PENGUINS – DEVILS X & O’s
The New Jersey Devils depleted by injuries came into Pittsburgh Thursday night with one of the worst rosters in hockey right now, started their No. 3 goaltender, and shut the hottest team in hockey down, 3-0, halting the Penguins winning streak at six games.
For Pittsburgh this type of loss needed to happen.
The Penguins have been playing with fire during their six game winning streak with multiple poor starts and Thursday night it finally came back to haunt them.
Kyle Palmieri scored 26 seconds in off the rush and New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with Palmieri adding his 29th goal of the season at 13:08 of the first period.
The Penguins had similar starts of late and the difference in this one is New Jersey was able to set the pace and tone in the game. The Penguins are vulnerable to giving up grade-A chances which had been the case during the six game winning streak but it would only be for a four to five minute stretch and then they’d play lock down defense the rest of the way, examples being the Rangers and Flyer games.
The grade-A chances for New Jersey continued all game, notably odd-man rushes.
“We gave up some big chances,” Sidney Crosby said via the Tribune-Review. “I didn’t think it was necessarily as much as them getting momentum, it was more making some pretty big errors that resulted in some really good chances for them.”
The Penguins are extremely good along the wall in all three zones under Mike Sullivan. They have a vulnerability at times, though, with their aggressiveness in pinching along the wall. The more tape coaches study on the Penguins new look and system, they’ll see the middle of the ice is often wide open when breaking out of the defensive zone against the Penguins.
Hasn’t haunted them as much but it’s an area to watch moving forward and burned them on Adam Henriques third period goal when Brian Dumoulin pinched and Eric Fehr as the F3 was not high enough, leading to a 2-on-1 rush and Henrique burying a shot glove side past Fleury.
Palmieri’s opening goal of the game also saw the Penguins pairing of Olli Maatta – Kris Letang play recklessly. “I think what we would prefer is to have one defenseman join the rush, not two,” Sullivan said of the Devils scoring 26 seconds in. These issues have been there for the Penguins, just been overlooked by winning.
DEVILS WIN THE NEUTRAL ZONE
The No. 1 thing scouts are pointing to towards the Penguins turnaround is their dominance through the neutral zone in defending the opposition and attacking offensively leading to clean zone entries. They’ve caused teams like the Flyers, Capitals fits in recent games.
As teams are now seeing the Penguins a second and third time with their improved speed/aggressive system, how teams adjust to defending the Penguins through the neutral zone is critical to slowing the Penguins down.
Devils coach John Hynes earned an ‘A’ last night.
New Jersey won the neutral zone convincingly which was a major difference in this game not having a similar feel to the Carolina game where the Penguins fell down 2-0 in the first period but were still attacking with speed and aggressiveness through the neutral zone.
In their neutral zone trap, the Devils F1 did a tremendous job in forcing the Penguins to one side and New Jersey’s F2 and F3 were effective at taking away passing lanes in the middle of the ice that limited the Penguins To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Somebody get D a calendar and a clock. His Instant Buzz articles were just posted but he thinks it’s the afternoon and still March 25th.
Bonino injures hand in practice.
Good it’s not like he makes a difference in the lineup him and Bennett
Maatta lbi week to week.
So we can expect him back in the 2nd round?
Olli Maatta suffered a lower-body injury during Thursday’s contest.
Maatta’s listed as week-to-week, so we doubt he’ll return before the end of the regular season. Per pens page.
So we can prepare a playoff exit excuse now?
Speaking of Bonino… when do we yank him off the top PP never to be seen again? I would rather run with 2 D until Malkin comes back. Daley or Schultz would both be far better options
Agree pens should also get rid of that Fraud this summer along with Cole. Kessel benett and gay joy
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
when your goaltender comes out of the gate and forgets to put his pad flat on the ice and puts you down 1-0 against a team like NJ, forget it. they shut it down and the game is over. chaulk up this loss to your hall of fame goalie.
You, leave it to this consistent dumb fuck to blame a shut out loss on one bad goal. The guys have figured out how to come back but do nothing vs a 3rd stringer… MAFs fault because yoda is too fucking stupid to see the whole picture. Kessel wiffing in the 1st… Kunitz and Bonino blowing one on on plays. Very different game if we bury one of those chances but no… MAF cost us a game where the team scored zero goal because reasons.
Nice to see you BTW… must have been a Pens loss and a shakey goal. You seem to be a rare appearance otherwise.
i wait to post when there is a new article
st.blurry put his team down 1-0 immediately and then NJ shut it down. you can’t give up free goals. he set the tone. he sucked.
No I get it… slow start, MAF gives up a bad goal… and the guys went 55 minutes and couldnt crack a third string goalie… you may be on to something here. You can possibly be this fucking dumb.
I am looking at the three epic blown opportunities by Kunitz, Bonino and Kessel. I look at the anemic PP that really needs to get Bonino the fuck off of it to atempt to have success while Malkin is out. These stand out as much as anything. The team had PP opportunities and squandered them. I watched Crosby and few other toss passes with wreckless abandon to fucking no one. I mean lets not ignore the FACT that the 1st goal scored on MAF was a direct result of a fuck awful play by Sid just over the blueline… of… Read more »
The grade A chances continued all game… MAFs fault. It was his fault it wasnt a fucking blow out.
Whats the chances a different narrative happens in 2016?
Bennett injured Yet?
Blah Bennett
Consol Retirement Center
This team was sleeping last night few days off and team becomes like this.
What pisses me off they win back to back games flyers and caps and yet they lose to Devils
Yeah your a Pens fan. You and the unfunny Diego douche and yogurt. The 3 Jackasses!