Pittsburgh Penguins Fall in Arizona – Is It Time to Panic?
By Mike Necciai
Game two of the regular season brought a mixture of both playoff pace and lapses that the Pittsburgh Penguins will quickly try to erase from memory. The Pens started slow and despite Phil Kessel‘s game-tying goal, his first as a Penguin, they dug themselves a hole that they were unable to escape.
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There were a ton of takeaways from tonight’s loss, beginning with the poor personnel decisions by this coaching staff yet again. For the record, I like Mike Johnston as a coach. From a systematic and X’s and O’s perspective, he’s as solid as they come. His player usage on the other hand has been an issue since he arrived in Pittsburgh last season.
Let’s first consider the separation of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby on the power play. Simply put, it isn’t working. If Rick Tocchet isn’t able to put together a proper power play that can take advantage of the unrivaled amount of talent Pittsburgh has, maybe it’s time to move on. When you combine those decisions with the fact that Daniel Sprong played only 7:57, despite his solid play, it’s quite concerning and makes you doubt that this regime is capable of making sound lineup decisions.
Is It Time for the Pittsburgh Penguins Faithful to Panic?
The short answer to that question is, no. The long answer is that there were a lot of positive takeaways from both contests so far.
One decision that I give Johnston a lot of credit for is moving Sergei Plotnikov to the third line. He looked good alongside Malkin and Patric Hornqvist in the preseason but hasn’t been able to reproduce that magic yet when it counts. But, there was a clear uptick in his play once he was shuffled down to flank Nick Bonino and Beau Bennett. That line created multiple scoring chances and nearly tied the game when Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith robbed Bonino on a one-timer that looked like a sure goal.
Also, Brian Dumoulin showed that he’s improving nicely and finding the defenseman we saw in the post-season just five months ago. Like most of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he struggled early in this one as well. In the third period though, he played with a confidence unlike anything we’ve seen from him so far in 2015. He made good decisions with the puck and was directly responsible for a few scoring chances.
The Penguins that hit the ice for the third period looked like a completely different team from periods one and two, especially in desperation time as the clock was winding down. Again, they ran into a goaltender that also stopped 40 of 41 shots on Friday night vs. the Kings. Good goaltending can’t be an excuse all season but so far, they’ve had their share of lights-out performances by opposing goalies.
You should continue to expect growing pains until this team can figure it all out. The fan base called for major changes and that’s exactly what happened this summer. You don’t make those kinds of changes and expect a team to click right away. Am I a bit concerned that the Pens have only scored one goal in their first two games? Absolutely. Am I ready to panic and consider this team a failure, despite the fact that 80 games still remain? Absolutely not.
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