Empty Thoughts: Step in right direction for Penguins' power play - TribLIVE

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Observations from the Penguins’ 3-1 win against the Canadiens:

After his team struggled with the power play in Game 1, going 1 for 7 and putting only 10 shots on net, coach Mike Sullivan had a pretty basic edict for his players.

“We’ve got to try to get some shots,” Sullivan surmises.

That message appeared to be heeded Monday.

While the Penguins went 0 for 5 on the power play in Game 2, they had 14 shots on net with the man advantage. That represented a season-high, eclipsing the mark of 11 they established twice during the regular season.

Things weren’t perfect with the power play, as evidenced by the fact they failed to get a goal with the man advantage. Their zone entries appeared to still be a struggle.

But they got shots on net. They didn’t overpass and try to wait for the perfect play with a low-percentage seam pass on sloppy ice.

They just shot the puck and hoped for a rebound or good bounce to create a second chance opportunity.

On their first power-play opportunity in the first period, they had five shots alone:

The Penguins still have quite a bit of refinement required in this area, but they took a step in the right direction.

“I thought we did a much better job,” Sullivan said after Game 2. “We struggled on a few of the breakouts and some of the entries. And that’s an aspect where we can improve and we’ll try to do that. But I thought we had some real good looks. There were a lot of pucks laying around the crease that we couldn’t get to. Some of them that we did get to, Price made some big saves on. We had a real abbreviated five-on-three (power-play sequence in the second period). We don’t execute on it. (Defenseman Kris Letang) fans on the one-timer but he’s in a great scoring area. So they’re doing the right things out there. That’s the way we look at it.

“We can still improve in certain aspects. … We’ll continue to try to work at that but I thought the power play was much improved tonight.”

What happened

The Penguins took the game’s first lead 4:25 into regulation. Penguins forward Jake Guentzel pushed the puck up the right wing, gained the offensive zone and pulled up on the right half wall. Spinning to his right off a check from Canadiens defenseman Brett Kulak, Guentzel allowed the play to develop and fed a cross-ice pass to forward Sidney Crosby streaking up the left wing. As Canadiens forward Joel Armia backchecked in vain, Crosby attacked the net and slipped a forehand shot through goaltender Carey Price’s five hole for his second goal of the playoffs. Guentzel and forward Conor Sheary had assists.

Following a scoreless second period, the Penguins struck again at 14:41 of the third. Poking a puck past a pinching Kulak at the Penguins’ blue line, Sheary created a two-on-one rush with forward Jason Zucker against Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry. Pushing play up the right wing, Sheary drew in Petry and fed a centering pass that Zucker tapped past Price’s right skate for his first score of the playoffs. Assists went to Sheary and defenseman Brian Dumoulin.

The Canadiens remained undeterred and got on the scoreboard at 17:51 of the third. Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen lifted a wrister from just above the left circle. Murray made the initial save but allowed a rebound. Forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi beat Dumoulin to the rebound and lifted a wrister over Murray’s right skate for his second goal of the postseason. Lehkonen and Petry collected assists.

An empty-net goal by Guentzel, his first of the postseason, secured victory at 19:50 of the third. Forward Bryan Rust recorded the lone assist.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins controlled shots, 38-27.

• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin led the game with seven shots.

• Forward Philip Danault led the Canadiens with five shots.

• Petry led the game with 25:21 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• Letang led the Penguins with 25:00 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 31-26 (54%).

• Danault was 11 for 21 (52%).

• Crosby was 12 for 24 (50%).

• Armia led the game with four blocked shots.

• Defenseman Justin Schultz led the Penguins with three blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• Murray was pretty sharp. He wasn’t forced to stop an absurd amount of shots, but he did have to make quite a few high-quality saves. And at key junctures. He denied Armia on a deflection off a three-on-two rush only 1:06 into the second period with a snazzy glove save.

He came up big again smothering a shot by Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar off another two-on-one only 15 seconds into the third.

Murray was arguably the biggest reason the Penguins won this game.

• The Penguins needed Murray to be good because the goalie they were shooting on might have been better. Price made the Penguins earn their first two goals. Through the first two games, he’s probably been the best player in this series, having made 74 saves on 78 shots (.948 save percentage).

• Sheary had a much-needed rebound. After badly missing that penalty shot in Game 1, he recorded two assists and made a strong overall play to set up the game-winning goal.

• Malkin has been quiet by his considerable standards but it’s not for lack of opportunity. He leads the playoffs with 15 shots through two games.

