Penguins/Canadiens Recap: Pens shutout, lose again

Pregame

Everything is different tonight for the Penguins, besides the Wotherspoon-Karlsson pair. Tommy Novak is back on the first line and Rickard Rakell is the latest in a long line to try at the second line center spot that Pittsburgh has been trying to fill in Evgeni Malkin’s absence. Ville Koivunen is back from being a healthy scratch and with his familiar, fellow youngsters. The fourth line says goodbye to Danton Heinen for the night as he becomes a scratch. On defense, the long-standing Kris Letang-Ryan Shea pair is no more for the first time since training camp. Connor Clifton gets a jersey and Stuart Skinner makes his second start with the Pens.

The home Canadiens are working with these formations as they call it in French.

First period

Pittsburgh gets a power play early, it is poor recording no shots and seeing a crossbar get hit behind Skinner.

Kevin Hayes gets a breakaway for the Pens’ first shot, goalie Jacob Fowler stops him and then Noel Acciari too on the follow-up chance.

Skinner makes a flurry of great saves on Joe Veleno.

Hayes takes the first Pittsburgh penalty, the Canadiens strike after holding a lot zone time. Cole Caufield feeds Juraj Slafkovsky and he slings a shot from the front into the net. 1-0 MTL, 3:19 to go in the first.

A series of unfortunate events before the end of the period. Wotherspoon toepicks, the result is a clean lane for Owen Beck to skate in. Pretty shot to the top beats Skinner, it’s 2-0.

Would have been nice to get out of that period only down by a goal, that wasn’t the end result though. Shame Skinner gave up two goals, he had a couple really nice saves and was about the only Penguin player to do much of anything positive.

Second period

Connor Dewar gets a great chance early on from a sublime pass from Erik Karlsson, better stop by Fowler.

Sidney Crosby got smacked in the face inadvertently by the stick of Kulak. Not great! Crosby goes to the locker room for repairs but is back soon after.

Karlsson shows off his playmaking chops again to put a cross-ice pass on the stick of Justin Brazeau. No finish again.

On Crosby’s first shift back, the first line gets some o-zone time. Nick Suzuki gets rushed and clears the puck over the window to create the second Pittsburgh power play of the night. It’s Montreal who scores. Bryan Rust makes a no look pass to an area that there isn’t even a Penguin player. It turns into another Anderson SH breakaway, this time he doesn’t hit the crossbar. 3-0 game.

Second gets to the end, only five shots aside for each team. One is cruising, the other sinking.

Third period

The Pens keep working, Fowler is in the zone. Hayes gets a chance but can’t score on the rebound.

Lane Hutson goes to the penalty box for cross-checking, Crosby stays on the ice for the full 2 minutes that goes by without a goal.

Pittsburgh pulls Skinner with 7:20 to play when they get an offensive zone faceoff. Why not? Despite having the extra player the Pens still end up chasing the puck for the most part. Montreal misses a few open looks but finally puts the dagger in with 2:58. 4-0.

Some thoughts

• Line changes were a must after seven straight losses, good to see some fresh ideas implemented for this one. Muse has long been, um, musing over using Rakell as a center dating back to training camp, an idea that had to be shuttered when Bryan Rust got hurt and then Rakell himself took injured. Down Malkin, it makes sense to give it a go, though I assume the Pens will find out what the Ducks did many years ago in that Rakell will be more effective in the long haul on the wing. They just need a short-term patch for now though.
• Not sure Kulak will have much more luck than Shea did with Letang but that’s also worth the ol’ switcheroo at this point to see if change can be beneficial.
• Novak got buried with a big hit along the wall on the first shift. A fun game to play while watching Novak is to watch him get destroyed with a hit (he’s willing to hold the puck longer than most, so he ends up getting hit a lot; not a knock just willing to take the hit to extend his opportunity to create). See if Novak retreats to the perimeter or becomes ineffective for the next few shifts or period. Appeared to be the case tonight.
• Beck scored last week in the PIT/MTL game but his goal got called back after a Pittsburgh challenge and official review. He’d get his revenge in this game tonight by scoring again; they couldn’t take it away this time.
• Jacob Fowler vs the Pens: 2 starts, 2-0, .971 save%. Jacob Fowler in his other two NHL games (vs PHI and NYR): 0-1-1, .836 save%, 8 goals allowed in the two games. It wasn’t like Pittsburgh didn’t have chances, Moneypuck had them at 5.15 expected goals the first meeting on Dec. 11 (2 actual goals) and 3.61 one tonight (0 goals).
• The only good news is presumably the Habs will resort to not playing Fowler tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Though at this point, I wouldn’t put it past them.
• Parker Wotherspoon has been so good for the Penguins this season. Solid player, done very well in a big role (and not an easy job) of playing with Karlsson and often times the Pens’ first line that doesn’t exactly play tremendous defense. Wotherspoon has been reliable, a great story so far. When even he is tripping for no reason like he did in the first to let his guy go in unmarked and score, well, that’s an unnecessary signal that it’s just not going their way right now. The mistakes, accidents, blunders, all rising. The amount of confidence and quality play, way down. It can be difficult to correct, it isn’t that tough to diagnose that when in the midst of an eight-game losing streak it’s pretty much like a virus that has infected the whole team at this point.
• You also kinda knew, or could have gotten a strong suspicion about this one based on the early minutes when the Pens had a power play and it stumbled. Not that one power play is a make or break so much as nothing has changed from the top players looking like they’re in a complete fog. Other than Karlsson, who was great with his vision and passing, the rest of the top Pittsburgh players remain shaky, if visible at all. Rust, Crosby, Rakell, Mantha, goes for them all. That’s the top power play group and once again not moving the needle much. It was on display from the very start.
• Related: how the hell is Ben Kindel not on the top power play?
• The Bob Grove stat of the night is fittingly a sad one: today marks the ninth time the Pens have been shutout in back-to-back games. So much for putting on a good show on the Dad’s trip.

Rematch tomorrow in Pittsburgh. The Habs should be looking forward to it, at least.