PENS TORCH THE FLAMES
Pittsburgh lights up goalie Smith
Having played nearly four seasons with Sidney Crosby as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, James Neal had little advice to give on how to stop the best player in the world.
“That’s probably impossible,” the Calgary Flames forward said before Thursday’s clash.
So it was almost predictable when the Penguins captain cruised into Calgary’s zone with Sam Bennett draped all over him, drove to the net with one hand on his stick and managed to get another hand on it before roofing a backhander over Mike Smith’s shoulder. Just 4:23 had elapsed in the opening frame.
But what Neal didn’t elaborate on was the rest of the Penguins attack, which was fully engaged from puck drop and made quick work of Flames No. 1 netminder Mike Smith en route to a 9-1 stomping at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Smith allowed six goals on 21 shots before being yanked 9:19 into the second period. To the cheers of the Saddledome, David Rittich replaced the veteran. But the damage had been done.
It was only one loss in an 82-game season. But after what Flames sparkplug Matthew Tkachuk called an “embarrassing effort” Tuesday in Montreal, the response was mind blowing.
“If we expect to play like that, we’ll be probably blown out of the building by these teams that are coming in,” Tkachuk said after the loss to Montreal. “So we have to sharpen it up.”
Heads hung low, the Flames headed to the dressing room in the second period to a chorus of boos from home fans who watched the Flames lose their second straight, the first being that 3-2 setback on the road at Montreal.
Speaking of the Flames faithful, they headed for the exits when Jack Johnson scored with 21 seconds left in second period, departing not just because they wanted to get in line early for the bathrooms. Many didn’t return.
It wasn’t like the home side gave them much reason to stick around. Calgary mustered 14 shots in the third period.
The Flames did get chances, 39 of them in fact. But Penguins netminder Matt Murray and the visitors’ slick defensive coverage played them relentlessly.
Not to mention Crosby and his pals put on a scoring clinic. Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel each scored two goals, while Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel and Matt Cullen also scored.
The Penguins went 2-for-2 on the power play, while the Flames continue to sputter.
They were 0-for-3, the seventh game this season they’ve been shut out, and dropped to 6-for-38 through 10 games this season.
Only two players escaped the game without a minus to their stat line: Garnet Hathaway and Dillon Dube.
In the end, Rittich allowed three goals on 15 shots — one of the markers was with 6:05 remaining when the Flames left Guentzel alone in front to tip in Crosby’s point shot. The other came with 1:26 remaining in the third, seconds after Neal had scored the Flames’ lone goal of the game.
The result put the last four games between these teams into perspective. All four previous contests had gone into overtime or a shootout with Calgary winning three of the four contests outside of a 4-3 overtime loss March 5 at Pittsburgh. Before Thursday’s game, the Flames had a 5-2-1 record against the Penguins.
This one, by far, was their worst game against the Penguins in recent memory and their worst game of this young season.
The Flames dropped to 5-5-0 and it only gets worse as the defending Stanley Cup champions arrive for a Saturday matinee.
CROSBY GOES VIRAL AGAIN
Crosby continues to amaze, most recently in a video called The Away Game presented by Tim Hortons in which Kenya’s only hockey team — the Kenya Ice Lions — spends the day playing with the Penguins captain and the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon.
The Kenyan team travelled to Canada to play in a game, a huge change from the Ice Lions’ home rink in Nairobi.
The three minute 20 second video has been watched close to 1.4 million times on YouTube and Crosby said he didn’t expect it to blow up like it did.
“I’ve been part of different things over the years and that one was up there as far as it being unique and a really cool opportunity,” he said.
HAMONIC IN, VALIMAKI OUT
Bill Peters reminded the media of the simple equation.
“If a guy comes in, another guy has to come out,” said the Calgary Flames head coach.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to understand that if a healthy Travis Hamonic were to be inserted into the lineup Thursday against the Penguins one defenceman would have to sit.
And 20-year-old Juuso Valimaki happened to be the odd man out. Given it’s his first healthy scratch of what is looking like it will be a long NHL career, it’s not completely detrimental for Valimaki to observe.
“It’s interesting when you’re up there,” Peters said. “I think it’s a very valuable tool. Every guy you talk to says there’s more time. There’s more plays to be made out there. I have more time than I think … there’s good players you can watch and come back and have good communication with your position coach … there’s more time than they think.”
Valimaki had a goal and was a minus-3 in his first nine NHL games, which have seen some growing pains, but arguably the level-headed blue-liner hasn’t looked out of place. He’s logged an average of 15:13 in ice time per game, primarily skating thirdpairing minutes with Michael Stone.
But Peters indicated he’d rather have Valimaki in the lineup than not, but by no means does this assignment signal an automatic demotion to the American Hockey League.
“We’re not in that situation at all yet,” Peters said. “He could be in, but we’re a long way away from those conversations.”