Livescore
When teams grab a “loser point” in overtime, it often leaves them feeling like they came up short of grabbing two points.
That should hardly be the narrative for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
The Penguins got a late power-play goal from Rickard Rakell to force overtime against the Florida Panthers, but they ultimately fell in the shootout, 3-2. The game was a tightly contested back-and-forth affair, and the Penguins were happy with the way they played against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
“Obviously, we would always like the win, especially with how the year has gone,” said forward Bryan Rust, who registered his 400th career point in his 600th career game with an assist on Sidney Crosby’s power play goal in the second period. “But, I think, for us, we played really well. We had a lot of chances, and we didn’t give them a ton. They’re a very good offensive team.”
Here are some thoughts and observations from Friday’s shootout loss:
– Although this was a nice point for the Penguins to get – which I’ll get to shortly – it may have come at a cost.
Forward Philip Tomasino – who has four goals and seven points since being dealt from the Nashville Predators on Nov. 25 and has been a nice middle-six player for the Penguins – went feet-first awkwardly into the end boards after a collision with Florida defenseman Nate Schmidt. He was helped off the ice, didn’t put any weight on his right foot, and did not return to the game.
To be honest, it didn’t look good when it happened. You’ve got to hope for best-case scenario with Tomasino there. It’ll be a real shame if he misses significant time, as he has really helped provide a spark for this team since his acquisition.
– Depending on what happens with Tomasino, the logical first move would be to put either Anthony Beauvillier or Jesse Puljujarvi back into the lineup.
But if he’s out long-term, don’t be surprised to see Kyle Dubas either pull the trigger on a trade for a buy-low, higher-upside player – such as L.A. Kings forward Arthur Kaliyev – or make the move to call up a more long-term prospect such as Tristan Broz or Rutger McGroarty – who they’ll want to ice every day – to help offset that loss.
More on Dubas later.
– The Penguins need to get more creative in shootouts. Both Rakell and Crosby’s efforts were a bit uninspiring, and it seemed like they had better looks than what they ultimately decided on as far as moves.
I don’t think it’s a personnel issue. Rakell, Crosby, and Rust – and, maybe, Erik Karlsson – are the clear guys to go to in this situation. Rakell and Rust, especially, have historically been very good in it.
They’re just not scoring this season.
– The goaltending on display tonight was truly something else. Both Tristan Jarry and Florida Panthers netminder Spencer Knight were spectacular.
Jarry stopped 31 of 33 Florida shots, while Knight went 29-for-31, and both goals Knight allowed were on the Penguins’ power play, which is ranked fourth in the league at 26.3 percent. But both of them made huge saves on the penalty kill stymied each team’s respective attack on multiple occasions.
Just a really great display of goaltending all-around on Friday.
– The penalty that Sam Bennett took at with 2:01 left in regulation and his team up, 2-1, was unfathomably idiotic.
Bennett and Drew O’Connor both went for a loose puck behind Pittsburgh’s net, and Bennett took a liberty on O’Connor by punching him in the face when they met at that juncture. There appeared to be no instigation, and it looked like he literally did it for no particular reason.
Good on Rakell and the Penguins for capitalizing on such an ill-advised situational penalty. Pittsburgh pulled the goaltender to have a six-on-four advantage, which simply proved to be too much for Knight and Florida’s penalty kill.
Bennett practically gift-wrapped and tagged this point for the Penguins.
– The Penguins’ power play continues to do some incredible work.
I’ve said it before on here, but Matt Grzelcyk is far and away the Penguins’ best power play quarterback, and I don’t think it’s particularly close. He doesn’t hold onto pucks long and tends to make the right decisions with the puck simultaneously. He allows the flow of the unit’s movement, cycling, and possession to dictate his reads and decision-making.
He put up yet another assist tonight. He is on pace for 41 points. He is looking more and more like a nice, shiny toy for a team in need of power play help and offense from their blue line come deadline time – and someone might just pony up for his services.
– This was a very strong return game from Kevin Hayes, who had been a healthy scratch from the Penguins’ lineup since Dec. 10 in a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
He tied Rakell for the team lead in shots with five, and four of those came during the first period. He was deployed on the second power play unit and hardly looked out of place on it. He was backchecking hard, playing with intensity throughout, and was engaged on both ends of the ice.
I have a feeling he’s going to stick in the lineup next game.
– Erik Karlsson was – once again – deployed on the penalty kill in tonight’s game. And he – once again – led all Penguins’ defensemen in PK ice time by well over a minute at three minutes and 37 seconds.
And he – once again – impressed in that role.
It was one thing for Karlsson to look pretty good on the penalty kill against a last-ranked New York Islander power play. It’s a whole other thing for him to excel in that role against a top-10 power play in the Florida Panthers.
But, he didn’t look out of place at all and – once again – even provided value on the penalty kill for the Penguins.
It’s only been two games – and his career-long body of work on the PK suggests otherwise – but maybe the Penguins have unlocked something with him there.
– This was, truly, a good point for the Penguins to earn.
This is one of those loser points that didn’t really feel like a loser point at all. The Penguins came to battle against the defending Stanley Cup Champions – as they often do against them – and they played a very even-keel game with them. There were pockets of this game where the Panthers controlled play in spurts, but the Penguins were, arguably, the better team for most of the evening.
Not only is this yet another example of the Penguins being able to hang with some of the best teams in the league over the past month-plus, but with an Ottawa Senators loss, that point also put them in a tie with Ottawa for the second wild card spot.
They have still played more games than almost everyone else around them in the standings, but that will start to even out soon. This game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday is a massive one for the Penguins – as will be the case for most of their games for the remainder of the season.
– While the Penguins took on the Panthers on Friday, Dubas swung over to Montreal from the World Junior Championship in Ottawa to take in an AHL game between Laval and Abbotsford.
Laval is the Montreal Canadiens’ affiliate. And Abbotsford? That is the affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.
There has been a lot of smoke for a while now regarding the Canucks being active in the trade market. Some of the latest reports include stars J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, while there has been a lot of talk about forward Nils Hoglander as well.
The Canucks are in need of a defenseman, and it almost seems like a foregone conclusion that they will be involved in a trade with the Penguins at some point – especially since the Penguins will likely look to sell both Marcus Pettersson and Grzelcyk.
This will be a situation to keep an eye on. If Tomasino is out long-term, it might initiate a bit more urgency on Dubas’s part to get something done – especially if the Penguins continue to find themselves in the thick of the playoff race.
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