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Leafs down Penguins 7-3 in Pens’ worst effort of the season
by Tony on 12/20/08 at 10:19 PM ET
Comments (5)
Can’t say it any clearer than that. No need to sugarcoat it. The Penguins were flat-out horrible in every aspect of tonight’s game vs. the Leafs.
A very shaky effort by Marc-Andre Fleury, several fatal turnovers by Evgeni Malkin and lack of any sustained effort doomed the Penguins from the start.
Conversely, the Leafs came out with all the intensity and all the hustle, and it paid off with three first period goals to give them a lead they wouldn’t come close to relinquish.
Malkin may have had his worst game in a Penguins uniform. Malkin had two passes that immediately led to Leafs’ goals.
Fleury was not sharp, to put it politely. He gave up goals that he thought he stopped but squirted through, gave up goals on weak wristers that he’d stopped 99 times out of 100, and gave up two goals after good screens by Leafs in front of the net.
Former Penguin Dominic Moore started the scoring for the Leafs on the powerplay when Pavel Kubina fired a slapper from the right point that Fleury thought he made the save, but the puck squirted behind him where Moore was waiting for the easy tap-in.
The Penguins came back a couple of minutes later playing 4 on 4 when Malkin came right off the bench, took a pass from Mark Eaton and went forehand/backhand to beat Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala to tie the game at one.
However, a little more than minute later Jeremy Williams got a pass in the slot and quickly fired a soft wrister that surprised Fleury and went in the goal to give the Leafs the lead again, 2-1.
A couple minutes later the Leafs extended their lead to 3-1 when Jonas Frogren got his 1st NHL goal when he fired a slapper that Fleury couldn’t see until it was too late on a nice screen.
About eight minutes into the second period Malkin took control of the puck near his goal but turned it over right in front of Fleury. Niklas Hagman was right there to grab the puck and quickly fire a wrister to the top shelf to make it 4-1 Leafs. A Kubina powerplay goal made it 5-1 late in the second period, and HCMT made the switch to Dany Sabourin after the second period. Not that it made much difference.
The Pens did put a little dent into the lead 58 seconds into third period when Petr Sykora grabbed a loose puck near the Leafs net and wristed it home to make it 5-2.
Any ideas the Pens had for a comeback were quickly thwarted when Alexei Ponikarovsky scored five minutes into the third, then Nik Antropov a few minutes later on the powerplay again made it 7-2.
Sykora scored again on a tip of a Alex Goligoski slapper from the left point to give the final score of 7-3.
Other notes:
- Because of the three powerplay goals by the Leafs, the plus/minus for the Pens wasn’t too bad. Brooks Oprik was -3, Jordan Staal was -2. Tomas Kaberle was +3 for the Leafs.
- Matt Cooke was credited with 9 hits, Orpik with 7.
The Pens are back on the ice Monday night in Buffalo, then back home Tuesday night vs. Tampa Bay.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Toronto+Maple+Leafs,
Comments
Fire Therien, find a way to get kovalchuk without giving up TOO much…
Posted by greg on 12/21/08 at 08:41 AM ET
Kovalchuck is the most stupid thing i hear. The Pens have the players to be good, but instead they are a team beating on the door of mediocrity. Why? HCMT.
The man has lost his marbles. He doesn’t even get mad any more. He just sits there and calls out random lines. He thinks switching goalies and putting Sid and Geno together are going to get us back to the SCF. I GUARANTEE that if they had John Tortorella or Ted Nolan that they would jump back into 1st place by the end of the season.
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/21/08 at 10:16 AM ET
Well, I’m tired of hearing how they’re not working game after game…. I have a feeling if this continues much longer, we’re going to start hearing whispers about HCMT’s job….
However, having said that, I just think the injuries have finally caught up to them… I can’t hold off using that excuse any longer….
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/21/08 at 10:20 AM ET
I would like to see the Pens get rid of HCMT and hire Bob Hartley. Ted Nolan or John Tortarella may also be good to get this team working again.
Posted by NHLJeff from Pens fan in Chicago, IL on 12/21/08 at 12:01 PM ET
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these injuries to the pens are killer. those call-ups are weaker than my grandma’s bowel movements.
Posted by jibjab from jashnoxoiasdjl; on 12/20/08 at 11:36 PM ET