Pittsburgh Penguins: On to Eastern Conference Final

With last night’s win, the Pittsburgh Penguins moved on to the Eastern Conference Final where they will square off against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

This is a pretty special Pittsburgh Penguins team we’ve got here.

Last night they eliminated the Washington Capitals, avoiding a game seven and nabbing the second spot in the Eastern Conference Final. Their next obstacle in the race to the Stanley Cup is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For the first half of the game last night, the Pens did everything right. The second half… not so much. Their implosion was so infuriating that I couldn’t even manage to put it into words for a game recap. Now that it’s a few hours later and we came out with a win, it’s easier to look at the positives of last night.

Almost everything that needed to happen happened. The powerplay dominated; they came out strong and shut the Caps down quickly; guys who had underwhelmed so far produced.

Then things fell apart, starting when the Caps scored a late powerplay goal of their own in the second period. It looked like they had finally remembered what was at stake here, and they weren’t going to go down so easily. The Pens’ 3-0 slowly ticked away until it was a tied game.

In part that was thanks to a string of three consecutive and overlapping delay-of-game penalties for the Penguins. It threw off their game and seriously disadvantaged them, opening the door for John Carlson to score the tying goal.

There’s two things I take from that: first, Pens, just keep the puck on the ice. Please. I know that seems like it’s asking a lot but you are paid millions of dollars a year for your puckhandling skills. Try your hardest.

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Second, the league itself needs to give the referees some leeway with that rule, and make it more open to interpretation. Allow the refs to look at the individual situation and consider the intent instead of just having to follow the blanket rule for the penalty.

That said, if the Penguins want to make it through the next round they’re just going to need to stop taking dumb penalties. Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang both took unnecessary penalties last night when they started to get frustrated, and it caught up to them.

They’re also going to need their big-name players to step up – I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin couldn’t find the back of the net in the Washington series and barely even notched an assist apiece. Against Tampa, they’ll need to contribute on the scoresheet.

Luckily, the Pens’ killer third line took care of all the scoring last night, so that wasn’t as big of an issue. Phil Kessel got two, including a powerplay tally; Carl Hagelin picked up another PPG; Nick Bonino scored the series winner in overtime. However, the Pens can’t depend entirely on these guys.

Matt Cullen was another lower-line player who was good last night and through the series as a whole. He dominated faceoffs, especially must-win defensive zone ones, and even got a little fancy with his stickhandling right on top of Braden Holtby.

The Pens got the better of one of this year’s Vezina Trophy nominees but face another in net in the conference final. Ben Bishop has been a brick wall for the Bolts, and his giant size doesn’t hurt either.

On the other hand, if you can get Bishop off his game, he’s really off. It doesn’t happen too often but when it does it’s like opening a floodgate. Taking advantage of that will be important in round three. The Penguins are 0-3 against Tampa this year, and it’s time to turn that around.

Additionally, the Pens will see another resilient, fast team in this new opponent – almost like playing a mirror image of themselves. The Bolts are one of the few teams in the league with speed to rival the Penguins, and they’re missing two of their star players with injuries, Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman.

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Even without one of the best forwards in the world and one of their top-pair defensemen, they’ve been dominant. Their last game saw them eliminate the New York Islanders decisively, and they looked very good. It’s definitely going to be a challenging – and entertaining – round for the Penguins.

But hey, it’s the playoffs. We wouldn’t want to see anything less.