Penguins/NHL
One thing Lars Eller gives the media is not robot answers after losses. He is always to the point.
“I don’t have a good explanation. We should have plenty of energy and will to play in front our fans this early in the season in a divisional game,” Eller said via Penguins website. “We just got to look inward, everybody has to go to look inward and bring a little bit more. Everybody can be a leader and drag us into a game, whether it’s a goal, a hit, or something. We need to find a way to drag ourselves into the game when we’re not emotionally there. We should be emotionally there, but I don’t think we were today.”
Wednesday night was an extremely emotional game so Pittsburgh having the type of game they had Friday night was not a surprise. Still, Eller is a realist and knows the margin of error is so thin with this group. Despite the emotional toll Wednesday night’s win might have taken out of the group, this wasn’t a back-to-back situation and we’re less than two weeks into the season.
Was Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes more about Carolina than Pittsburgh? The Hurricanes were a systematic machine in all three zones. They just suffocated the Penguins at every opportunity. You could see the frustration from Sidney Crosby to others. There was just no time and space and in a game like that, Pittsburgh’s power play has to give them a jolt and despite some positive signs here and there with the top power play unit, there are still a lot of instances where you can see the group has a long ways to go in figuring things out, especially with this obsession of having Karlsson/Letang together and still lacking a consistent net-front presence. Zone entries were a mess, and Carolina knew where the puck was going at every turn. Pittsburgh just looked like a club badly outmanned talent wise going up against a faster/systematic team. One Penguins source said that was a game where the team missed a To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
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MORE BUZZ
Intrigue Continues Around Blomqvist: Joel Blomqvist posted a sub .900 save percentage in the loss but again looked the part. He To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
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Dog House Bunting: Michael Bunting is just really struggling, and you can see him entering Mike Sullivan’s dog house as all signs point to Bunting To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
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Everything Looking Slow for 87? While Sidney Crosby had a three point night against the Sabres, including the OT winner, 5 vs 5 the pace we’re used to seeing Crosby playing with just hasn’t been there through six games. He’s not putting defenders on their heels like even Evgeni Malkin has been able to do much more consistently thus far. Not that Anthony Beauvillier is a poor skater or anything, but that experiment has probably run it’s course or is getting pretty close to it.
