Pittsburgh Penguins Shutout By The Boston Bruins 3-0

The Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to Boston to take on the Bruins on Wednesday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins once again started the game with a little pep in their step, prevent the Bruins from managing a shot on net for a large part of the first half of the first period.

Despite the dominance – and stop me if you’ve heard this before – the Pens took a penalty at 7:28 into the period. The team managed to kill it off, but it killed the Penguins momentum.

Less than thirty seconds after the Boston Bruins penalty expired, former Pittsburgh Penguins player Max Talbot beat Jeff Zatkoff glove side for the 1-0 lead. The play resulted from a Brian Dumoulin turnover in the neutral zone, and Talbot’s shot should have been snagged by Zatkoff.

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The Pens second power play of the period was atrocious and resulted in Boston netting several shorthanded chances but Zatkoff stood tall. 1-0 Bruins after the first period.

The Pens outshot the Bruins 18-4 in the second, but the period ended with a goal in the favor of Boston. Even with lopsided possession, the Pittsburgh Penguins looked very out of sorts in both ends.

A miscommunication in the offensive zone allowed the Bruins to break out on an odd-man rush. Ryan Spooner fired a pass into the crease with Jimmy Hayes streaking in. Ian Cole saw the puck go off his skate and Zatkoff before connecting with the shaft of Hayes’ stick and going into the net. 2-0 Bruins.

After mounting so much pressure in the second period and failing to the capitalize, the Pens looked depleted in the third.

Late in the third period, a questionable penalty call on Patric Hornqvist put the Penguins down a man yet needing to go for broke.

Mike Sullivan pulled the goalie on the ensuing penalty kill and Spooner scored an empty netter to ice the game.

Bruins win 3-0.

Player Performance

Daniel Sprong played 7:10 and felt like a non-factor tonight.

Patric Hornqvist gets his ass beat by every NHL team night after night. He keeps going back to that blue paint. He’s being knocked for a lack of scoring this year versus last year, yet no one is scoring. He’s not a line ’em up and shoot it kind of guy. He scores dirty goals and deflections and generally just creates havoc. For him to generate points, the rest of the team needs to generate points. He’s no James Neal, but he’s far from the problem. He’s suffering because of the problem.

David Warsofsky and Ian Cole were, to put it nicely, ugly tonight. They were the pair on the ice for the Hayes goal and it was Warsofsky’s failed pinch which got that fateful set of events in motion.

Evgeni Malkin‘s line were matched with the Zdeno Chara and Adam McQuaid pairing, along with Patrice Bergeron‘s line most of the night. They played each other to a stalemate, but it felt like Malkin’s line was the most dangerous throughout the night.

Though small, Conor Sheary played with a lot of fire tonight. He definitely earned his spot.

For me, Trevor Daley was largely unremarkable throughout his first game as a Pittsburgh Penguin. That’s an upgrade I guess.

Pittsburgh Penguins Player of the Game

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He sure didn’t look pretty doing it, but Jeff Zatkoff was the Pens player of the game tonight. I’m sure he’d love to have that Max Talbot goal back, but beyond that it’s hard to fault Zatkoff for what befell this team on Wednesday night.

He looked like a man running late on a mad scramble to find his lost car keys, but he also came into tonight as a seldom used backup and saved 26 of 28 shots. That’s precisely what you hope your backup can do. Allowing two goals or less should be a win 9 out of 10 times for a team as offensively talented as this.

Not tonight. But don’t blame Zatkoff.

The Big Picture

There’s no nice way to put it. The Pittsburgh Penguins are suffering from a case of superstar truancy.

Though the Chris Kunitz/Sidney Crosby/David Perron line dominated their competition they produced no goals and bar some moments from Kunitz they felt largely inefficient.

Next: Evgeni Malkin Talks Ovechkin And Crosby's Leadership

The Sergei Plotnikov (and/or Conor Sheary)/Evgeni Malkin/Phil Kessel line played Patrice Bergeron’s line to a standstill and looked to be the most forceful on the ice, yet they also came up empty.

Until the three stars of the team get going, there’s going to be a good chance Pens fans get more nights like this one.

Generating the amount of shots the Pens are will eventually result in good things coming their way, but for now it feels like a hollow cry when the best player in the world has the same number of points on the season as Martin Hanzal and Tyler Bozak.

The defense is still in tatters and there’s little hope of fixing it in the short term unless General Manager Jim Rutherford decides to get a little risque.

In the meantime, the Pittsburgh Penguins will prepare to the play the Boston Bruins again on Friday night at CONSOL Energy Center.