Stout defense puts clamps on Rangers
Limits odd-man rushes, chances
Louie Domingue is the king of Pittsburgh, a thirdstring goalie with a prepackaged underdog tale even Hollywood wouldn’t believe.
In one net, you have Domingue, a 30-year-old who has appeared in just three NHL games during the past two regular seasons. In the other net is Igor Shesterkin, a walking shutout with stats so eye-popping people have already anointed him the Vezina Trophy winner.
If the perceived mismatch alone wasn’t enough to capture the imagination of the city, Domingue’s affable personality only adds to it. A quote machine with a French-Canadian accent, Domingue blurted out the now-famous “spicy pork and broccoli, not so great” line after Game 1. Following Saturday’s game, he randomly dropped a “Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers” in the middle of an answer. Because of course he did.
Domingue is the perfect feel-good story, no doubt. Listen carefully and you can still hear the “Louuuuuuuu!” chants echoing from PPG Paints Arena. But in Monday’s 7-2 win in Game 4 against the Rangers, the more complete narrative highlights what has been going on in front of him: The defense.
The Penguins’ third goalie was solid enough Monday, stopping 20 of the 22 shots he faced. He also showed a level of resilience to bounce back after allowing a goal just 2:06 into the game on the first shot he faced. Truth be told, though, the way the Penguins played defensively, it didn’t matter who was in net — nor what they ate between periods.
“I thought on the defensive side of the puck, it might have been our most complete game of the series,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
That low shot total alone is an indication of the way the Penguins defended. But looking deeper, the Penguins limited the Rangers to just three shots from the slot, according to metrics from SportLogiq. Jake Guentzel had five shots from the slot himself. To put that into context, only one time during the entire 82game season did New York registered such a small number of quality looks.
“Tonight, we just backchecked really well,” captain Sidney Crosby said after his three-point outburst. “We got some big blocks. Our penalty kill has been solid, especially last couple games.”
The stingy defensive effort shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. At different points over the past two seasons, the Penguins have been among the league’s best defensive teams. They finished this year with the fifth-fewest goals allowed per game.
That said, the Rangers present a unique challenge. They have elite players like perennial Hart Trophy candidate Artemi Panarin, reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox, 52-goal scorer Chris Kreider and more.
Those weapons have been especially lethal when they can force turnovers and race ahead on odd-man rushes. That was the formula during the regular season, when a Penguins team predicated upon speed looked slow against all those transition chances.
For the most part this postseason, the Penguins have significantly cut down on those rush chances by managing the puck better, having numbers back and executing clean breakouts. The expectation was in the second period of Saturday’s Game 3. The game opened up and soon a three-goal deficit had been erased, proof of how the quick-strike attack and pile up goals in a hurry.
The Penguins rallied in the third period to claim that pivotal Game 3. The lessons learned through that experience evidently carried over into Game 4.
On Monday, the Penguins gave up just two scoring chances off the rush in the entire game, according to SportLogiq, both to Andrew Copp. Again for the sake of comparison, Guentzel alone had three rush chances.
“I thought we did a better job at limiting some of the odd-man rushes,” Sullivan said. “We were on the right side of the puck for most of the night, trying to make it hard for the Rangers to get quality looks.
“They’re a talented team. They’ve got some dynamic players offensively. We’ve got to do our best to try to make them work for their opportunities.”
Sullivan is fond of saying you can’t score your way to championships.
The Cup remains far away, but if the Penguins continue this type of defensive effort, they’ll show the Rangers they can’t sore their way out of the first round.