Pens vs Rangers: Round 1, Game 2

[Pabst]

I made this comment in the other thread - NY's top lines were very good in game 1 (particularly the Panarin-Strome-Copp line). Their bottom six was complete dog shit. Rangers writers can talk about hits and blocked shots all they want, but those stats come with one huge caveat - they mean your team doesn't have the puck. That fourth line was out shot almost 2 to 1 despite starting 75% of their shifts in the offensive zone. That's awful. The bottom D pairing of Nemeth and Schneider was equally bad. In spite of the slow start, the Pens very much outplayed the Rangers. Shesterkin kept it close.


If you'd like a nice visual for the Pens' dominance on Tuesday, here it is:




Lines for NY should look the same. Their last gameplan was kinda confusing, IMO. The Kreider-Zibanejad-Vatrano line was used primarily in a defensive role, while guys like Goodrow and Chytil saw a ton of O-Zone time. Does Gallant have that little faith in his bottom six? Given the way they played, he probably should. The physical gameplan gave the Rangers a nice pop out of the gate, but it also led to a few penalties and seemed to leave them gassed pretty quickly. We'll see if anything changes tonight:

Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Frank Vatrano
Artemi Panarin - Ryan Strome - Andrew Copp
Alexis Lafreniere - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Barclay Goodrow - Kevin Rooney - Ryan Reaves

Ryan Lindgren / Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller / Jacob Trouba
Patrik Nemeth / Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin



Over on the Pens' side. Rakell and Desmith are a no-go tonight. The backup goalie will be Alex D'Orio. He sucks, so pray for Domingue to stay healthy. Zucker was a full participant in practice yesterday, so it sounds like he'll step in. If not, I imagine it'll be O'Connor.

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Kasperi Kapanen
Jason Zucker - Jeff Carter - Brock McGinn
Brian Boyle - Teddy Blueger - Evan Rodrigues

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson / John Marino
Mike Matheson / Chad Ruhwedel

Louis Domingue


The Penguins had 143 shot attempts and 83 shots on goal in Game 1. That's insane. Shesterkin faced all of those shots, and he played over 100 minutes on Tuesday - pretty much the equivalent of two full games. I'd absolutely love to see another shooting gallery tonight. Shesterkin is continuing to play at an elite level, so overloading him seems like a fine strategy.

Pittsburgh has already flipped home ice. I'll take it....but coming home with a 2-0 series lead would be huge. Don't want to look too far ahead, but Carolina has dominated both games so far, and that could be a short series.

[fractalsteel]

I was wondering as well if the Rangers extended themselves with all the physical play. They looked like they lost some pop in the middle of the second period.
The Pens are going to have to weather a storm early from the Rangers and crowd. Can't fall behind by 2 again.

Speaking of Carolina.
Raanta got hurt last night when Pastrnak collided with him. It was a very odd kind of play-hard to tell if Pasta was trying to clip Raanta or if he lost his skates.
Pastrnak had a terrible start to the game. Lazy defensive effort led to a goal and the penalty gave Carolina even more momentum.

And, Staal is something like 24-11 against Bergeron in FO's after two games.

[Pabst]

I was wondering as well if the Rangers extended themselves with all the physical play. They looked like they lost some pop in the middle of the second period.
The Pens are going to have to weather a storm early from the Rangers and crowd. Can't fall behind by 2 again.

Speaking of Carolina.
Raanta got hurt last night when Pastrnak collided with him. It was a very odd kind of play-hard to tell if Pasta was trying to clip Raanta or if he lost his skates.
Pastrnak had a terrible start to the game. Lazy defensive effort led to a goal and the penalty gave Carolina even more momentum.

And, Staal is something like 24-11 against Bergeron in FO's after two games.

Staal has morphed into an absolute stud on the FO dot since leaving Pittsburgh.

I didn't watch last night, but it seems like the well-known issues with the 'canes goaltenders (Andersen's inconsistency and Raanta's injuries) are starting to creep up at the worst time for them. I know Andersen has been hurt as well, but he was struggling quite a bit down the stretch.

[DP39]

I was wondering as well if the Rangers extended themselves with all the physical play. They looked like they lost some pop in the middle of the second period.
The Pens are going to have to weather a storm early from the Rangers and crowd. Can't fall behind by 2 again.

Speaking of Carolina.
Raanta got hurt last night when Pastrnak collided with him. It was a very odd kind of play-hard to tell if Pasta was trying to clip Raanta or if he lost his skates.
Pastrnak had a terrible start to the game. Lazy defensive effort led to a goal and the penalty gave Carolina even more momentum.

And, Staal is something like 24-11 against Bergeron in FO's after two games.

I saw it live, followed by multiple replay angles, and it looked like Pastrnak actually (sneakily) quick-jabbed him on the left jaw. Looked like it caught Raanta completely by surprise and he went almost left shoulder/face/head first into the ice with his lid coming off upon impact. They showed him with a cut in the left corner of his mouth/lips. I immediately wondered if his injury was head related and made worse due to ice contact at that point -- not sure though.

