Recap: Malkamania still running wild, brother. Pens defeat Islanders

The Penguins warm up in yellow helmets and yellow socks, gee I wonder what’s going to happen!

Here’s the lineup, Filip Hallander and Tristan Jarry make their season debuts.

The Penguins come out to the ice, and they have taken off their standard black home jersey to reveal a new, yellow alternate jersey.

Pittsburgh got the first power play of the night and it only took 23 seconds on it to score a goal. Sidney Crosby fished a puck away from Ilya Sorokin before the netminder could cover it, and a split second later Evgeni Malkin had put the puck in the net. 1-0 Pens.

The Islanders would find a tying goal following a nice zone entry by first overall pick Matthew Schaefer in his debut game. The puck eventually found Schaefer again and Jonathan Drouin found a way to lose himself in between Hallander and Ben Kindel. Drouin’s shot fluttered end over end but somehow the change-up pitch eluded Jarry. 1-1 game.

Shots in the first period were 12-11 in favor of NYI. It was a tale of two periods with Pittsburgh the better team in the early going and then the Islanders starting to take over more as it progressed.

New York took the lead, Mat Barzal attacked to the center of the ice and drew Ryan Shea toward that way before leaving a pass to the outside for Kyle Palmieiri. Palmieri ripped a shot from inside the circle back across Jarry’s body to take the lead. 2-1 NYI.

After two somewhat suspect goals, Jarry bailed the Pens out with a tremendous leg save from right in front of his net.

The Pens took advantage of that and tied the game shortly afterwards. Hallander curled up and made a pass over for a streaking Harrison Brunicke. Brunicke shot on the rush by Sorokin. 2-2 game.

The Pens get their lead back with a Sidney Crosby power play goal. Crosby out-muscled Ryan Pulock and worked in towards the back door. It was a 4v3, giving plenty of space for Malkin to simply find the target and make a hard pass for Crosby to deflect into the net. 3-2 Pens.

New York tied the game 39 seconds before the period ended. Simon Holmstrom fired a pass through Caleb Jones and Maxim Shabanov was able to get a strong shot away quickly to tie things back up.

Wild period of action. A lot of swings back and forth in dizzying effect. The tie feels well-deserved for both sides after 40, both have done some good and both have gotten burned.

Malkin springs Justin Brazeau for a breakaway and the big guy converts on the backhand. Pens up 4-3 with just over five minutes left.

NYI gets their chance to get back in, rookie Ben Kindel takes a hooking penalty and the Isles pull their goalie with about 2:40 remaining to make it a 6v4 edge. Jarry stood tall on that, and later with a close call with about 14 seconds left on a scramble. After the whistle, Jonathan Drouin dropped Connor Dewar with a cross-check to the head and was assessed a five-minute major.

This being the Penguins, of course they can’t manage the puck and give Barzal one more chance in the dying seconds of the game but Jarry bails the team out with a big save to close out the victory.

