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The Confluence

Penguins’ slump continues, lose 4-1 to Devils for 3rd straight loss

by Tony on 12/10/08 at 10:08 PM ET
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This reminded me of one of those Pens/Devils games of the past.

Pretty much frustrating all game long.  Not getting the bounces, not getting the calls, hitting posts galore, yadda, yadda, yadda.

That was certainly the case tonight, where the Penguins lost their 3rd straight game tonight in a 4-1 loss to the Devils in a sparse Prudential Center.

Dany Sabourin didn’t play a bad game, per se, but got some unlucky bounces off walls, sticks and skates.

Even though resident tough guys Eric Godard and Mike Rupp were both scratched, it was still quite a chippy game.  Kris Letang in particular was on the receiving end of a few big time hits.

The game was actually scoreless through nearly two periods of play, but with a little more than two minutes remaining in the second, the officials missed a clear offsides by Jamie Langenbrunner, which led to a slapper from the left point by Travis Zajac that went wide.  However, the puck bounced back towards the net, where Zajac was there to bang home the rebound to make it 1-0 Devils.

The Devils doubled their lead two minutes into the third period when Zach Parise made a nice deflection of a Bryce Salvador shot from the left point and past Sabourin making it 2-0 Devils.  It needs to be mentioned, however, that Langenbrunner clearly tripped Letang after getting checked into the boards, but was not called.  The continuation of the play resulted in Parise’s goal.

The lead ballooned to 3-0 halfway through the period when Dainius Zubrus fired a wrister that went through Alex Goligoski’s legs, deflected off his skate and past Sabourin.

The Pens avoided the shutout with about four minutes remaining when Evgeni Malkin was mugged by the Devils defenseman with no call, but Malkin was able to push the puck towards the net, where Matt Cooke somehow got the puck into the net to make it 3-1 Devils.

Patrik Elias’ empty netter closed out the scoring.

Other notes;
- I didn’t want to make it seem like I was whining about the officiating, but seriously, that crew had a bad night.
- The powerplay continued their downward spiral, going 0 for 3.
- I’d be shocked if John Curry isn’t in net tomorrow night vs. the Islanders at the Igloo.
- Tim Wallace made his NHL debut, and Jeff Taffe made his 2008 Pens debut tonight.  Both were typical 4th line performances, while Wallace was assessed a minor penalty for tripping in the second period.
- Malkin, Miro Satan and Sidney Crosby were all -2 tonight.
- For as many big hits as Letang took tonight, he also blocked 7 shots, as well as leading the Pens in ice time with 24:09.

As stated, the Penguins come right back and host the Islanders Thursday night at the Igloo.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: New+Jersey+Devils, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

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