Penguins/NHL
MBetter Team Prevailed in Penguins – Capitals
The Washington Capitals on Monday night finally broke the curse in ousting the Penguins in six games on a overtime goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov, 5:27 into OT.
The Capitals will make their first trip to the Conference Final in the Alex Ovechkin era.
“Finally…..” Alex Ovechkin proclaimed.
The Penguins three-peat chances officially ended on an overtime goal, just like their three-peat quest in 1993 also ended in overtime.
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Pittsburgh was the more talented team on paper in this series but in a number of areas Washington was just slightly better from first-second level scoring, to obviously goaltending, to role players elevating their play at a crucial moments and Washington played with a more efficient defensive structure that kept just about everyone not named Sidney Crosby/Jake Guentzel off the scoresheet during 5-on-5 play.
[hide] “They were just the better team,” Goaltender Matt Murray said. “I thought they played a heck of a game [6]. “It didn’t feel like we really had many chances at all. They deserved to win tonight.”[/hide]
What Went Wrong for the Penguins and why a less talented Capitals team were the better team
1. It was fitting the Penguins season ended off an odd-man rush where Kris Letang was completely out of position to defend the middle of the ice. This is how the Penguins have played for a bulk of the season but no more glaring than this series. Even when the Penguins were having stretches of playing lock down defense, they had continued lapses/no structure of defending the middle of the ice and it happened far too often in this series where Pittsburgh had a d-man not staying in their lane.
Pittsburgh constantly ran into a situation where the d-men were either too aggressive in pinching with no cover help from the forwards or situations like with Kris Letang in the third period of Game 5 or in overtime of Game 6 where there’s no excuses to be running out of position to the point Letang did on those critical plays.
What the Penguins staff has to figure out this summer in their evaluations is whether a tweak to the system needs to happen moving forward next season to implement a more structured defensive system that doesn’t take away from their free willing style or determine if a more disciplined defensemen needs to be brought in among the top-2 pairs.
2. — Beyond Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Patric Hornqvist, it’s a struggle to point out another forward that had an impactful series, while on Washington’s side you can name about seven who either performed up to expectations or elevated their play above expectations.
Another reason the Penguins are home after six games and were unable to force a Game 7 was Evgeni Malkin never finding his footing in the series.
Pittsburgh failed to get second level scoring after the Crosby line.
In Game 6, Malkin had 0 points, registered just one shot and was at 42% in possession.
Possession Numbers for the Penguins Big Boys in Game 6:
Sidney Crosby (43%), Jake Guentzel (39%), Evgeni Malkin (42%), Phil Kessel (36%), Patric Hornqvist (50%).
3.– Phil Kessel and Derick Brassard’s struggles in the series and how much focus were on those two saw Bryan Rust go under-the-radar of how underwhelming his play was.
That secondary player to play a big part in winning a playoff game, especially an elimination game was not found this series for the Penguins.
Vs Washington:
Bryan Rust (0 Goals, 0 Pts), Derick Brassard (0 Goals, 1 Point), Conor Sheary (0 Goals, 0 Pts)
Bryan Rust is often that player but he was invisible most nights, finishing with 0 points and just 4 shots on goal in the series. Even more surprising with Rust was how you barely noticed him.
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4. — As frustrating as Derick Brassard’s play might have been, Mike Sullivan’s move to install Riley Sheahan as the third line center over Brassard was still a head scratcher and did more harm than good in giving a less talented player in Sheahan 2-3 minutes more ice time 5-on-5 than Brassard who is a superior player than Sheahan.
When you’re a team struggling to score 5-on-5, I’m still a believer in going down with your most skilled players and Sullivan didn’t in Game 6 with Sheahan playing 3 minutes more than Brassard.
This coaching staff has made few bad decisions but there still isn’t enough embracing skilled players in the bottom-6 and hopefully that changes next season.
It’s reached a point where guys like Tom Kuhnhackl, Carter Rowney get replaced with higher upside players who might not be as good away from the puck but can actually create their own play.
Teaching skilled players to become good penalty killers isn’t rocket science.
Sullivan and his staff didn’t make a mistake in not dressing Daniel Sprong this postseason, the mistake was made after the deadline in not letting Sprong get a window with the NHL club and start developing at least some sort of comfort level between the player and coach that would have made Sprong a more serious candidate to play in the Washington series.
What it came down to is the coaching staff didn’t have a good enough trust level with Sprong put him in the lineup, sources say.
That’s on them not the player.
5. Washington Capitals No. 1 defenseman John Carlson was on the ice for 1 GOAL AGAINST IN THE ENTIRE SERIES VS THE PENGUINS during 5-on-5 play.
Kris Letang the Penguins No. 1 pairing defenseman was on the ice for 9 GOALS AGAINST IN THE ENTIRE SERIES VS THE CAPITALS during 5-on-5 play.
There’s your series…..
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Sullivan on Letang’s season: “His game was up and down. But he’s a guy that we certainly think is one of the elite defensemen in this league.”
Even better…. ugh.
When he is on it is true, the question that surrounds him and will until he can show otherwise is… was the 2018 version of Letang, Post op and protecting himself, the guy that he will be for the rest of his career? I know for some he has always brought a level of frustration but usually the good outweighed the bad sans the number of games he would miss. If he comes back next year and rediscovers how to make plays and distribute pucks without his head in his ass then they should be OK. It’s a scary prospect… Read more »
Letang: I sacrifice everything for this team. My only goal is to spend the rest of my career here
Oh, great.
Trade Sheary and sign Brandon Tanev—perfect 3rd line winger fit (great on PK, speed, hits, and has skill).
Because just trading Sheary and his $3 million contract is that easy.
