A set of back-to-backs and in a great position to solidify a playoff opportunity was largely squandered by Pittsburgh this weekend. On the surface, the Penguins did fine to get 2 of 4 points and losing against a fresh Carolina isn’t too worrisome. However, the Penguins overall play is beginning to become startling. The Penguins simply didn’t show up against Carolina. They had no energy, no pushback, and simply had one of their worst performances of the season. That’s going to happen during a long season especially with how packed this month has been for Pittsburgh. It could have happened against a different opponent or at a different time. The Penguins were badly outplayed by Carolina just days ago but salvaged a point. They had a great opportunity to show the hockey world that they can play with the Canes for sixty minutes but completely squandered that chance.
Most of what transpired Sunday was a complete team effort, or rather lack of effort, however Dan Muse reintegrating Ryan Graves into the lineup played a huge factor. On the game’s opening shift Graves was burned down the left side and immediately took a tripping penalty where Carolina would score its first of three powerplay goals. Graves continued that awful play throughout the rest of the first period and saw his minutes significantly reduced until the game was well out of hand in the third period. Muse has made very few incorrect decisions this season but playing Graves yesterday afternoon was certainly a decision he wishes he could have back. The Ryan Shea injury exacerbates how poor the Penguins defensive depth really is because they really don’t have anyone else that can elevate into a potential second pairing role. Still, I would expect that to be Graves last game this season, and they’ll be playing Solovyov going forward.
Something that has become a more significant problem than a one-off Graves cameo, the goaltending needs to step up. Let me preface this by saying that defensive work has not been stellar in recent weeks, but the goaltenders need to keep more pucks out of the net. Stu played possibly the greatest game in which a goaltender let up six goals in his last outing, but he still allowed six goals. Silovs against Winnipeg allowed four which doesn’t include a goal taken away for a high stick and several posts that were hit behind him. The Penguins can score goals, and in bunches, but they cannot ride goal scoring into a long playoff run. Again, the Penguins defense has been piss poor recently so you likely don’t want to throw your stud rookie prospect in there but at this point he’s either going to sink or swim. Arty Silovs is a rookie, he’s played behind this defense all season without anyone worrying. So why not bring up Murashov? If everyone agrees he is the best option, let him play. If he is only going to allow 3 goals a game versus the 4+ that Silovs/Skinner are currently allowing you’re already making your chances at winning exponentially better.
Silovs did do something impressive on Saturday, he finally won a shootout. The Penguins had a million grade A chances in 3-on-3 but couldn’t capitalize which has been a reoccurring script this season. Silovs didn’t allow a goal in the shootout against Winnipeg while Crosby and Rakell sealed the deal for the Penguins. It felt like a huge monkey off of the team’s back so you would have expected a better effort the following day against Carolina.
The real story of the game Saturday was Erik Karlsson continuing his amazing play. He scored twice, again, and was simply magical for the entire game. He has been the best player in the NHL in the month of March. Without this level of play from Karlsson the Penguins would almost certainly be out of a playoff spot.
Erik Karlsson was also in the middle of yet another maddening goaltender interference challenge that went against the Penguins. They were winning 2-0 at the time of a defensive breakdown. Karlsson hustled back into the play and helped disrupt a great chance for Winnipeg. EK65 was then promptly checked into Silovs as the puck ping-ponged up into the air and into the net. The Penguins rightfully challenged for goaltending interference but somehow lost the challenge. As has been the case several other times this season the Penguins seemed to have the wind sucked out of their sails. The Penguins played quite terrible hockey after this botched call and needed to begin losing the game before they woke back up.
What’s even more mindboggling is the fact the same exact play happened last night in Columbus vs. New York (Islanders) but the call was completely different. The NHL cannot figure out this call. Every single time they make a decision an almost identical play happens within 24 hours and it’s called completely differently.
I don’t care what anyone says, the league has something against Pittsburgh and/or Muse. With how ridiculously bad they are at making these decisions it’s nearly impossible to be 0-8 on challenges, which the Penguins happen to be. They make so many decisions on these that seemingly make no sense that there is no appropriate reaction other than the fact the league hates the Penguins success. The Penguins must feel that way too because Elliotte Friedman reported this morning the Penguins had quite the fiery phone call with the league over goaltender interference at some point this season. Not only did that transpire, but after the refs moronically decided to award Winnipeg a good goal the Penguins printed out rule 38.1 which clearly states why Pittsburgh should have won the challenge. It has gotten so ridiculous I think they should just remove the rule all together and just allow goalies to be steamrolled whenever the opposition pleases.
Things weren’t all bad this weekend as Russian goalscoring extraordinaire scored in both contests. Egor Chinakhov is second best Russian forward of all time behind Evgeni Malkin.
