Some work to do
Penguins prove they aren’t ready for prime time yet in exhibition loss
The Penguins dropped their lone exhibition game before the start of the playoffs, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, in overtime Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
It was just an exhibition, you say? Big whoop? It didn’t count for anything?
Tell that to some of the Penguins players. Bryan Rust and Brian Dumoulin stood in front of slappers. Evgeni Malkin was still screaming for the puck late in the third period, hungry to produce the game-tying goal. Sidney Crosby felt the need to be in uniform, even though he has been dealing with an undisclosed injury.
To them, this wasn’t just an exhibition. The large numbers on the scoreboard don’t matter, but how they played did. And right away it became clear that the Penguins have work to do.
“I thought we got better as the game went on,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It was a sloppy game, especially in the first couple of periods. I guess it’s probably to be expected given the fact that these guys haven’t played in quite a while.”
Their rust was as evident as the fact that Scotiabank Arena was eerily empty.
Moments in, Kris Letang got caught up ice after the forwards coughed up the puck in the neutral zone. Matt Murray had to stretch out to deny Jakub Voracek.
After scoring the game’s first goal, Conor Sheary turned down a point-blank look on a 2-on-1 to instead try to force a pass through a lane that wasn’t there.
The biggest brain cramp came in the final minute of the first period, when Malkin for some reason made a blind pass into the middle of his defensive zone. It was tape to tape. Unfortunately, it was the stick of Kevin Hayes, who easily pulled the puck around a flat-footed Murray and slammed it home from the paint.
Those lowlights probably
stood out to most observers. But throughout the game there were a bunch of little blunders — gambles at both blue lines, a too-many-men penalty and 17 total turnovers — that might add up to a mountain of trouble if the Penguins play like that early in the five-game qualifying round.
They can’t feel out the Montreal Canadiens for a game or two starting Saturday, then hope to flip a switch, especially if their power play is as toothless as it was Tuesday.
The Penguins power play was one area that disappointed Sullivan, who admitted they have “a ways to go.” Another was the execution of their breakouts.
“In the first part of the game, I don’t think we handled their forecheck as well as we could have,” Sullivan said. “We had opportunities to make plays to beat the pressure and we hit a skate or we hit a stick. … I just think those are the subtleties that I’m talking about, that these guys will get better [over time].”
The Flyers might lack the kind of cannons the Penguins can wheel out there, but they looked like the team more ready for playoff hockey. They flustered the Penguins blue-liners without an all-out forecheck. They clogged the middle of the ice. And, when the Flyers had the puck, they didn’t mind lobbing it deep.
That was the kind of stuff the Penguins did in November and December and early January, when they were one of the NHL’s best and most mentally tough teams despite injuries. But they got away from that after the AllStar break and were doing some serious soul-searching when the season halted March 12.
The peak Penguins were so resilient, overcoming significant adversity, including some adversity they created for themselves. One silver lining Tuesday was that they did perform better in the third period. They had fewer one-and-done trips into the offensive zone and kept pushing until Jason Zucker tied it late.
“We started coming there in the second and third [periods],” Dumoulin said. “Obviously, we’ve got to get better in some areas and I thought we were really competitive and it was a lot of fun being back out there with this group.”
The 3-on-3 overtime was irrelevant because that’s nothing like playoff hockey. But the Penguins did allow a couple of breakaways on Tristan Jarry, who split the game with Murray. Scott Laughton converted the second one.
The Penguins get four days to regroup. The series opener Saturday against the Canadiens, their second game in 20 weeks, is going to mean a heck of a lot more than the first. That doesn’t mean this game was insignificant.
“It’s the one opportunity we had to try to assess where we’re at, look at the areas where we think we were good and find areas where we can improve and get better,” Sullivan said. “And we’ll go to work on that stuff [Wednesday].”