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Postgame analysis: Penguins vs. Sharks
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Mike Rupp tried to rally the troops by dropping the gloves in the first period.
On Saturday night, the Penguins were defeated 5-0 by the San Jose Sharks. It is the first time this season that they have lost two straight games, and it’s the first time under the Dan Bylsma era that the team has failed to extract at least one point from an opponent in two straight games.
Offense: Right now, the Penguins offense essentially consists of Sidney Crosby plus eleven third and fourth liners.
After a pathetic 3 shots in the first period, the Pens did a decent job of putting shots on Sharks’ goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, ending the night with 27. However, barely any of these shots posed a serious threat to breaking Nabokov’s shutout. At the moment, there is simply nobody in the lineup who can find any consistent bit of scoring touch.
Scoring-line guys like Bill Guerin, Jordan Staal, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Chris Kunitz simply must begin putting up points if the Penguins want to have any chance of winning while Malkin and Kennedy remain on the shelf.
Defense: The defense was nowhere to be found for most of the game, allowing the Sharks all the room that they desired. In their defense, Kris Letang was injured early in the game and did not return, and Alex Goligoski had been questionable prior to the game due to an illness, meaning that there were only four truly healthy defensemen.
Despite his alleged illness, Goligoski was still far and away the best defenseman on the ice for Pittsburgh.
Goaltending: The Penguins actually started off this game pretty well, looking like they were going to have a solid night. That all changed less than four minutes into the game when San Jose’s Jamie McGinn was somehow able to beat Fleury from behind the goal line. The poor goal set the tone for the rest of the game, and it was all downhill from there.
Fleury proceeded to let in two fairly poor goals before being pulled early in the second period. Less than two minutes after Brent Johnson took over, he let in another cheap goal. Johnson settled down, though, and ended up making a few spectacular pad saves before the night was done. The only other goal let in by Johnson was a fantastic shot by Manny Malhotra which found its way through a huge crowd of traffic in front of the cage.
As of late, Fleury has begun to set a trend of letting in soft goals early in games. This absolutely cannot continue to happen, especially against strong teams such as San Jose.
Powerplay: In a shocking turn of events, the PP…………..came up empty yet again. They actually looked somewhat decent when set up in the zone, but their entry was absolutely horrendous. They pick up no speed through the neutral zone, which forces them to dump the puck. Since they had no speed, it means that puck retrieval is extremely difficult.
The injury to Gonchar is a poor excuse for this problem; the entry issue exists whether he is in the lineup or not. The entire breakout is in dire need of some changes.
Penalty Kill: The PK, which had been great for the past few weeks, finally cracked, letting in two PP goals on the night. The problem with the PK wasn’t related to anything tactical; it was simply a problem with discipline. The Penguins took far too many penalties, and when a team does that against a strong offensive team like the Sharks, the PK is likely going to suffer.
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