Just When You Thought They Were Done...
Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins
Apr 26, 10:36 AM | Hype this story!
It’s difficult to dispute that the Pittsburgh Penguins are a team capable of overcoming adversity.
When Marc-Andre Fleury went down with a high ankle sprain in December, few thought the Penguins would muster a .500 record in his absence. Ty Conklin put an end to those talks quite quickly, becoming the hottest goaltender in the NHL in January.
And then, when Sidney Crosby suffered the same injury in January, the masses certainly put a fork in the “Boys of Winter.” But Evgeni Malkin morphed from a star to a superstar overnight and put the team on his back, leapfrogging himself to a second place finish in the scoring race and his team to a second place finish in the Eastern Conference.
Throughout the same time period, the Penguins were sporting a turnstyle of AHL players, such as Tyler Kennedy, Jeff Taffe, Conner James, Chris Minard, Jonathan Filewich, Ryan Stone, Tim Brent…and that’s just on offense.
If someone would have told me in September — when I was sitting in the arena watching training camp — that all of these players would fill a large role, or any role for than matter, in the Penguins’ success, I would have laughed and said, “If these players all are forced into the lineup throughout the season, the team’s done.”
I’m sure that line of thought wasn’t an uncommon one.
But the Penguins are led by a master at motivation and an underrated systems coach, Michel Therrien, who deserves all the props in the world for keeping his team composed throughout all of the adversity that just wouldn’t come to an end.
Now the team is reaping the benefits from such a depleted roster in the early part of 2008, as everyone has the confidence to chip in.
Last night, five goals were scored by five different Penguins. Overall, 11 players wearing the black and gold showed up on the scoresheet with at least one point.
Now the team is reaping the benefits from dealing with such adversity in the early part of 2008, as everyone has a “never say die” attitude.
Last night, after falling behind 3-0, Georges Laraque knew he had to get his team going, so he mixed it up with Colton Orr. Soon after, Jarkko Ruutu kept it simple and tickled the twine, cutting the New York Rangers’ lead by one third.
Then Pascal Dupuis scored, and later in the game Petr Sykora and Marian Hossa buried the puck within seconds of each other.
Even after the Rangers tied the game at four, the Penguins didn’t lose hope, and, of course, the evening was capped off with a Crosby shot that deflected off of Malkin’s shin pad for a goal.
This team doesn’t quit.
Its players never have that feeling of defeat.
Its coaches won’t let the players become complacent.
All of this spells success, and if last night’s gutsy performance is any indication of what is to come, the Penguins have a long spring ahead of them.
Comments
TIM
Apr 26, 12:10 PM
Very well said Matt. That win was just enormous for this team on a emotional level. I think a lot of people were nervous if the Pens could handle being in such a big hole in a playoff game. Would they give up on each other? Who knew what would happen. It was really fun to watch and the shot that Versus showed of the Pens bench going nuts after Crosby scored off Malkin made me proud to be a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.
Let’s Go Pens!
TIM
Apr 26, 12:36 PM
2 other notes I though Sid played one of his best games as a Pen last night. He was all over the ice making things happen. He out hustled every Ranger for loose pucks. He was throwing the body around making hits, making things happen. Every time he had the puck he was dangerous.
I am glad that Da Coach stuck with MAF. I was worried he was going to yank him after the Avery goal, but he did the right thing letting his young goalie learn how to deal with being in the playoffs and not having your best game.
DaBich
Apr 26, 01:44 PM
I was all for yanking MAF after the third goal. But I’m with you Tim, I’m glad he didn’t. This team just doesn’t quit. I love it!
It’s also awesome to see the new “additions” of Dupuis, Hossa, and Gill making a difference as well. This whole team pitches in, one way or another. I love these guys!
Bring on game 2…
Michael
Apr 26, 02:19 PM
I’m glad and excited that we ended-up winning such a “thriller”.
