Golden Knights 2 – Penguins 1
In a game dubbed Murray vs Fleury, neither goaltender would disappoint.
Matt Murray turned aside 24 shots in a very strong performance after being on the shelf for six games and Marc Andre Fleury also stopped 24 shots, but it was Fleury and Golden Knights who would prevail with a 2-1 win.
This was a game you knew Fleury badly wanted and he delivered to knock off his former team, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the third period.
It’s December 15th, more than two months into the season and it’s the Golden Knights with a 20-9-2, 42 pts, record, while Pittsburgh has lost three straight and are 16-14-3, 35 pts, on the season.
Jon Merrill (1) broke a 1-1 tie at 8:17 into the third period to put the Golden Knights ahead 2-1. The goal was off a brutal turnover from Brian Dumoulin in the neutral zone as the Penguins were changing and Merrill blistered a feed from Eric Haula.
As Fleury got the win, it was a former Penguins connection 1:41 into the game as James Neal (15) scored his 15th goal of the season with David Perron assisting.
Ian Cole scored Pittsburgh’s lone-goal with a beautiful assist from Carl Hagelin at 12:41 of the first period.
Takeaways
— Shots ended up 26-25 Vegas, the Golden Knights fit the scouting report of being a very well coached team who are fast on pucks. Their speed game was backed up by a 26-16 edge in scoring chances during 5 on 5 play and +4 edge in high danger chances.
— Mike Sullivan has felt the Penguins have lacked a consistent net-front presence and the lack of ability to get a dirty area goal hindered the Penguins again tonight.
“We have to be harder to play against,” Sullivan said.
— The experiment of Patric Hornqvist playing left wing on Evgeni Malkin’s line didn’t go well. The Malkin line was at 37% in driving possession.
— Sidney Crosby had 0 shots in 24 shifts.
— Dominik Simon was bumped up to the 1st line right wing spot. Simon was on the ice for a team-high 23 shot attempts at even strength and posted a 64 CF%.
— Carl Hagelin played just 56 seconds in the third period of Monday’s game vs the Avalanche at even strength and coming into tonight’s game there was talk of him possibility being a scratch. He stepped up tonight with one of his better performances. Had a gorgeous assist in setting up Cole for the Penguins lone goal but Hagelin was doing things he does well in applying pressure on the forecheck and playing that speed/chaos game.
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Hunwick is putrid. Makes Hainsey look world class
These fricking guys just make me laugh!! Need a shakeup, of some sort!!!
What a glove save to end the second period. Opps wrong.
Imagine if coyotes had same amount of shots as pens did tonight
Nice to see you Mario lemieux at the 100th year anniversary
100 years of NHL Enjoy the outdoor game guys
Last I checked Keith , burns, karlson sutter all are in minus. And here we have bandwagon’s that are ready to trade letang.
Thanks for checking
I don’t think bandwagons is possessive tense.
hate to be so brash but the Pens should trade Letang and Hagelin. You can free up $7M trading Letang. This team needs to redo the whole bottom 6.
It’s tough, Letang is a lot better than this. My fear is that for the 1st time he is looking after his health and this is what is impacting the decisions with the puck and how he plays in his own end. He is lost defensively. That said a lot of guys are guilty of standing around doing a whole lot of nothing in their own end so maybe his play is a symptom of something. I would not be opposed to a Letang trade as long as they can replace what he does when he is on which is… Read more »
FTR him looking after his health is a good thing however in doing so he needs to adjust so that he isnt a pylon while protecting himself.
I AGREE WITH YOU PENSFANFORLIFE27…i wonder if they could swing a deal with ottawa and somehow land Eric Karlson… maybe BRIaN rust, Carl Hagelin and Kris letang for eric karlson and mike hoffman?
Can’t win the cup every year
all Fleury . Murray talk aside. Pens are in trouble if this doesn’t turn around soon.
As I said this summer pens will miss the playoffs if they don’t get good bottom 6. I said it before the year started and some clowns here were happy old players were gone. Pens lost a lot of veteran players. Bonino,Cullen,Kunitz , daily ,hainsey and fleury
You’re right… should have let Dumo and Schultz go…
Ladies and gentlemen here is the guy that wanted to keep the 5.75 million dollar goalie over the 3 million dollar one telling everyone how keeping the veterans he just mentioned should have been the priority. Not to mention the fact he hated Bones and reality is NO ONE was happy to see them gone, it was just an inevitability so you’re also lying again. 5 guys who between them will average approx 23 points, Bones who was too expensive to keep and Kunitz who is suddenly having a bit of a resurgence are the only two we can truly… Read more »
Great post.
You also said McDavid was in Vancouver and Zatkoff was in Florida. They will be in the playoffs anyway you moron.
The thing that blows my mind is the Pens have won 3 cups (09/last two) cause we had a solid 4 line model…than in offseason we completely go away from it…I understand we couldn’t keep Bonino but to do nothing to fix it, not good stance. I truly think GMJR is going to trade someone big ie Letang. I think you can trade him for a 3C and a D. We proved last year we can win without Letang having Schultz/Maata. Resign Cole and bring back a solid D in Letang deal. I thought maybe they were just going through… Read more »