Powerless Pens Fall To Powerful Sens, 3-1

Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins

Oct 5, 06:41 PM | Hype this story!
1 2 3 OT SO Tot.
0 1 2 - - 3
 
Tot. 1 2 3 OT SO
1 0 0 1 - -
Attendance: 13,699 (sell out)
 
Summary
Powerless.

That’s what the Penguins have been in their first two games, scoring just one goal with the man advantage in 14 attempts.

Unfortunately, their lone power play goal came with under two seconds remaining in today’s game, obviously much too late to have any significance.

The problem seems to be a pass-first mentality and a habit of passing up quality shot opportunities.

Despite this, the Penguins outshot the Senators in the second of two games in the NHL’s "Sweden Premier."

The scoring opened in the second period with Penguins enforcer Eric Godard in the penalty box, serving a double-minor for roughing.

Dany Heatley, as he so often does, so an opportunity and took the puck to the net.

Godard didn’t touch the ice again, though his penalty came while retaliating against Senators defenseman Jason Smith, who targeted Sidney Crosby on multiple occasions this weekend.

It was the second time in as many days that the Senators scored a power play goal with Godard in the penalty box.

Even without a functioning power play, the Penguins remained in the game until midway through the third period, thanks largely to solid defense and good goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury.

Heatley tallied another power play marker at 12:17 of the third, and just minutes later Antoine Vermette put away the game with a breakaway goal.

The Penguins broke their shutout — both for the game and on the power play — with a late goal by rookie Alex Goligoski while Chris Phillips sat in the box.

With nearly a week until their next game, the Penguins will have time to make adjustments to their feeble power play and hopefully will get back second line sniper Petr Sykora, who works well with Evgeni Malkin.
 
Three Stars
# Player Team Pos. Stats
1 Heatley Ott LW 2 G
2 Alfredsson Ott RW 2 A
3 Auld Ott G 30 Sv, .968 Sv%
 
Stat Line
  Shots Faceoffs Power Plays
  1 2 3 OT Total Won Lost Convert Total
Pittsburgh 8 15 8 - 31 29 28 1 7
Ottawa 9 11 7 - 26 28 29 2 4
 
Scoring Summary
Per. Time Team Goal Assist 1 Assist 2
1          
2 13:07 Ott Heatley, 2 (PP) Spezza Alfredsson
3 12:17
15:50
19:58		 Ott
Ott
Pit		 Heatley, 3 (PP)
Vermette, 1
Goligoski, 1 (PP)		 Alfredsson
Winchester
Crosby		 Kuba
Kuba
Malkin
OT - - - - -
 
Penalty Summary
Per. Time Team Player Penalty
1 2:32
7:45
14:09
18:33		 Pit
Ott
Ott
Pit		 Fedotenko
Ruutu
Schubert
Fedotenko		 holding – 2 min
charging – 2 min
cross check – 2 min
hooking – 2 min
2 2:10
12:22
12:22
12:22
16:35		 Ott
Pit
Pit
Ott
Ott		 Donovan
Godard
Godard (Fedotenko)
Neil
Vermette		 holding – 2 min
roughing – 2 min
roughing – 2 min
roughing – 2 min
holding – 2 min
3 2:10
7:26
10:28
19:27		 Ott
Ott
Pit
Ott		 Heatley
Foligno
Eaton
Phillips		 tripping – 2 min
holding – 2 min
holding – 2 min
roughing – 2 min
OT - - - -

Comments

  1. Pens1967

    Oct 5, 11:34 PM

    I don’t think the Pens can afford to dress both Bissonnette and Godard if the coaches don’t trust them to play in a close game. Even though Sid and Gino are young, the team can’t survive without rolling 4 lines. The Pens should not be playing with a short bench in the second game of the season.

    WRT the PP, where was Satan? He at least shoots the puck.

  2. Matt Bodenschatz

    Oct 6, 10:02 AM

    Pens, I agree — but I wonder how many of their fourth liner options they really would trust late in a game? Thomas logged just over 5 minutes yesterday and Taffe couldn’t have logged much more Saturday night.

    I really think they need to go out and find a legit fourth line grinder/faceoff specialist, defensive forward to play in the middle of Kennedy and Bissonnette/Godard.

    Speaking of Godard, I’m wondering how long it will be until people start calling for his head, seeing as how he has taken two penalties and both resulted in power play goals against. In my opinion, he’s doing exactly what he should: make people pay the price for targeting Crosby. Playing on the edge often results in penalties, but you can’t have someone effectively patrolling the ice without playing on the edge.

    As for Satan, I agree. Why remove him from the top PP? It doesn’t make sense. One thing is for sure, it’ll be nice to have Sykora back.

  3. KG

    Oct 6, 10:07 AM

    That was some boring hockey, both games…Sloppy, no flow…I’m looking forward to this week off to get some real practice in and get ready for this coming weekend…

    Sydor was a joke the first game, glad to see he was scratched. Same goes for Taffe…

  4. Ben Schmidt

    Oct 6, 01:55 PM

    I’m not going to call for anyone’s head just yet. Last season, everyone was getting on Therrien’s case for saying it was still early in the season when we were all the way in November. Last season didn’t turn out too bad, as I recall. I’d rather see the Pens do better than that this year, but two games after a short training camp, over in Europe on bad ice? Yeah, I’m not worrying just yet.

    I’m not even overly worried about the over-passing. Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it’s a problem that has plagued the Pens for the past couple of seasons. But I read an article about Yeo recently where he talked about how the Pens weren’t moving enough, and weren’t shooting enough. Crosby, who is definitely guilty of over-passing, has also commented on needing to put more pucks on net.

    They need to get rid of the bad habits, but the coaching staff and the captain are on the same page in saying they need to shoot more. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I think we’ll see an improvement on that score during the season.

    This wasn’t a great way to start the season, but it certainly wasn’t the worst way, either.

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