The Confluence
Stationary Penguins fall to Kings, 5-2
by Tony on 11/06/09 at 09:19 AM ET
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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,
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