  • What do we think about the new alternate jerseys? They certainly are very yellow. I saw them getting called the floating Penguin, since there is no golden triangle. That logo is big too. Don’t mind the arms with the three narrow black bands, and there is a new style of font for the numbers for the first time in forever which is a nice change. Looks kind of weird that the only bits of white in the whole thing are the outlines of the numbers on the back and shoulders (aside from the white space in the Penguin logo itself) and a very thin strip down the pants. Couldn’t unsee that once noticing it. Not the best, not the worst is the verdict here. Fine for a year or two until the next concept comes around. The longer the game went on, the less I personally liked them. Kinda looked like knockoff Nashville jerseys. Further, the shoulder logo with the igloo and three wavy rivers in a triangle is unrecognizable to the branding and frankly kinda dumb and out of place. I’m talking myself into more bad than good as we go, if you couldn’t tell. But the matte yellow helmets (and no helmet sponsor) was a nice touch, and the white outline on the numbers made that look good. Just could have used a little less yellow and a triangle border on a logo about 85% of the size of what they came up with.
  • Came away with a less middling first impression of Schaefer. Seeing him in the NHL was something, his skating does make him look like a left handed Cale Makar with his smooth stride, fast acceleration and impressive top-end speed. High praise indeed, he scoots around the ice and had a lot of confidence with the puck. He did not look like a player in his first career NHL game, it came very naturally to him like he’s been doing it for years. Lucky Islanders to win the lottery draft, based on this first viewing it doesn’t seem like going out very far on a limb to predict that Schaefer is going to be a good one for a long time, and maybe better than simply “good”.
  • Second game of the year, second multi-point night for Malkin. He’s come back from injury or 4 Nation breaks or season starts and his legs have looked very good, which they do again at the early stages of this season. This has tended to fade and drop off a bit as time goes on, which given Malkin’s advanced age you’d expect that to happen eventually. 39-year old legs with a couple of knee surgeries aren’t going to last forever, though it’s heartening to note that a lot of his points this season are more a result of positioning or hand-eye plays more than using the jets to generate scoring chances. Perhaps some of what he’s doing could be sustained – even if the 2.5 points average per game can’t. As always for a player and personality like Malkin, him flying around the ice will draw attention, but the secret with him is that it’s never truly been about his physical form. It’s the mental/confidence side of the equation, when that part of his game is clicking right, he’s still a great player. When that’s hard to get going and believing in himself, he’s not. Right now is clearly one of the good times and hot streaks fueled by the joy/excitement of playing well.
  • Great move by Brazeau on his goal in the third period. It was a goal scorer’s type of goal to pull the puck out of his skates while on the rush, sell a forehand deke enough to fool a pretty darn good goalie and then go to the backhand AND lift the puck. That was after dragging his leg at the blueline to make sure he would stay onside (that’s where a 6’6” frame comes in handy). All in all, super impressive, let the good times roll for that whole line. Brazeau now has two games with the Pens and two GWG’s, not half bad.
  • It’s only been two games, so let’s not run him off the team but there haven’t been very many visible moments for Ville Koivunen on that Crosby line or when they are he’s being bumped off a puck and the play goes to die. Bryan Rust can’t get healthy soon enough. There’s a place somewhere for Koivunen but maybe not in the spotlight of that role right now. It hasn’t been a large sample yet but the first line isn’t working with no points there yet, and with Koivunen only playing 11 minutes at even strength tonight, that might already be beginning. Hallander, Kindel and Tommy Novak all got at least a shift with Crosby+Rakell. Koivunen’s got to pick it up or show something in a hurry or he’s not going to stay in that spot for much longer.
  • On the other side, a goal is going to come soon for Anthony Mantha. He drew a penalty in the second period driving to the net and then put a deflection/swing on a puck out of mid-air later in the period that put extra velocity on it.
  • You don’t see many games that feature a 1st career goal and a 625th career goal. Nice job by Brunicke to open his account; he had a few fumbles in his own end – as a rookie defenseman is bound to have and he also showed the skating and hockey IQ to jump up in the play and the skill to finish, which is his uncommon traits. On the other side, just another day at the office for Crosby to out-work an opponent and get to a great scoring spot and put the puck in the net.
  • The Tristan Jarry experience was in full effect tonight. That’s not meant as a compliment or a dig as much to attempt to explain a goalie that makes it complicated. The first two goals he gave up were enough to make you shake your head and wonder how an NHL goalie could get beat on those shots (the first more so than the second). Then Jarry makes a great stop from point blank range and the Pens tie the game. Jarry turns away a shorthanded breakaway and his team is able to take the lead soon after. Not pretty, not perfect, but enough to win with some great third period saves too including at the last second on Barzal. Last season at his worst, Jarry would have let the two weak goals snowball into three or four goals and gotten himself pulled out of the game and the team would limp to a blowout loss. For one night at least he was able to hold the worst at bay and recover to do enough to play winning hockey.

Two games in and two victories for the Penguins. Just as everyone suspected, eh? Fun start to the season with the power play clicking, the Malkin line firing in goals left and right and the defense holding it together against all odds and conventional wisdom. Rematch time on Saturday night against the Rangers.


Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *