After two poor efforts against the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals, it was reasonable to assume that the Pittsburgh Penguins might bring their A-game Friday against an opponent they’ve historically gotten the best of.
But whatever is the exact opposite of an A-game is what ended up translating on the ice for the vast majority of the game.
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The Penguins fought their way back from a 2-0 deficit against the Columbus Blue Jackets to force overtime and a shootout, but the Jackets ultimately prevailed, 3-2, to cap off what was a dominant effort from them. Columbus outshot the Penguins by a wide margin, 45-22, and the Penguins compiled most of their shots in the third period.
Sergei Murashov was outstanding for Pittsburgh, stopping 43 of 45 shots on goal.
From the jump, the Penguins could not get much generated. Columbus was skating circles around them, and it culminated when Damon Severson scored to give the Jackets a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.
For much of the second period, it was the same song and dance. Pittsburgh was disjointed, and Columbus kept taking advantage of that with sustained zone time. Mathieu Olivier made it 2-0 with eight and a half to go in the middle frame, and the Penguins got a late goal from Bryan Rust – his patented power move around a defender and across the net-front – to cut the deficit to one.
Then, considering how things went in the first 40 minutes, Pittsburgh was much better in the third.
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A little more than three minutes into the final frame, the Penguins’ first line was pressuring in the offensive zone. A fresh Evgeni Malkin crashed the net, and Erik Karlsson sent a shot in his vicinity that may or may not have hit Rickard Rakell on the way in. Malkin poke the puck through the five-hole of Jackets’ netminder Cam Talbot, and the game was suddenly tied.
Murashov worked hard to get the game to overtime, stopping 40 of 42 shots in regulation. However, a back-and-forth overtime was not enough, and a shootout was forced – which has, in recent years, not been good news for the Penguins.
None of Rakell, Egor Chinakhov, or Ben Kindel managed to score on Talbot, but Columbus’s first by Kent Johnson beat Murashov to give Columbus the win. That gives the Penguins their 15th shootout loss in their last 18.
Here are a few takeaways from this one:
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– There is nothing good to say about the first two periods of this game for the Penguins.
They had three shots in the first period. By the end of the second period, they had six. Even with the goal by Rust toward the end of the second, the Penguins were still sloppy for the rest of the period.
Fast starts were a trademark for the Penguins last season and in the first two games of this season against the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens. In the last three, the Penguins were plain lethargic to start, and they’ve had a hard time coming back from that.
It bears repeating, but this team just looks so disjointed for large stretches right now. Maybe that’s due to a shortened camp and so many new faces, maybe not.
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But it’s something they need to correct quickly.
– That said, the one guy on the ice – aside from Kindel, who has been excellent – actually looking pretty good through the two games he’s played in is Rust.
It was pointed out by many that Rust had an extra step in training camp this year. It was noticeable, and he was far and away one of the standout players in camp before yet another injury plagued him to start the season.
Rust looks like he’s carried that momentum into the regular season. His speed has seen a resurgence, and he’s a difference-maker in this lineup right now.
The Penguins sorely missed him. He needs to stay healthy for a variety of reasons.
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– Someone I’d like to see more from is Chinakhov. He did have two of the Penguins’ three shots in the first period, but it feels as though Malkin and Tommy Novak have been able to generate offense more consistently than Chinakhov up to this point.
He’s very close. Once he breaks through and rips one, it feels like the floodgates will open.
But, in general, the Penguins need more from their top-six as a whole, especially the first line. It was another rough night for Sidney Crosby and Rakell.
– I haven’t been overly impressed with Hendrix Lapierre in these last couple of games.
Like everyone else, he was shot out of a cannon to start the season. Since the Montreal game, though, I think he’s looked very much like a fourth-liner.
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I’d like to see Robertson elevated back up in the lineup, and perhaps, Elmer Soderblom get a game in place of Lapierre on the fourth line. The Penguins could use Soderblom’s size and forechecking right now, and Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, and Soderblom were a tried and true combination in the stretch run last season.
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– It’s hard to be overly critical of the defensive pairings – Sam Girard and Kaedan Korczak have, by far, been the best pairing for the Penguins so far – because there are three new guys on it, and it’s going to take some time for things to gel.
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But this is a third-straight less-than-pedestrian effort from the Trevor van Riemsdyk and Kris Letang pairing.
I believe there’s another level to both of these guys. They played well in the first two games of the season, along with most of the rest of the Penguins. But if they are unable to find another level in the next handful of games, I don’t think load management, at the very least, should be out of the question.
The Penguins have Spencer Stastney, and they have two very capable young defenders in Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke down at the AHL level. Of course, waivers and other roster moves would have to be made in order for the latter two to make the jump, but it will be interesting to monitor how those two are doing in comparison to the bottom pairing on the NHL club.
– The single-biggest story of this game was Murashov. And, boy, was he magnificent.
His performance through the end of overtime gives him a .938 save percentage through two starts on the season – the eighth-best mark in the NHL. Many of those saves were ten-bell saves, too, including one nearing the end of regulation on a Zach Werenski chance.
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This guy is so far beyond his age when it comes to poise and confidence, and his quickness is effortless. The ease and speed at which he gets post-to-post, left-to-right, and up-and-down is insanely quick, and his anticipation and reads are phenomenal.
Arturs Silovs has mostly been fine to start the season, and given that the Penguins play a back-to-back, he will get the net Saturday against the Dallas Stars. But, right now – unless Silovs puts forth an effort against Dallas akin to his playoff performance last season – Murashov is quickly separating himself as the team’s No. 1.
There is something different about this guy. This was a statement game from the rookie who looks absolutely nothing like a rookie out there, and it’s something for Murashov to continue building on as the Penguins navigate a tough Western road trip starting Tuesday.
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