a bit too overcomplicated with their play as an alternative of taking what the Islanders gave them.
Malkin was a primary instance of making an attempt to get too fancy with the puck (and a bit overly selfless) when he handed up an open shot on Sorokin within the slot by making an attempt to power a move over to Crosby. The Islanders cleared the puck following a missed play by Crosby. On the flip facet, when the Penguins simplified their play, it ended up with Malkin scoring off a pleasant move from offseason acquisition Matt Grzelyck for a one-timer that beat Sorokin five-hole.
On the 4 occasions that the Penguins have been on the penalty kill, it once more regarded stable sufficient to carry the Islanders to just one objective (Simon Holmstrom’s third-period objective).
Different Sport Notes
- Crosby’s second-period objective marked the 598th in his profession, and he finds himself two away from 600 and three from tying Jari Kurri for twentieth on the all-time checklist. He additionally pushed his level streak to 4 video games.
- Michael Bunting ended his 12-game scoreless drought by scoring his first objective of the season within the third interval off a wonderful feed from Jesse Puljujärvi.
- Nedeljkovic regarded robust within the loss, making 23 saves on 26 photographs.
On to the Subsequent One
The Penguins will look to return to the win column once they journey to Carolina to face the Hurricanes on Nov. 7.
