Penguins
Karlsson Implodes, Penguins Crushed in Carolina
RALEIGH, NC — By the middle of the third period, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby glided slowly across the ice on a line change, then slammed the bench door.
The Carolina Hurricanes (10-2-0) had just four shots on goal in the first period, but three of them were high-danger chances, including a pair of goals. The Pittsburgh Penguins (5-8-2) controlled much of the territory, but a few horrendous mistakes by defenseman Erik Karlsson gifted Carolina sure-fire goals, and the Penguins melted from there.
The top-heavy Penguins team was not able to convert their chances, and the game withered into a morose exposition of the Penguins’ mistakes. Carolina beat the Penguins 5-1 at Lenovo Center Thursday. Carolina has won eight in a row.
The Penguins are winless in their last six road games, including the recent four-game trip through Western Canada and Tuesday’s shootout loss to the New York Islanders.
Just 52 seconds into the game, Penguins center Lars Eller’s pass was intercepted at center ice, and Carolina transitioned quickly against the Penguins. Karlsson didn’t cover Jordan Martinook (2), who was open for a perfect deflection past goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
Midway through the first period was Karlsson’s most egregious error as Sebastian Aho got behind him at center ice, and Jack Roslovic breezed past into the offensive zone. Aho fed Roslovic (8) in the slot for the uncontested chance and goal.
Roslovic (9) scored again midway through the second period when Karlsson and Eller didn’t close the passing lane from either direction, and Roslovic whistled another wrister past Nedeljkovic from the left circle at 9:27.
The Penguins’ power play was 0-for-3 in the first two periods, with nine shots on goal but precious few scoring chances, including on a four-minute power play later in the first period. Coach Mike Sullivan replaced Karlsson on the top power-play unit with Michael Bunting at the start of the second period.
However, on their 12th shot on goal, Carolina scored their fourth goal. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin’s long wrist shot through multiple screens eluded Nedeljkovic at 13:52.
The Penguins were outshooting Carolina 25-13 after 40 minutes, but according to NaturalStatTrick.com, each team had only three high-danger chances.
Early in the third period, Carolina winger Erik Robertson slipped between Penguins coverages near the net and easily beat Nedewljkovic at 2:07, who was again hung out to dry by his team (in this case, d-man Ryan Shea and forward Jesse Puljujarvi).
Penguins fourth-line center Blake Lizotte broke Pytor Kochetkov’s shutout at 5:08 of the third by burying a rebound chance. The Penguins fired 37 shots at Kochetkov but were scored with only eight high-danger chances.
Officially, Nedeljkovic stopped 14 of 19 shots.
Penguins Notes
Forward Cody Glass did not return for the second period. TV replays showed he collided with teammate Lars Eller late in the period.
In the second period, Sidney Crosby became the NHL’s all-time face-off leader with 14,838 face-off wins, surpassing Patrice Bergeron.
Read This Next
Recommended
Doesn’t look like anything can save this bunch, eh.
At 0-2 for the Canes the Pens were still pouring it on….the Canes goalie was lights out, standing on his head, a brick wall…that SOaB..I was hoping to say a two goal lead is the worst score in hockey but unfortunately it got worse and worse. It’ll be hard to watch the game tomorrow, Craps are pretty good and will not only want to win but rough the Pens up also….that will be ugly. Dan please put a positive spin on this $hit show
Kochetkov was good but it was not an impressive performance. Pens had very few dangerous shots and almost no second chances…
It’s simply too easy to play against this team. Carolina didn’t even need to push hard tonight! It’s almost free access to the Pens zone, no sticks into the pass lanes, no hustle, no man nor zone coverage, everybody is watching the puck instead of what’s happenning behind, nobody gets push from the front of the net, tons of errant or blind passes to exit the zone… This defensive zone play is a disgrace!!
Sell who you can at the trade deadline, and call up some of the younger players from WBS. I’d rather watch the younger players like Broz, Pickering etc the last couple of months of this season.
I get that Dubas probably can’t trade Karlsson at the moment – but that doesn’t mean Sullivan has to keep sending him out on the ice every night either.
Time for this dude to get a big, prolonged batch of press box nachos.
The last Penguins road win was with Tristan Jarry in goal.
Since then, he had a poor start, the 3 goals on 5 shots. And followed that up with 4-0 record with .946 sve pct, 1.69 gaa, and a star in 3 of 4 games.
At this point, it’s insulting if he does not play in Washington. He reported for duty in ahl…performed well. Do they have to squeeze out every drop of humiliation? Zero road wins for big club since. ‘Form’ looks regained.
Karlsson may be the worst Penguins defenseman of the last 25 years. He just has no interest whatsoever w/playing defense. With reference to an earlier article you put out today, after watching this debacle tonight, no to trading for any of Nashville’s older players.
It’s simply too easy to play against this team. Carolina didn’t even need to push hard tonight! It’s almost free access to the Pens zone, no sticks into the pass lanes, no hustle, no man nor zone coverage, everybody is watching the puck instead of what’s happenning behind, nobody gets push from the front of the net, tons of errant or blind passes to exit the zone… This defensive zone play is a disgrace!!