Pens/Sens Game 2 Grades
Mike Adams | Grade "A" Reviews
Apr 12, 10:28 AM | Hype this story!
Total domination
Offense: A
Generally, a team doesn’t earn an A when they score only one even-strength goal (well, two if you count the empty-netter). But the Pens were so dominant on this night that anything less than an A would be a crime. Only the unbelievably spectacular efforts of Swiss Cheese in net for Ottawa kept the score from reaching double digits. The Pens generated one great chance after another on him, but they could not break him. You do have to give him credit; he was spectacular. But the Pens were even better. They came in waves in a performance rarely seen in the playoffs. The top two lines generated something almost every time they were on the ice. The one goal they got past Gerber was on yet another odd-man break. It was deja vu from Game 1, as Malkin came down the left side and put a pass right on Sykora’s tape. He once again buried past Swiss Cheese. They added an empty-netter by Malone to close it out.
Defense: C
Fortunately, most of the game was played in Ottawa’s end, because the Pens started to show some cracks in their own zone. The Sens got two even-strength goals that were virtual clones of each other. Just throw it to the net and hope. The Pens in both cases did not cover well in front of the net, and Ottawa was able to jam two pucks past Fleury. On the first, the cowardly Chris Neil dumped it to the front and the immortal Shean Donovan somehow got it through Fleury. Then, the same thing happened on the tying goal. This time, it was Cody Bass jamming one home when Max Talbot lost him in front. Other than these two goals, the Pens were solid. They again made Ottawa’s top line disappear.
Power play: A
The PP really struggled early on. The first two were ugly and they generated nothing at all. But apparently, they were just getting warmed up. Ottawa kept taking penalties because of the Pens’ offensive dominance, and it finally caught up to them late in the first. The Pens took advantage of a 5-on-3 with some great puck movement. Sarge eventually blasted one past Gerber, who never saw it thanks to a perfect screen by The Hockey God. Now, that’s the way point shots should work. They added another power play marker in the second on a play where I would have been yelling “shoot the puck” had it not worked. Malkin had an open shot from the right circle, but he instead passed to a wide open Sykora at the top of the crease for a tap-in. I guess sometimes overpassing works. But they weren’t finished. Amazingly, they were awarded a power play with 1:14 to go, and they cashed in immediately. Hossa’s shot was stopped, but Malone took the puck around the net and wrapped it around past Swiss Cheese for the winner. A very pretty play by Ryno. So the power play came through big-time for them this game, the same unit that had looked so listless in Game 1.
Penalty kill: B
They gave up one of those playoff-style goals on the PK, too. The Little Tyger took a horrible penalty in his own end, and it came back to bite them. Ottawa just threw it to the front and kept poking away, finally nudging it past Flower. But other than that, they were solid, not allowing the Sens to generate any momentum with the man advantage.
Goaltending: B
Flower wasn’t quite as good as he was in Game 1, though he did come up with a couple spectacular saves. His best was when he was interfered with, but was still somehow able to dive across and get in front of a shot. That is pure athleticism there. But he let three very similar shots get by him, shots that he can’t be totally blamed for, but shots that you would like to see him stop. The Sens were just storming the net and throwing the puck there. The coverage wasn’t great, so Flower doesn’t get all the blame. Don’t get me wrong, he played well enough to win, which they did. But he can do a bit better.
Overall: A
That is one of the most dominant playoff performances you will ever see. If not for the brilliance of Swiss Cheese, this one would have been ugly. As it was, the Pens still found a way to pull it out. They used a power play that had been unimpressive in Game 1 to figure out how to find the holes in Swiss Cheese. It was just a spectacular show from start to finish. They totally humiliated and embarrassed a Senator outfit whose only thoughts right now appear to be on how to make tee times. But the Pens refused to play down to that level, instead reaching new heights of their own. If history is any indicator, eventually the Pens will break Swiss Cheese, and the floodgates will open. But for now, we revel in a 2-0 series lead, with a whole weekend to enjoy it.
And now, the rest of the story…
Evgeni Malkin: A
Man, is this guy good, and getting better! It might be heretical to say this, but right now, at this very moment, he is better than Sid. He is just dominant every time he goes out there. He is so Mario-esque that it’s scary. He just gets the puck and dares someone to take it from him. He just continues to reach new heights.
Sidney Crosby: A
Was that the quietest four assist-night you’ve ever seen? I didn’t even realize it until I saw the box score. He is also playing at an incredibly high level right now, but a bit more in the background than Geno.
Sergei Gonchar: A
Two games in, no gutless plays. This truly is a new Sarge.
Petr Sykora: A
He still doesn’t have a hat trick in his career. He had a breakaway for the hatty, and missed. Other than that, wow, what can you say? He just meshes so well with Geno.
Ryan Malone: A
After twice banging his head on the ice, he came back to score the final two goals, including the beautiful game-winner. The game-winner was his first playoff goal, and it came at the perfect time.
FSN: F
If someone can explain why they chose to do this game in standard definition while broadcasting the woeful Pirates in HD, I’m all ears.
War Garage: F
They should have reviewed the Donovan goal. It likely was a good goal, but they didn’t even blink on it. How can you not review that play in a playoff game?
Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley: F
And they call Marian Hossa a playoff choker? He has outscored the two Sens stars combined in the first two games. These two guys are just soft, useless pieces of trash that only grow a set when things are going well. But they can’t make things go well on their own. No wonder we read Spezza trade rumors.
Icehole of the Game
How can Ottawa have an Icehole when the whole team just turtled all night long?
Monk Moment
Oh, there are so many to choose from, but let’s go with the game winner by Malone. To wrap that puck around at that speed is incredibly difficult, but he made it look easy.
Striped Buffoon Huh? Call of the Game
A Senator defenseman slashed Geno on the hands, just as he was about to shoot on a breakaway. How that went uncalled by Kevin Pollock will forever remain a mystery.
A guide to the game grades can be found here.
Comments
DS
Apr 12, 12:20 PM
I’m kind of disturbed by this pervasive sense that the Pens were so “dominant” last night.
I was at the game. In the second half, the Pens were the ones turning the puck over and being poorly positioned and Ottawa was the team making tape to tape passes. I wasn’t getting the feeling that the Pens were kicked up the extra necessary playoff notch. Yeah, Ryan brought the house down and I was screaming as loud as anyone, but IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TIED AT THAT POINT.
Blowing a three goal lead? At home? AGAIN? IN THE PLAYOFFS??
NOT. GOOD.
The win was gotten in dramatic and hopefully-crushing fashion to Ottawa, but it felt like it could’ve easily, easily been us on the wrong side.
If they can’t play 60 playoff minutes against Looney Tunes and Co, you wonder what will happen when they run into a real hockey team.
Julian
Apr 12, 12:35 PM
Dude. They dominated. The Sens got a couple of garbage goals. The Pens did make some mistakes, but when the shot differential is that huge, you’re dominating. If it wasn’t for Gerber, that game would have been 10-3.
Ben S
Apr 12, 02:26 PM
It’s worth noting that there are quotes from Dupuis after the game where he basically said that after the Pens had scored 7 goals to zero from the Sens in 4.5 periods, the Pens basically let up a bit, thinking it was going to be easy. Clearly, they should now know otherwise. When they weren’t thinking about just coasting to victory, they were utterly dominant. Getting 40 shots in two periods in the playoffs is not exactly a common occurrence.
Tom
Apr 12, 04:17 PM
Mike, The first Sen goal was the very picture of the reason that playing Whitney is dangerous to the Pens. Donovan made a long clearing pass to Neil. Letang rushed back to play Neil (on Whitney’s – left side). He corners Neil and attempts to play Neil and the centering pass he anticipated. Donovan is in the lower slot. Letang almost blocks the centering pass from Neil and heads toward Donovan. Whitney stands by watching with his thumb in his backside and Donovan, before Letang can reach him, shoots at almost point blank and scores with absolutely no effort to intervene by Whitney, either by contesting the centering pass or by contesting, checking or blocking Donovan. Errors and mistakes can be understood and forgiven, lack of effort cannot. Hal Gill would have made the necessary effort.
Michael
Apr 13, 05:31 PM
Tom ..
Also during that sequence you describe ..
Whitney and Letang collided. It wasn’t a violent collision, but it was a mix-up between those two that more-or-less led to the goal against.
My point here is .. WHY were Whitney and Letang paired-up? We were ahead 3-0, we were totally dominating, we had all of the momentum, and we had just scored less than a minute earlier. So what does Therrien do? He__MESSES__with the defensive pairings!! Our D-pairings had been working to near-perfection .. !! .. and then all-of-a-sudden he__messes__with it!! And the result was that Ottawa got back into the game, and then__tied the game__in the 3rd period. This could have been a disaster if it hadn’t been for Malone’s wraparound goal.
Again .. point being: it was Therrien STUPIDLY messing with defensive pairings that had been working perfectly .. that led to Ottawa getting a goal that totally changed the momentum and the course of the game. You are right-on, Tom .. the end-result could have easily been a catastrophe.
Even Phil Bourque commented on the air at the time (after the first Ottawa goal) .. right after Therrien had just put Scuderi and Gill out there together (uggghh!!!) .. that “you don’t change D-pairings that have been working as well as they have”. And Bourque usually doesn’t criticize MT on the air, but he sure did in this instance .. which I was glad to hear. He was emphatic about it, too.
Tom
Apr 13, 08:22 PM
Michael, Letang and Whitney collided after the goal for which Whitney’s sloth? hesitancy? or mere slow reaction? was responsible. MT seems to avoid putting Letang on the PK because Letang is proactive (an attacker) rather than the mere passive shot blocker MT wants in his PK system. The plays following the PK and PP have the defensive pairings screwed up to rest the players than were on the ice (totally unnecessary). Defensive pairings ought not to be changed unless necessitated by injury or other unavoidable cause. As far as Gill being paired with Scuderi, it will never work. Gill is a slow skater. He requires Letang’s speed and attacking ability to be effective. Scuderi has neither speed nor an aggressive mode of playing. Whitney, as I previously observed just does nothing to combat any aggressive offensive attack.
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