Penguins Grades: Their Best Effort & Their Biggest Problem

What happens when a team is able to absolutely dominate play but not able to score? Sadly, the once-powerful offensive juggernaut known as the Pittsburgh Penguins is now such a team.

They did almost everything right. They dominated yet still lost as the New York Rangers got enough saves and opportunistic goals, and the Penguins did not, in a 5-3 Rangers win at PPG Paints Arena.

Read More: Shesterkin, Rangers Manage to Fend Off Penguins

Midway through the second period, the Penguins were outshooting the New York Rangers 26-5. According to Naturalstattrick.com, the Penguins were also outchancing the Rangers 18-6 and had a 7-2 high-danger advantage after 30 minutes. However, we will argue the Penguins had far more than seven high-danger chances. In fact, we scored them with FOUR in one sequence, leading to a Rangers penalty at 4:45.

The Penguins onslaught continued for most of the second period, extending past halfway. The team had the first 14 shots in the second period before getting a power play at 12:26. The Penguins were buzzing like bees around a hive.

“I just think we have to continue to dig in. I said to them after the game, if we put that game on the ice on most nights, we’re going to win some games. And I believe that,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “I thought we carried territory, zone time, chances, opportunities. You know, you can’t always control whether the puck goes in the net or not. What you can control is the process to give yourself opportunities to create chances. And I thought our group did that.”

The short analysis is this is what happens with a team of players who aren’t NHL scorers, and in blunt analysis, some might not be NHL players much longer. That’s the Penguins’ biggest problem.

The Penguins are relying on, if not leaning heavily on, Anthony Beauvillier, Danton Heinen, Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes, and Philip Tomasino as top-nine forwards.

As for the game itself, the Penguins were rope-a-doped. They punched, and punched, and punched at the Rangers a few more times. The great scoring chances piled up, yet somehow, New York goalie Igor Shesterkin didn’t have to make too many great saves.

Shesterkin made them all, but the Penguins made a few too many too easy for him, as well.

The Rangers had a grand total of four shots in the second period, adding to their whopping total of five in the first, and yet bad luck delivered a roundhouse righthand when defenseman P.O Joseph couldn’t cleanly handle a bouncing puck at the offensive blue line–launching New York on a two-on-one.

With a poetic irony, it was Pittsburgh native J.T. Miller who put the first dagger in the Penguins’ heart at 17:00 of the second period. Miller, whom former general manager Ron Hextall declined to give Vancouver two first-round picks and a solid prospect at the 2023 NHL trade deadline, converted a two-on-one opportunity for a 2-1 lead.

It was bad luck but not lost on Joseph that he could have done a bit more, too.

“I saw (Adam) Fox just going back and forth, keeping the puck, and it was just trying to rim and just try to block it. And I did. You know, I’ve got to execute, and it’s a two-on-one the opposite way in the back of the net,” said Joseph. “So I think I’ve just got to be stiffer on pucks.

“I mean, it’s part of the game. It’s plays that you wish you could see back and see it again and do it again. But, you know, I’m going to watch it and learn from it.”

By later in the second period, social media was filled with Penguins fans calling the marginally soft goal or bad luck, too. The Hockey Gods telegraphed that one. It was a classic Vince McMahon-booked squash match with the twist finish played to perfection.

For the second day in a row, a Metro Divison goalie well outperformed the Penguins netminder. Joel Blomqvist stopped six of the eight shots he faced in 40 minutes. Then allowed a couple more stoppable goals–though not exactly soft goals.

With respect to Blomqvist, who is only 23, he has more work to do at the NHL level; shooters are quite a bit better in Pittsburgh than in Wilkes-Barre. None of the Rangers goals was unstoppable.

“It’s such a different pace here in the NHL compared to (the AHL). And everything happens faster,” said Blomqvist. “So, you know, you need to just be faster with everything.”

Full stop: This is part of the development process. It’s what happens when a team plays the young players. You’re going to get some bad bounces, bad plays, and some headscratchers.

Buckle up. “Play the young players” also means they are learning on the job.

At this rate, the Penguins’ season will soon be about development, and he’ll have the opportunity to learn a few more hard knocks.

“I don’t know if it’s a case of we’re coming off the break and we need to get some game action. But I know that both (Nedeljkovic) and Joel are capable of better,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “You know, Joel’s a young goaltender. He’s very athletic. We’re really excited about about this guy. But he’s a young goaltender. He’s going through a learning process here.”

The Penguins have 23 games remaining and have just 55 points. For them to get to 92 points, they’ll need the equivalent of 18.5 wins of the next 23.

“We understand where we’re at. We know that every game is important. Every two points are important. We’re just going to stay in the moment and keep fighting,” said Sullivan. “And we’re going to fight until the very end. So we’re going to do everything we can to stay in the race here. I thought we fought hard tonight. We didn’t get the result. We’ve got to figure out where we go from here, but. I don’t think anybody is (pause). It’s not doom and gloom.”

Xs and Os

Sullivan gave a bit of a coaching masterclass. I’m sorry to the many who insist he is the problem.

Sullivan devised a little scheme to deal with the Rangers’ forecheck. It’s not like Sullivan hasn’t seen Peter Laviolette’s system before, and the Penguins were able to wrestle control early in the game by keeping their F3 high.

The third forward essentially acted as a speedbump for the Rangers’ forecheck, slowing their F1 down at the blue line and creating time and space for the Penguins’ defensemen to retrieve the puck and flip the direction forward. The Penguins did that enough times in the first period to take the Rangers out of the game.

Simply, the Penguins dominated the puck by taking away the Rangers game. Sullivan outcoached Laviolette.

The Penguins’ offensive scheme was quite simple, too: corner to the net. The Penguins owned the walls with good support from defensemen, especially P.O Joseph.

There was a minor problem.

The transitional roster makes it much more difficult for the Penguins to score goals than it has been in a long, long time.

“Obviously, we lose two in a row coming off the break, and that wasn’t the plan,” said Kevin Hayes. “Last night wasn’t what we wanted to put on the ice, and I thought today we played a really good game and that we were the better team the whole night. And unfortunately, that’s how hockey works sometimes.”

Penguins Report Card

Team: A

I think Sullivan said it best.

“If we put that game on the ice on most nights, we’re going to win some games

The Penguins played to the best of their ability for most of the game—just that’s the best they’ve got. In Sullivan’s vernacular, they competed hard, had energy, and battled.

For the report card purposes, we’re going to highlight players who had standout games, good and bad. Of course, Crosby is rarely graded because he’s usually so good. He was again Sunday.

P.O Joseph: One Blemish

Joseph–26 years old–was flying. He was up on the rush at appropriate times, back on defense, and his pinches created offense from the very first shift.

He’d like that bouncer at the end of the second period back. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because I’ve seen just about every NHL defenseman get burned in that situation at one time or another.

Joseph was dealing, including a charge to the net in which he slipped the puck between his legs to his backhand for a high-danger scoring chance in the first period.

Erik Karlsson: Minus-3.

Karlsson has not translated his Team Sweden success to the Penguins. It’s back to the salt mines for Karlsson and he’s playing some disinterested hockey, interrupted by some highlight moments.

Michael Bunting-Kevin Hayes-Philip Tomasino: Lots to Like

The line created a lot of scoring chances that didn’t count on the paper sheets. The puck was around the net. They were a bounce or a (lack of) good save away from putting a couple in the net.

Kevin Hayes has been playing very well lately. Very well.