However .. Therrien’s last-minute “pre-game” decision to change the defensive pairings was ridiculous. This stupid move hurt our flow, and hurt our overall defensive play. And so we ended-up needing some lucky bounces to win this one.
And WHAT the hell was going-on during the last 22 seconds or so of the game ..?? Instead of routinely forechecking the Rangers after Hossa got the puck deep into their end, Therrien had a ‘line-change’ going-on that resulted in the Penguins having 4 players on the ice .. against 6 .. while allowing Gomez to skate freely, totally unchecked, all the way from deep in his end through the neutral zone and into our end .. where he dished-off to Jagr for almost a point-blank shot on net which__easily__could have tied the game and then could’ve led to a devastating loss.
A true NHL-caliber head coach does NOT allow that sort of screw-up to occur when protecting a one-goal lead with less than half a minute to go in a playoff game.
And why was our defense timidly backing-in so much during the entire course of the game? Was Therrien instructing our defense to “back-off” (?) .. or .. what .. ? God only knows.
Yes .. we “came back” and won. But this could have easily been a loss, if not for the lucky bounces.
Eric
Apr 26, 04:25 PM
You don’t forecheck in that situation of dumping the puck there at the end of the 3rd. You don’t want to get caught in their end when they start their breakout. Therrien changed his troops to get a better lineup out there to apply the neutral zone trap, while keeping his defensemen in own end and not having to move up and support the forechecking. The move did backfire, but it was the right move. You don’t want to forecheck in that situation, not even one player – since it would then could result in a 5 on 4 coming down on the Penguins net.
Any_true_nhl_fan_would_know_this.
Eric
Apr 26, 07:06 PM
You’re correct in that the neutral zone trap involves forchecking – typically the center. I have seen, and I guess I didn’t include it in my previous post, a version of the nzt where they moderate the forechecking to no more than a few feet past the offensive blue line. Which is more of a clogging of the neutral zone, but still using the other parts of the trap – minus the forchecking. I should’ve clarified my point better.
Michael
Apr 26, 07:31 PM
Eric ..
You aren’t making any sense at all.
The forecheck was MANDATED there at the end of regulation. There were only 22 seconds remaining when Hossa dumped the puck behind the Rangers goal line! You don’t screw around trying to make a line-change at that moment .. you go ahead and finish out the damn game by forechecking the hell out of the Rangers at that point .. using your players that are already on the ice when Hossa dumped the puck.
By doing that stupid line-change, Therrien allowed Gomez to rush the puck all the way up the ice .. totally unchecked .. and then dish-off to Jagr who got an open shot on net and hit the post. That was a mere inch ot two away from a disaster!! As I wrote .. this is just something that an NHL-caliber coach does not do.
Tom .. I can see your point regarding the defensive weakness of the Whitney-Scuderi pairing and hence the temptation to separate those two. On the other hand, it took__weeks__of games to develop those D-pairings that were working quite well as a whole, especially Letang with Gill. I would not have changed the D-pairings until we lost a (playoff) game or unless they performed really poorly in a playoff game.
Having spent all that time developing D-pairings that were working well (in general) .. it seems foolish to throw it down the toilet in the middle of the playoffs without any good reason. I would have to see some actual (playoff game) evidence that it__isn’t__working .. before being able to justify throwing it down the toilet.
Eric
Apr 26, 08:00 PM
They played those final seconds like they were on the penalty kill. Which is a rational step considering they were playing 5 vs. 6. They dumped the puck to make a line change from their defensive faceoff line that was out there. Since they were playing it as a penalty kill, they didn’t go for the forecheck. They tried to maintain the neutral zone and stop them at the blue line. It didn’t work, but I can understand their tact.
Forechecking wasn’t mandatory, in that situation at all. They made the commitment to the mine change and stuck with it. No one followed the puck in, and a new player coming on to the ice could’ve been caught deep if he was rushing in to forecheck while NYR was running their breakout.
Like I said, it didn’t work, and almost cost them a goal. But I can understand what they did and why they did it.
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