In the words on Aaron Rodgers, relax. After a six-game winning streak, the Penguins dropped two straight only scoring one total goal over the weekend. I am not even a little bit worried about the two-game slide. Sure, it would have been nice to get four points against two teams that likely won’t qualify for the playoffs, but it’s hard to win in this league. Am I going to blame the loses almost entirely on Kevin Hayes? Yep. Shouldn’t shock anyone that Hayesy boy replaced Rust (day-to-day) in the lineup and suddenly the Penguins look like shit. The lines go into a blender and whatever line contains Hayes will instantly be the slowest on the ice. Playing Hayes as the second-line center in Sunday’s game was complete maleficence. Something must be severely wrong with Geno’s shoulder because there is absolutely no explanation for not recreating the Mantha-Malkin-Brazeau line unless Geno simply cannot take faceoffs. I suspect that he cannot, in fact, take faceoffs because anytime the center was kicked from the circle the opposite winger, not Geno, would step in to take the draw. If this is the case, it is still mind-boggling to have Hayes as your 2C. How to do the lines if Geno HAS to play wing due to injury…

Malkin-Crosby-Rakell

Mantha-Novak-Brazeau

Malkin/Crosby-Kindel-Chinakov

Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari

Yes, bench Kevin Hayes entirely and run seven defensemen. I am completely serious about this. You get more Malkin and/or Crosby on the ice in this situation, net positive. You don’t slow your team down by having Hayes in the lineup, net positive. You can reduce the minutes of Letang if he’s having one of his bad games, net positive. We have been shown enough evidence to support that Hayes can only contribute positively to this team in the locker-room, not on the ice.

In saying all of that, the Penguins are completely fine. The offense didn’t suddenly disappear; it was a blip on the radar. I am legititmately not worried at all. The Penguins played bad first periods in both games over the weekend but finished each game vastly outplaying their opponents. Hell, the Penguins might not have played a “good” period all weekend by their standards and yet they left 4 of 6 periods looking like the better team. Sometimes, team’s dry up on the goalscoring front and sometimes they go on a heater. The Bruins scored 10 goals the game before they played the Penguins, if you watched that team last night you would know the Bruins don’t have that type of firepower (the Rangers are also just dogshit).

Hockey is an 82-game season, not 82 one-game seasons so it’s important to not overreact to one poor weekend.

Also, anyone who’s on board with trading Rust let this weekend be a reminder that it would effectively slam the door closed on us making the playoffs, he is that important.

For the rant, let’s talk about the refs this season. What the hell am I watching? The Penguins have been unusually penalized this season. They have the largest % of PIM taken in the league, meaning they are penalized more than their opponents every game. It’s insane. The refs have no respect for Dan Muse. Muse should swanton bomb one of these idiots to set the tone. On Saturday the refs were fine. Until they weren’t. First Crosby was blatantly pushed into the Flames goaltender, Cooley (flames goalie) sold it, and Novak’s corresponding goal was immediately waved off. Goaltender interference is nearly impossible to challenge, especially one in which Crosby technically went into the crease on his own accord. So, no goal was allowed, although it definitely should have stood. The refs should ALWAYS call a goal on the ice and making the defending team take the challenge. After this, somehow Brazeau got called for embellishment after being interfered with, big men are allowed to fall. Acciari got plastered from behind into the boards and no call was made. Kulak got called for tripping even though the Flame that was “tripped” was falling prior to Kulak being anywhere near him. The final 8 minutes of the game was a complete joke from a ref standpoint, and it likely cost the Penguins a point. Replace all refs with robots, AI, or complete homers at every home stadium so at least you can expect this type of shit. Sidenote, how in the world did it take me legitimately twenty minutes to find a video of the goalie interference call? Maybe it was so bad that Bettman made sure to try to scrub it from the internet.

Lastly, I have never seen a guy get a roughing penalty in the manner that Geno did on Saturday. The goal was a beauty and Chinakov looks like a legit acquisition (Dubas masterclass). However, Geno did absolutely bury the dude as he was on his way to Chinakov and stupid penalties like this are one of the many reasons everyone loves Geno.