[bradshaw2ben]

It is truly painful to be 9 blocks from the garden and not be able to go—I took a quick glance and tickets and was like…. Yeah, don’t think so. And it’s not a market where there’s soft local support and you can sneak it with somebody tickets they tried to unload.

When the OT was going on, I was like, “back in the old days, the ushers would all have gone home by thaw 2nd intermission and you could just walk in and get a full game for free”.

Guess I can’t complain though because it couldn’t have worked out any better.

[bradshaw2ben]

It is truly painful to be 9 blocks from the garden and not be able to go—I took a quick glance and tickets and was like…. Yeah, don’t think so. And it’s not a market where there’s soft local support and you can sneak it with somebody tickets they tried to unload.

When the OT was going on, I was like, “back in the old days, the ushers would all have gone home by thaw 2nd intermission and you could just walk in and get a full game for free”.

Guess I can’t complain though because it couldn’t have worked out any better.

[DP39]

It is truly painful to be 9 blocks from the garden and not be able to go—I took a quick glance and tickets and was like…. Yeah, don’t think so. And it’s not a market where there’s soft local support and you can sneak it with somebody tickets they tried to unload.

When the OT was going on, I was like, “back in the old days, the ushers would all have gone home by thaw 2nd intermission and you could just walk in and get a full game for free”.

Guess I can’t complain though because it couldn’t have worked out any better.

Ah yes, the good old days, when you could get into just about anywhere you wanted if you had balls and just acted like you belonged there. I miss those days.

What an amazing game 1. One of the most enjoyable hockey games I've watched in a while.

Bring on game 2. We're playing with house money, now.

LGP!

[fractalsteel]

Rust only missed a shift-that was a nasty blocked shot that hobbled him.

Rangers are a TO machine so far.

[Pabst]

Turned it on just in time for th O'Connor crossbar and Rangers delay penalty.

Rangers playing very aggressive yet again

[fractalsteel]

Pens have 6 PPs so far to the Rangers 1
That will change. The delay call looked like the puck went off BFJCs stick to me.

[El Kabong]

Boo

[COR-TEN]

Missed opportunity with that rust breakaway.

[Pabst]

Have Rangers fans always been this whiny?

[El Kabong]

Argh.

[El Kabong]

Crosby!!!!!!! We needed that.

[fractalsteel]

On both Pens goal Crosby was great.

[fractalsteel]

First the neutral zone steal on the Breadman to setup the Pens first goal. Then his March through th.e South leaving clutching Rangers helpless.

Wow

[fractalsteel]

The Pens top two lines have been very good to start the third
Shots 9 to 1

[El Kabong]

Ah damn.

[El Kabong]

We's in trouble.

[fractalsteel]

Carter knew exactly what he was doing there.

[El Kabong]

Well, that's why they play a series. Get 'em in the Burgh.

[Pabst]

Carter knew exactly what he was doing there.

For sure, but that's still on Shesterkin

[Pabst]

I'm not getting too worked up. It's 1-1 heading back home

[JackLambert58]

Have Rangers fans always been this whiny?

Yes

[bradshaw2ben]

Pens have 6 PPs so far to the Rangers 1
That will change. The delay call looked like the puck went off BFJCs stick to me.

In the close up slo mo it appeared to be nowhere near BFJC’s stick

[fractalsteel]

Carter knew exactly what he was doing there.

For sure, but that's still on Shesterkin

The rule says the non goalie must do everything in their power to avoid the tender. It looked to me like Carter could have moved to his right and avoided the collision. Not that I didn't love it because it sent a message to the Rangers.

I'm not too broken up about the game last night. The goal is to win at least one on the road.
Down two top forwards, down to their 3rd string tender and missing Dumo who plays a lot of minutes.

Special teams are a mess right now. Something there has to change or the Pens are not going to win. Secondary scoring is another issue. The second line is jumbled right now with Rakell and Zucker out and the third line hasn't really done much in the OZ.

Be nice to get a goal or two from the Defense.
O'Connor had his moments but I thought Rodrigues was a liability for the Pens. Boyle looks like he is stuck in cement.

I thought Malkin had a very good game aside from not shooting enough. The Rangers took away his shot on the PP so that will continue so it is up to the coaches and players to make adjustments there.

Shesterkin was struggling early and the Pens had chances. Then he got it together and had 5-6 stops that were why is is going to be the Vezina winner this year.

If the scoring is only going to come from the top line then the Birdies have no chance to win this series.

[bradshaw2ben]

STs: they look like they don't know what their purpose is on the PP, and they aren't pouncing on the 50/50 pucks the way they did early in the year on the PK. Maybe that's fatigue.

I almost feel like they need to change up completely on the PP and just let those creative minds work at new and unexpected solutions.

Ya know, they have viable 3rd line/4th line guys available to them who don't play. This time of year, it would seem to be a good opportunity to rotate some of them in and give breathers to the guys who are on E.

Is their farm team in the playoffs right now? I read that they couldn't bring up their young goaltender because he wasn't eligible... are there others who are not eligible?

[fractalsteel]

DeSmith out for the rest of the playoffs

[Orangesteel]

Any word on Jarry?