Tired Penguins get exposed
to run out of quality performances to substitute for the unending parade to the trainer’s room.
So it was at the Canadian Tire Centre that the Penguins finally looked, uh, tired. Oh, like you could resist. “We’ve dealt with it all year long, so are we worried about it? No,” said a fairly disgusted Sullivan after a 5-1 humbling by the galloping Ontarians. “We don’t have a choice. That’s just the reality of the circumstance. It’s nothing that this team isn’t accustomed to. We’ve been dealing with this all year long — I mean Kris Letang played 40 games for us this year. We’ve had to find a way to win without Tanger for half the year, which is hard to do — he’s an elite player.”
Hornqvist, Rust, and Schultz were missing Wednesday night, Letang has missed the entire postseason, as had Murray until he found himself in goal behind a fully-panicked defense in that wicked first period.
The second period wasn’t six minutes old before defenseman Trevor Daley, who was obviously not close to 100 percent healthy, and Evgeni Malkin tumbled to the ice and slid in a twisted tandem into the dasher boards like struck bowling pins in what looked like perhaps simultaneous lower body injuries.
“We’re a team that’s bounced back all year,” said Daley. “But when a team’s goin’ like they were, it’s hard to find a way to turn that tide. We’re gonna put that one behind us and forget about it.”
If I were Sullivan, I’d give the Penguins a day off today. No skating, no shooting, not so much as any thinking about hockey.
Or was that last night? problem, too.
Crosby had 10 shots on goal in his previous seven games. Sheary had one or none in eight of his 13 playoff games before Game 3. Olli Maatta (13 shots on goal) had been more of an offensive threat than Guentzel (eight) and Nick Bonino (10) over the previous seven games.
The Penguins, a puck-possession team under coach Mike Sullivan and the regular-season shots on goal leaders, have to do better here.
“You have to work for those extra breaks,” Kunitz said. “You have to be putting a higher quantity of shots at their goalie and making it tougher for their goalie to see. It’s not enough to have shots from the outside and no one in front finding those rebounds. We have to make it tough on their goalie if we’re going to have a chance.
Bottom-six production has lacked, too. Cullen doesn’t have a point in six games. Bonino has gone without a goal in nine. Until Crosby’s goal, the power play had been bad as well, his nifty stick play in front snapping a 2-for-25 funk for that unit.
“We’re not scoring goals right now,” Cullen said. “It’s important for us to do that if we want to win. I don’t think we battled hard enough at either end of the ice to expect to score goals and expect to win a game.”
You could blame injuries for the loss. No Kris Letang or Justin Schultz. Neither Brian Dumoulin nor Trevor Daley are healthy. The Penguins were without Schultz, Bryan Rust and Patric Hornqvist on this night.
But nobody around the Penguins is going to blame injuries. They will, however, blame a lousy start. Odd bounces, sure, but the Penguins hardly were ready from the drop of the puck.
“When you give a goal that early in the game, against a team that’s playing at home, it gives their team a lot of energy,” Sullivan said, speaking of Mike Hoffman’s tally 48 seconds in. “We have to be ready right from the drop of the puck. We have to be better.
“You can’t lose a first period by four goals and think you’re going to win.”
Marc Methot made it 2-0 at 10:34 off another odd bounce. He pinched at the left point, fired a shot off Fleury’s shoulder that later hit Ian Cole’s skate or shin pad before going in.
Derick Brassard stretched the Senators lead to 3-0 at 12:28 of the first when he slipped behind defenseman Mark Streit, playing his first game since April 9, and picked up a gorgeous backdoor pass from Clarke MacArthur.
Zack Smith’s wraparound goal at 12:52 of the opening period meant a 4-0 lead and curtains for Fleury, who allowed four goals on nine shots.
The situation was as devastating as it was surprising; in his previous five playoff starts at Ottawa, Fleury went 5-0 with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage.
By the time Matt Murray allowed a goal to Kyle Turris at 18:18 of the third period, this one was long over. Crosby’s power-play goal at 6:07 did little to change that.
“There’s only one way to go,” Cullen said. “We have a group that’s been there. We’ve done it. We have to decide the way we want to play. If we play the right way, we give ourselves a really good shot. If we don’t, this is what happens.”