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Stationary Penguins fall to Kings, 5-2
by Tony on 11/06/09 at 09:19 AM ET
Comments (17)
I read prior to the Penguins/Kings matchup last night on how the Kings are being compared to the ‘06-’07 Penguins. Those Pens made the playoffs for the first time in a long while were ousted in five games by Ottawa.
Now that the game is over, and the Kings soundly defeated the Penguins 5-2, I’d say those comparisons are pretty damn accurate.
The one statement I took from this game: The Kings are legit.
Now, I must throw the injury caveat into the equation for those that are quick to point it out: Yes indeed, last night’s game would most likely have been a little different had the Penguins had their full complement.
But at the same time, I would throw out there that the Penguins’ performance, specifically defensively, would have negatively outweighed the presence of Malkin, Gonchar, Kennedy, Talbot and anyone else you want to include.
It was a pretty poor effort all around for the Pens’ defense. Not only were the Kings literally running circles around the stationary Pens, grabbing virtually every loose puck, but even during situations when the Pens’ defense possessed the puck, there were numerous plays when the breakout passes were absolutely terrible. In addition, the Kings’ strategy of crashing the net was working nearly to perfection, with little resistance by the Pens’ defense. Individually, Kris Letang had one of his worst defensive efforts in recent memory, directly leading to the first goal of the game and nearly resulting in two others. Brooks Orpik was not far behind.
Things started on a sour note very early for the Pens, as Justin Williams brought the puck to center ice, where Letang followed. That left a huge gap in defensive coverage, where Anze Kopitar took the feed from Williams, made a nice forehand/backhand move and easily beat Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Kings a 1-0 lead only 27 seconds into the game.
That said, as they’ve done so many times already this season, the Penguins came right back and scored on the next shift, as Chris Conner brought the puck into the Kings’ zone and left it for Jordan Staal, who blasted a shot from the left point that rang off the post and into the net to tie the game at one goal apiece.
The Pens took the lead midway through the second period when Orpik’s wrister from the right boards was deflected by Chris Kunitz and past Kings’ goalie Jon Quick to make it 2-1 Penguins at 10:51 of the second.
It remained that way until about six minutes into the third, when things started to fall apart in a big way. It started off a Kings faceoff win, where Williams’ wrister from the right slot was wide, but Kopitar was there behind the net to quickly corral it and wrap the puck around the net and scored to tie the game at 2-2.
It really started to go downhill later in the period, as the Kings capitalized on a bad clearing attempt by Fleury. Dustin Brown grabbed Fleury’s errant pass and was able to find a wide-open Jarret Stoll in the slot, where he calmly fired a wrister past Fleury, giving the Kings the 3-2 lead.
Only 23 seconds later, the Kings effectively put the game away with more pressure in the Pens’ zone. Alexander Frolov skated around the Pens’ net and threw the puck on goal, where in the ensuing scrum Michal Handzus was credited for the tap-in that scored to make it 4-2 Kings.
Just to add insult to injury, with two and a half minutes left, on a delayed Penguins’ penalty, Brown took a pass from Stoll and fired a one-timer from the left slot past Fleury for the final score of 5-2.
Notes:
- Sigh, required statement regarding the Penguins’ putrid powerplay. I will say, however, that during one of the Pens’ three failed powerplays that they had some excellent passing, albeit stationary passing, but Quick was on top of his game last night.
- Tally for consecutive games without a Penguins’ powerplay goal now stands at four.
- Have to continue to give props to the Pens’ PK units. Three more killed penalties in as many opportunites.
- Although he gave up five goals, Fleury was really left out to dry by the Pens’ defense. Can’t stress it enough, horrible defensive performance.
- Incredibly, Alex Goligoski was a +1 last night. The other defensemen ?? -7.
- Craig Adams led the Pens with 8 hits.
- Big shocker, Jay McKee led the Pens with four blocked shots.
Next up for the Penguins is a trip north to San Jose on Saturday night.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: Los+Angeles+Kings, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
LOL, you know I’ve gotta be more tactful than that…
But now that you’ve said it… 
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/06/09 at 09:46 AM ET
hahahahaha Oh Tell it like it is Tony
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 09:52 AM ET
Cute banter, guys...really adorable. You better watch out for #15 on Saturday in black and teal, after not netting a goal last night, he needs to score badly if he’s going to make it to 70 this year.
Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 11/06/09 at 10:03 AM ET
Blow Me Blind!!!!!!!!!! stick to your own Average team trying to make the Playoffs !!
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 10:10 AM ET
Blow Me Blind!!!!!!!!!! stick to your own Average team trying to make the Playoffs !!
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 10:10 AM ET
Our “average” didn’t have any trouble with the “real deal” Kings.
Posted by YYZerman on 11/06/09 at 10:33 AM ET
Nope Just have trouble making the Playoffs Numbnuts !
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 10:55 AM ET
Nope Just have trouble making the Playoffs Numbnuts !
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 10:55 AM ET
We’re 7 points behind the NHL leading Pens with only 68 games left to be played...yep the sky is falling. I Love how You capitAlize randOm letTers in your PostS.
Here’s a fun stat for you, In the 2003–04 season, the Penguins had the lowest average attendance of ANY team, with 11,877 fans per game.
Now I’m no pharmacist, but I’d bet my bottom dollar they have the highest average attendance of bandwagon punks whose lack of interest in their team less than a decade ago almost forced the franchise out of town.
Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 11/06/09 at 11:10 AM ET
NO amoeba Brain that was The Horrific ownership of Howard Baldwin that sold everything away to Spectacor & anybody else willing to take away his revenue to hold up his house of cards
Nice try 12 year old!!! stick to the Abject failure that is the Detroit’s Economy
It was also having the oldest building in the league & I was a Pens Fan.NHL fan before you were born Butthead !!
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 11:39 AM ET
Here’s a fun stat for you, In the 2003–04 season, the Penguins had the lowest average attendance of ANY team, with 11,877 fans per game.
Now I’m no pharmacist, but I’d bet my bottom dollar they have the highest average attendance of bandwagon punks whose lack of interest in their team less than a decade ago almost forced the franchise out of town.
And that team was horrible. Not an excuse, but it was a glorified AHL team (maybe ECHL). It was also the season that I personally got to see the most games, which was awesome. I have followed the Pens since 93, when I was 6 and I will never understand why people hate ‘bandwagon’ fans so much. I wish every team had more bandwagon fans. More fans = more revenue = bigger cap increase = keeping more star players. Also, let’s wait a few years and see what happens with attendance in Detroit if they happen to miss the playoffs for one or two seasons and look at the attendance then. It’s easy to be a self-proclaimed ‘Hockeytown’ when the team is on an almost two decade streak of making the playoffs (this goes for any American team really).
Posted by pens fan in baltimore on 11/06/09 at 11:43 AM ET
[Our “average” didn’t have any trouble with the “real deal” Kings.Posted by YYZerman on 11/06/09 at 10:33 AM ET /quote]
Yep, you’re right.
Until the Kings play well against the weaker teams, too, they’ll have a tough time finishing in the top 4 in the West.
Posted by shazam88 from California on 11/06/09 at 11:47 AM ET
Nice try 12 year old!!! stick to the Abject failure that is the Detroit’s Economy
It was also having the oldest building in the league & I was a Pens Fan.NHL fan before you were born Butthead !!
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 11:39 AM ET
Ha ha...obviously.
Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 11/06/09 at 12:36 PM ET
Yeah, sucks when the Pens play a shitty game with a depleted line-up. Fourth loss in 16 games...awful.
Kings wanted it last night. They’ll have themselves a nice year. Kopitar is a beast, playing better right now than any player on the Pens or Wings.
Posted by Bryan from Pittsburgh on 11/06/09 at 01:36 PM ET
That was pretty bad, all around. What’s up with Kennedy?
Anyway, it looks like the Sharks will have to pay for that bad performance.
Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/06/09 at 02:43 PM ET
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Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006. Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism. My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times. I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work. I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.
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How about this ?? The Pens SUCKED OUTLOUD last night from the opening faceof & REALLY Miss Geno, Sarge & TK a ton, Staal is what he is Wayne Primeau 2.0, He will NECER be anything more than a 3rd Line center
Posted by Evilpens on 11/06/09 at 09:44 AM ET