Penguins/NHL
Game 1 Post-Game Buzz
No Steven Stamkos, No Anton Stralman, No Ben Bishop, No Tyler Johnson for the first period, No Problem for the Tampa Bay Lightning in taking Game 1 with a 3-1 win on Friday night.
From the Penguins standpoint, I’m sure some are going to look at this one as a missed opportunity because of how many top players Tampa Bay was missing.
Pittsburgh failed to capitalize on a five-minute power play early in the first period, couldn’t take advantage of a cold Andrei Vasilevskiy coming in for an injured Ben Bishop, and looked out of sync in the first forty minutes.
Some will probably look at the Penguins shot advantage of 34-20 and also see that as a missed opportunity.
However, in playoff hockey it’s all about the quality of chances not shots.
Whether this was a missed opportunity or not is for others to debate, the facts are the Lightning did lot of a good things and excelled in some of the critical areas that made them a dangerous opponent coming in.
Plain and simple, the better team took Game 1.
Tampa Bay is one of those teams that doesn’t need to get a lot of shots. They are very good at spreading the opposition out and scoring off the rush. Two of their goals came off the rush (or breakaway), a key for them to upsetting Pittsburgh this series.
The first one with Olli Maatta getting burnt on a stretch pass by Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn walking in for a breakaway goal. It was a typical blunder from Maatta whose lack of mobility is going haunt the Penguins more in this series like it did tonight than it did in the first two rounds against slower teams.
The Lightning then struck late in the second period off a Brian Dumoulin turnover in the offensive zone that also saw Kris Letang showing poor awareness in leading to a 2-on-1 goal from Drouin to put the Lightning up 3-0.
“The quality of chances we gave up were high,” Mike Sullivan said. “Tampa has a very good transition game and we knew that coming in. They stretch the ice pretty well. Our defenseman have to be aware. It starts with awareness,” said Sullivan.
What Tampa Bay did extremely well was not letting the Penguins get to their speed game.
“We’ve gotta find a way to get back to our game,” Sullivan said after the game of the Penguins regrouping.
Pittsburgh managed just one shot on Vasilevskiy in 7:35 of action in the first period, something Lightning coach Jon Cooper thought was huge in helping the Lightning handle the situation of seeing their star goaltender leave on a stretcher. “He was a rock,” Cooper said of Vasilevskiy.
Through the first two periods, Vasilevskiy only faced 10 shots, stopping nine. The Penguins failed to get into his sight-lines as he was seeing almost everything cleanly and the Penguins only goal of the night was a situation where Braydon Coburn did the job for the Penguins in screening Vasilevskiy on the Hornqvist goal.
The Lightning in a way kind of looked like the Boston Bruins from the 2013 Conference Finals in how they beat the Penguins tonight.
The biggest takeaway was how successful Tampa Bay was in keeping the Penguins to the outside.
“They defend hard, they block shots, they got people in the lanes,” Sullivan said. “They have good support mechanisms when somebody gets beat.” [hide][/hide]
Pens didnt put up the points, but im sure we all found comfort in them doing the little things. They are all Top 4 TIOPS performers in my book.
If only pens ship mattaa and malkin this summer
I wouldnt trade Malkin unless they got a top line center in return. Dont think Sid is ready for a top 6 role yet…
Yeah no shit. The Canadian fraud can’t score with a top center on the team. Can you imagine what he’d be like without one? 9 games in a row without a goal? Ah. Smells like the playoffs.
They can trade whoever Mattaa is.
“No Tyler Johnson for the first period”… He got hurt with 30 seconds left lol
Sit Maatta and put Rust on Malkin’s wing. Pens win game two.
fehr is a 4th liner. rust would be the better option.
Sam. Looked like your boy letang was carrying is French issued white flag on his person last night.
I’m sending some positive waves out for Kevin Stevens. I hope that dude pulls it together.
What happened again banging cheap hookers in a shitty motels or cocain problem for my fellow american
selling oxy
i’m not surprised the pens sucked tonight. after coming off of the huge game 6 win against the caps, and then having a few days off at home, i figured their intensity could be down and it was. also, how long can the pens continue to win with malkin and crosby unable to score goals?
Pens were winning when malkin was injured. 16-1
Malkin not being injured must make Sid suck balls. Or is it just the playoffs and the autumn that does that?
I agree Yoda – at some point if they want to be the best team and win the cup – let alone this round – those guys have to find a way to be difference makers…..
Dumo and Letang wouldn’t have had their faces smashed in if Sestito was playing.
youre an idiot…how old are you, 12?
Church! Stan Jr.
Resident Sid apologist Mstar is back!!!
Dude I rip on Sid all the time when he sucks. As much as you post on here you should know that. I know you have the time so show me when I have apologized for Sid’s play? Jesus you are angry and your side kick Dusty is just as annoying. Man this site used to be so much better.