Penguins Shut Down Senators

SensChirp November 17, 2017 599

FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS

-After the long layoff, lots of travel and very little practice time, this felt like the type of game where the Senators might come out flat.  It had all the markings of a night where timing and energy levels might be a little bit off. But that really wasn’t the case early on. The Senators came out flying and took it to the Penguins in the first 20 minutes.  If not for Matt Murray, Ottawa is up a couple goals after the first. Mike Hoffman hit the post once, was robbed on another chance and Matt Duchene had 5 shots on his own. It looked like it was going to be all Ottawa.  For whatever reason, the team faded in the final forty minutes and really couldn’t generate much in the way of offensive pressure.  Their legs just weren’t there.

-Funny thing about last night’s game is there was no player that stood out as having a rough night. The two Pittsburgh goals were the result of point shots and lucky deflections. It’s not like the Senators gave the Penguins much and in particular, both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were pretty much invisible. The Penguins best offensive pressure came in the back half of the third period when Ottawa was starting to cheat a bit looking for the tying goal.  Defensively the Senators were fine but offensively, they just couldn’t generate anything until that Pageau goal, which seemed to give them a bit of life. To their credit, the Penguins played a really sound defensive game, cutting everything off in the neutral zone and making it tough for the Senators to enter Pittsburgh’s zone with control of the puck and that in turn led to a lot of failed dump ins. It was frustrating to watch.

-In the aftermath of the blockbuster deal that brought Matt Duchene to Ottawa, many analysts were quick to point out that Kyle Turris and Duchene actually had pretty similar production over the last few seasons. Not only is that sort of unfair considering the environment Duchene played in the last few seasons but it also might lead some people to believe the Senators were getting a similar player. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Duchene’s combination of speed, skill and drive is something the Sens have desperately needed more of and it was on full display in the first period last night.  Like the rest of the team, he faded in the second and third though.

-One of the things that seems to be coming up a lot lately in the comment section is people talking about “excuses”. One person will point out a factor that may have had an impact on the outcome of the game (fatigue, early saves, a lucky bounce) and then those factors will be immediately dismissed as excuses. “They lost. No excuses.” And quite frankly, I have no idea what that means in the context of fans discussing what happened in a hockey game.  It’s probably good practice for players to avoid making excuses for a loss (even though there are very real factors that impact their play on a nightly basis) but is it really an issue when fans do it? Seems to me it’s mostly just talking about factors and moments that influence the outcome of a game.  The Penguins deserved to win that game but there are plenty of reasons (or excuses?) why they did.

-There was a moment late in last night’s game when the Senators were pushing for the tying goal, that they sent out what had to be one of the most talented lines in franchise history.  The net was empty and Guy Boucher sent out six guys- Hoffman, Stone, Brassard, Ryan, Duchene and Karlsson.  Even though they had been completely suffocated for the 40 minutes leading up to that, when those six guys hopped over the boards, it just sort of felt like that tying goal was coming.  They were able to establish some decent zone time and a good look but Karlsson’s shot from the point missed wide. Then on the next entry Karlsson hammered it into the zone before everyone had a chance to clear.  It was a dump without the chase part, which happened a lot last night, and it ultimately led to empty net goal. Plenty of talent on the ice in that final minute but they just couldn’t generate one more good look on Matt Murray.

-Bonus Thought- Chris Wideman left the game in the third period after a terribly awkward looking (and probably avoidable) play where Evgeni Malkin fell on top of Wideman in front of the Ottawa net. Guy Boucher didn’t have any additional information about Wideman’s status following the game but they are expected to provide an update later today.  Nick Paul is already with the team and could step in on the fourth line for tomorrow’s game against Ariozna, although Wideman was mostly playing defence in the latter parts of last night’s game.

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