Penguins Report Card: A Wild Ride, Opportunities, & Surviving an Onslaught

It was a good thing the Pittsburgh Penguins practiced their 3v3 overtime chops this week at the UPMC Lemieux Facility. Their defensive work was lacking, their breakouts were detrimental, and they were otherwise dominated by the Florida Panthers.

Yet the Penguins, who have folded their tents in response to adversity more often than nomadic wanderers, did not fold. They stood their ground despite not having their A-game. Or, their B game. The Penguins eeked out a 5-4 overtime win over Florida at PPG Paints Arena when Bryan Rust whipped a top-corner wrist shot past Spencer Knight.

The Penguins were fairly proud of their effort–No, this time, they didn’t crumble.

“For us, showing that resolve and getting these wins, when early in the year we folded when we gave up the lead, I think that’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Rust said.

But opportunistic goals reversed near total Florida domination and spotted the Penguins a 4-1 lead in the third period despite being outshot 38-14 in the first 50 minutes of the game. The wild ride began seven minutes into the third period as Florida scored three unanswered goals in 4:32 to force overtime.

The Penguins’ wild and chaotic ride continued in overtime. Erik Karlsson led a three-on-one break, but his errant pass negated any chance to score. Yet the hockey gods rewarded the Penguins with another opportunity in overtime as Bryan Rust sniped the winner for a 5-4 OT win.

Simply unbelievable. The Penguins could play that game 100 times over, and they would lose 99 of them. However, a few exemplary performances carried the team, not the least of which was goalie Tristan Jarry.

Jarry’s stats won’t show a great game—allowing four goals will hurt a goalie’s stats—but Jarry made 37 saves, and Florida had a lot of high-danger chances.

“I thought (Jarry) stood tall in there all night long,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “He was fantastic.”

When is a two-goal lead never safe? When it’s the Penguins, especially against a team capable of barnstorming the best in the NHL, Florida. The Penguins scored two goals on their first three shots, including a dandy play to spring Evgeni Malkin at full speed in the slot for the Penguins’ second goal.

The first period began to look more like a true mismatch, as Florida had 18 scoring chances in the first period. They also had seven high-danger chances, allowing the Penguins just five scoring chances and one high-danger chance.

After 40 minutes, Florida was outshooting the Penguins 24-10 and outchancing them 27-13.

However, the Penguins were the opportunists. Rather than watching the opponents bury mistakes in the Penguins’ net, the Penguins got very good goaltending, a couple of bounces, and hard-earned goals for a 3-1 lead. And then a 4-1 lead.

But like a rubber band (or gum band, as Yinzers might say), if you pull it too far, it will snap back, and that’s what happened to the Penguins. The hockey gods took back their good fortune and made them work for a win. The mistakes weren’t the focus; overcoming what should have been insurmountable was.

“I think it’s it’s obviously a little bit easier when you’ve won a couple in a row. You have a little bit more confidence, and you’re able to do everything that you need to do with confidence,” said Jarry. “I think that helps a lot. And being able to get the string these (wins together), I think this is good for our group after what we started the season with.”

Penguins Analysis

What the Penguins did well:

Despite being outclassed, the Penguins held firm by keeping Florida to the perimeter for most of the first two periods. Despite Florida having the puck and pressure in the zone, the Penguins backcheck was on point, and the Panthers were largely covered.

The Penguins also made several slick plays under duress to get up the ice, especially on the first two goals.

Doesn’t ignoring the myriad of continuing mistakes count as a positive or negative?

What the Penguins didn’t do well:

Protect the puck. Play connected. It wasn’t their F-level game, but it was barely C-level.

Florida was not shy about pressuring the Penguins’ breakout lanes. The top defensemen were a little paralyzed by the pressure and chose bridges to nowhere rather than skating. The Penguins’ forwards didn’t do a good enough job of helping the defensemen with options, and the defense didn’t do a good job of breaking the pressure with their feet, instead making more than enough terrible passes to the wrong team.

The Penguins defensemen again had trouble threading needles on the breakouts as Erik Karlsson generously shared the puck with the visitors. Kris Letang gift-wrapped a couple of biscuits for Florida, and Matt Grzelcyk put Jarry on the spot with a whopper of turnover later in the second period. Jarry made a pair of saves on uncontested shots, first by Evan Rodrigues from the middle of the slot and then the rebound chance by Aleksander Barkov.

In the parlance of our time, the Penguins were largely not playing connected hockey.

Penguins Report Card

Team: C-

They played just short of a brutal game. A leaky goal, Owen Pickering’s first NHL goal, allowed by Knight, set the tone. The Penguins were being dominated but had a lead.

The team had a lot of passengers but only a few players who brought their best.

Tristan Jarry: A

He allowed a softy early in the first period, but it didn’t count because Florida was offsides. Jarry was pretty close to spectacular the rest of the way. The wake-up call didn’t land on the scoreboard, and Jarry made several 10-bell saves on Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk.

Jarry anticipated well and didn’t get rattled by the near-constant Florida pressure. He won the goalie battle against Knight.

Marcus Pettersson: A+

So many things he did will not show up on the stat sheets, nor will they show up on NaturalStatTrick.com. In fact, because he was on the ice for so many scoring chances against, his time on ice would be viewed negatively by anyone looking more at the analytics than the game. However, Pettersson broke up countless scoring chances, including a dangerous two-on-one just 25 seconds into the second period.

He covered extremely well for a sketchy game by Erik Karlsson.

Pettersson scored a beauty of a goal early in the third period. On the rush, he went straight to the net and deked a move to the forehand, instead roofing a backhand at full speed.

Bunting-Lizotte-Beauvillier: A

The only Penguins line with a positive Corsi and scoring chance rate. It was rather obvious, too. The line accounted for a pair of goals as defensemen Owen Pickering and Kris Letang scored off their hard work on the forecheck and puck possession in the low zone.

I wasn’t crazy about Michael Bunting missing a touch pass which led to Florida’s first goal, but he otherwise played well.

Nieto-Acciari-Hayes: Zero-point-Zero.

The line had zero scoring chances and just two shot attempts, yielding 11 scoring chances. They were skating in quicksand.

Erik Karlsson: F

Karlsson was not good. He was flatfooted and too eager to move the puck, and too many of his passes were to Florida players.

Grzelcyk-Letang: C-

They had bad turnovers, but somehow, they also fought through their lesser games and were positive. Sullivan swapped his D pairs later in the third period. We’ll see if they stick or if it was to protect Pickering-Shea, thus moving Shea back to the left side in crunch time.