• There were a lot of special teams, particularly early in the first period. There was even quite a bit of four-on-four play at times. Officials are calling these games tightly throughout the entire tournament.

• The Canadiens didn’t help themselves by taking two too many men on the ice penalties. They need to play nearly perfect to have a chance in this series and mental mistakes like that are killers.

• The Penguins made a concerted effort to go to the net and clutter up the sightlines of Price. At one time, Price was so aggravated with Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist jabbing at his legs, he joined Kulak in a wrestling match with Hornqvist.

• After logging a game-low 11:15 of ice time in Game 1, Penguins forward Patrick Marleau saw even less time in Game 3, recording only 9:07, a team low.

• Canadiens fourth-line forwards Jordan Weal (7:18) and Dale Weise (6:53) brought up the rear for both teams.

• Tatar, Montreal’s leading scorer during the regular season, recorded his first two shots of the series. Clearly, he needs to contribute more.

• Armia needed a hug or a drink (or both) after this game. He took three penalties, including a holding minor on Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson which wiped out a Montreal power-play opportunity, got toasted by Crosby for a goal and was robbed by Murray on a quality chance.

• Here’s an example of how strange this entire endeavor is. The game was delayed 10 minutes and started at 8:20 p.m. because the Lightning-Capitals contest, also staged at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, went to a shootout and ended at 6:51 p.m. Teams are given 45 minutes following the completion of their games to vacate the arena. In between, there are considerable efforts to sanitize the benches and locker rooms before a new team moves in.

Historically speaking

• The Penguins snapped a losing streak of seven postseason games, the longest such streak in franchise history.

• Their last postseason win was a 3-1 home win against the Washington Capitals on May 3, 2018 in Game 4 of a second round series. Their lineup in that game:

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Dominik Simon

Carl Hagelin – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist

Conor Sheary – Riley Sheahan – Phil Kessel

Tom Kuhnhackl – Derick Brassard – Bryan Rust

Brian Dumoulin – Kris Letang

Jamie Oleksiak – Justin Schultz

Olli Maatta – Chad Ruhwedel

Matt Murray

• Penguins rookie defenseman John Marino set a career-best with six shots.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on Murray:

“He was real solid again tonight. There weren’t a ton of scoring chances in the first couple of periods. Montreal pushed hard down the stretch and they generated a couple of high quality chances and Matt made some big saves. For me, that’s what Matt does this time of year. He makes big saves at key times that help us win games. I thought he did that for us tonight.”

• If he’s asked about a goal he allowed, Murray will usually speak about focusing on the next shot and making the next save. What about when he makes a good save?

“Yeah, I try to keep that mindset all the time. That’s what you need to do as a goalie is just worry about the next shot. Whether a goal goes in or you make a big save. It’s cliched, but it’s always one save at a time.”

• Zucker spoke about the significance of Murray’s save on Tatar early in the third period:

“That’s huge. Especially, there was a great save within the first 30 seconds of the third period. That’s definitely a huge momentum booster for us. Every save that he needed to make tonight, he did a great job. He battled hard, made some great plays. We’re going to need that throughout this playoff.”

• Sullivan was asked if he considered changing his lineup after Game 1:

“We believe in the group that we have. And we felt as though Game 1, there was a whole lot to like about the game that we played. You can’t always control if the puck goes in the net. There were some areas where we knew we needed to try to get better and improve. And certainly, we addressed those. But overall, I thought in Game 1 we played a pretty solid game. We just didn’t come out on the right side of the score. I just didn’t feel it was necessary to make changes.”

• Zucker lauded Sheary’s effort in setting up his goal:

“That was an unbelievable pass, all around play by him. Defensively, chipping that by (Kulak), getting the speed. He’s obviously known to be a fast player. Just got up the ice quick. Me, I’m just trying to get open. He made an unbelievable pass and I just tried to put it on net.”

• For as much scrutiny the as Penguins’ power play receives, the Canadiens’ power-play has been worse, going 0 for 5 in the series thus far with only three shots on net. Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber summed up his team’s struggles with the man advantage in Game 2:

“We got stuck on the walls tonight, I think, a little bit too much. Obviously, couldn’t get the puck off the wall to the middle of the ice. They were able to win those battles and get it down. Obviously, when the puck is on the wall and you’re not in possession, you’re not going to get anything.”

• Canadiens coach Claude Julien on Price:

“All I can say is he’s given us a chance to win both games. He’s by far our best player after two games. He’s been outstanding. I would have liked for us to respond a little bit better tonight. But that’s what Carey is and that’s what Carey is known for and he’s living up to his reputation right now.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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