Malkin done with a knee injury… kills Sams theory he was in a rus to go home
He was due to his annual vacation.
my pens summary is clear more clear then this you can’t get even npl should understand something
Letang has no puck luck.
According to npl pens lost because they had no puck luck
NPL’s thumbs down game is strong today.
Must be the fact he didint agreed what I thought of pens season when I summarized it earlier on this article post
Nhl revealed 3rd round schedule and first game starts this Friday caps /Tampa
According to Staggy Kessel was not injuried. He was not happy about who he was playing with. Take that however you want.
So he has to get as much heat as letang suckss
How professional kessel is he didint like who he was playing with
What does sid has to say. Most of his career he played and plays with bunch of undrafted players on a regular basis . Just to name a few Guentzel, sheary, dupuis ,kunitz
Just like that time Letang threw a fit and considered leaving because Rossi called Martin the Pens best defenceman? That kind of professional? Fucken twaat
It was an odd interview on XM… they asked him and covered many reasons why the Penguins lost but NOT ONCE did Letangs name get brought up.
Somewhat telling… he works for Letang 😉 lol
Now they are saying he had bumps and bruises throughout the season that may have caught up to him. So then this falls on management and the coaching staff to give him games off. Iron Man streaks mean nothing.
Didn’t he play with the same guys during the regular season and go on a scoring spree? Not sure I buy the Steigy story. More BS so they can start the Kessell trade rumor mill again this offseason.
kessel set up everyone is game one and they kept whiffing and hitting posts. after that he was like F this i’m not taking a beating playing with these Jerrys kids, i’m not going within 35 feet of the goal.
Nice english. Even the real Yoda speaks better then you do.
Noticed a lot of new members on this article. It’s good at least we can have some hockey talk like the old days
As long as stain tbj ,npl10 along with his second account Sam don’t show up here anymore we are fine .
Less thumbs downs as well
Dumo was great these playoffs, but I love how in the picture D circles Letang as being out of position while Dumo is even more out of position. I’m not inferring about any other play because we know Dumo was far superior to Letang, but Dumo was more at fault than anyone on that goal. Letang was the one carrying the puck up the ice, Dumo should have been trailing in the middle of the ice.
Not really. The puck was on the near boards, which is where Dumo should have been. Dumo trailed Letang as he carried the puck up, Dumo didn’t jump till after the puck crossed the blue and was on the same side as the puck. Letang was out in lala land on the other side of the ice. Don’t just look at a still, watch the play.
Dumo has to defend the other team plus defend his team from Letang’s horrible play.
The play also shows that Dumo is out of position. Dumo was never even close to the puck, he jumped up into the play as Crosby was losing handle of it. No secret that the the D trailing the play without the puck shouldn’t be jumping up in the play.
It’s called an agenda. Take game 5 dummo gets caught and people pointed letang for caps game winner.
Letang was coming up behind the puck carrier, one who clearly bobbled… he should have been the one to hang back a bit
Reason is simple why they lost Easy to pin point on letang and have an agenda on him. When you have sid and jake combined 19 goals for 42 points And rest of the roster have 17 goals 47 points there is you problem Malkin, kessel, brassard ,sheary, rust hagelin ,Simon all no show. Reason pens won previous year they had secondary scoring by sheary, rust jake Guentzel, Cullen , bonino kunitz. This year was that the case as I said the players that they lost last off season they never replace then and got worst players for it Fleury… Read more »
If anyone disagrees ,tbj,gaydogg .npl
Suck on it clowns
You can not keep everyone in a salary cap era and teams don’t just trade away great players for garbage unless you are Montreal. The expansion draft was no help either. Oh well.
Or oilers with hall
I get why Edmonton made that trade, they were to top heavy with no Defense but they traded away the wrong foward. The Montreal trade was D for D getting back an older man with way more miles. There will never be any logic in the universe that can make that trade make sense.
They averaged 3 goals per game. In the playoffs that should be enough to win. The forwards and defensemen didn’t score enough in caps series but they lost because Murray and the defense (except Dumo) weren’t good enough.
You still did get the picture yes. They scored 3 a game once again. Thanks to sid and Guentzel I’m sure without them they would’ve been swept vs caps and maybe not even beat flyer’s my pens summary is clear more clear then this you can’t get even npl should understand something
Thanks for summarizing. It’s all clear to me now.
We will be back next season two Cups in a row that f***ing amazing. They do need to figure out Kris i can’t play defense letang he was brutal on for 9 goals in the Washington series 5 on 5. Kris Letang is more a second pairing d-man now and should be on the second power play unit. Matt Murray was just average this series and was outplayed.
Thank you Yoda
Never bought that he was yoda… with yoda back its more doubtful
In Letangs defense, he did play a solid sixty minute game on Monday.
Sixty five minutes not so much.
$7 million a year you better be playing solid defense way more than what he was……
Yeah and we have a 7m third liner kessel that never showed up
I hate when fans say WE. You are not on the ice, in the locker room, on the roaster, part of management or even an ice girl. I never understood that.
You can was We because we is part of the teams fanbase
The words Letang and Defense do not belong in the same sentence.
Pens wingers are to small. Caps copied what Ottawa did to them stood them up a center ice and counter attacked with better skill. They need a chip and chase style with bigger wingers to counter act that style and roster didn’t have it
The Capitals scored more goals in each of the four games the Penguins lost. That is why they won.
Life Goes On
I agree with all these points of course – but the #1 reason has to be that the Penguins ran into the best goaltending performance they’ve seen during this run. Holtby leads the playoffs in high danger scoring percentage. Pens would have scored 10 goals in game 5 against Flyers goaltending. Holtby’s amazing play to me was by far the biggest factor.