"It felt (expletive deleted) great."
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Rickard Rakell did not downplay his relief and excitement over scoring a shootout winner. For just the second time in 12 tries, the Penguins won a shootout, beating the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 at PPG Paints Arena.
No, really, a Penguins shootout win.
Rakell tried a shootout move that he had not tried previously. Arturs Silovs made a couple of shootout saves and didn't need to make a third as the Penguins, who have been woeful in the shootout, scored a pair of goals and escaped with two points.
Rakell did the slow and slower move. Glacially slow. He barely glided into the offensive zone, cut to the middle and seemingly inched toward Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck .
In the dressing room, Pittsburgh Hockey Now had to circle back to Rakell without the cameras and thrust of half a dozen microphones to get the scoop on that one.
"( Erik Karlsson ) and I have been working on (that move). But you'll look stupid if you don't score," Rakell said with a chuckle.
We may disagree with Rakell on the perception, but it seems to be effective. In the Penguins' only other shootout win this season, Kevin Hayes successfully executed the slow, slower, slowest move, too.
The move puts the goalie and shooter in close quarters, forcing the goalie either to hold his ground or give an open spot to readjust, and it is up to the shooter to seize the opportunity quickly.
Rakell did.
The relief in the Penguins' room was palpable. They were not nearly at their best and probably deserved a loss. Instead, the two points put them three points ahead of the Islanders with a game in hand, and it put them three points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets for second place. Both the Islanders and Columbus play later Saturday.
"Yeah, I think just based on how the year is going, it's good to get a shootout win," said winger Bryan Rust . "I don't think we had our best tonight. I think there are definitely areas to improve, but we found a way to win, and right now, that's what's important."
The Penguins' identity is emerging. They're just a bunch of scrappers, including their captain, Sidney Crosby , and Muse. They're not the fastest team, nor the most talented, nor the most structurally sound.
Instead, they just find ways to win.
"That's probably a good way to put it," Rust said.
Early in the first period with a 2-0 lead, the Penguins fell to 0-for-8 for the season on goalie interference calls. The call and challenge became a classic case of the rulebook and reality colliding.
In short, the NHL does not want to overturn goals unless the contact was avoidable and clearly, unmistakably the reason the goal was scored.
Did the Penguins have a legit beef? Yep. Was it going to be overturned? Most likely not.
Here's coach Dan Muse's full quote, with a little smirk to start:
"I'm so shocked that this question came up. You know, the GMs had their meetings recently, and Kyle was down there (in Florida ). When Kyle came back, obviously there were some things that came up during those meetings that he wants to inform me on and that we discussed. One of them was goalie interference, which was obviously a topic there.
"And the instructions to me from Kyle were: We want to go by the book. And so it comes up again now, shortly after. I felt, we felt, that (play) was—by the book. Their player pushes (Karlsson) into ( Arturs Silovs ), and so the feel is for me, after just talking about that recently, talking to Kyle about this, "got to go by the book—that (challenge) was by the book, and that's the rule. That is the rule. And so if a player, their player, pushes our player into our goalie, that's goalie interference. That's why we challenged."
Oh, the Penguins fired a little shot across the NHL's bow, too.
During the first intermission, the Penguins staff passed out a printed copy of the goaltender interference rules and properly highlighted the subsection of the rule which served as the basis for the challenge.
Yeah, the team knew we'd tweet it out, and they knew it would be seen across the league. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who ordered this, especially given Commissioner Gary Bettman's petty insult to Carolina GM Eric Tulsky for broaching the subject at last week's GM meetings.
There's an axiom in NASCAR that posits drivers shouldn't be ashamed of a win they didn't deserve, because there will be plenty of times when they deserved it but didn't get it.
Count the Penguins in the former column Saturday, as their game was largely a soft, struggling mess, but a powerful start to the game served as a platform to a crucial two points. They scored a pair of goals in just over the first two minutes and nearly scored a third goal before three minutes elapsed.
However, the cracks in their game were already visible in the opening minutes. They had trouble escaping their own zone throughout the game. Leading 2-1 early in the second period, the Penguins had a chance to put away mediocre Winnipeg.
Instead, they gave Winnipeg life.
"To be honest, I think the shorthanded goal against deflated our sails a little bit. Those are things that can be big momentum swings in the game," Rust said. "And I think we've got to be a lot tighter there."
If Winnipeg had blown them out Saturday, it would not have been a shock. Tactically, the Penguins were underwater for most of the game.
**The Penguins' breakouts are the lifeblood of their game. Getting to the red line is where the team wins or loses, and that is where they struggled mightily Saturday. Winnipeg kept its heavy pressure on the beleaguered and mismatched defense pairings.
With the second pairing (Sam Girard -Kris Letang ) getting caved in Saturday (as was the case before Girard's injury, too), the Penguins had to fight from the end-wall up rather than applying consistent pressure.
**We've been loath to criticize Muse this season because there is a Daniel Negrano stack of chips worth of good things compared to any negatives, but putting Girard with Letang is bewildering. They're not just bad, but they're a liability when on the ice together.
Letang had a relative Corsi near minus-33%. Girard was at a negative-26% after two periods, but was better in the third as Muse mixed and matched pairings to account for Ryan Shea 's injury-related absence.
Muse didn't have a postgame update on Shea, who came to the bench with a full face shield, but did not play and left the bench after a short time.
**Overall, the defense played remarkably soft gaps and was chasing the play. Even the usually steady Parker Wotherspoon had some adventures.
The Penguins also tried far too many stretch passes into traffic. The results of which were usually a predictable change of possession.
**Not to be outdone, the forwards almost stubbornly looked for the cross-ice up-pass through center. Despite a heavy forecheck, Winnipeg was not irresponsible and kept that lane as clogged as the Squirrel Hill tunnels.
**Not until the third period did the Penguins show some cohesion, but even then, their puck management exceeded the generosity of Mother Teresa. Ultimately, the Penguins' big-guns came through as Sidney Crosby , Bryan Rust, and Rakell pressured Winnipeg in the third, and created the extended pressure shift in the third that led to Karlsson's tying goal.
Once the Penguins tightened their breakouts in the third period, providing proper puck support when it mattered most, the tap-tap-tap passes created speed out of their zone and chances.
The choppy first period was in large part because of the Penguins' inability to get out of their own zone. Floaters, chips off the glass, and prayers replaced breakouts far too often.
The second period was not much better. In fact, in many tactical aspects, it was an even worse period for the Penguins, and yet they escaped with a 3-2 lead, which they did not deserve. Winnipeg hit no fewer than three posts in the first 40 minutes.
It was the worst game by a Penguins goalie in quite some time. Silovs was soft, too. A couple of long-range wrister got through. As he struggled Saturday, his rebounds were popping out, too.
BUT, he stopped a pair of shootout attempts. That elevated his grade. As Tristan Jarry once quipped to PHN, "Obviously, winning is better than losing."
His game was not perfect, but he has been the best player on the ice for a couple or few weeks running.
"Yeah, he's taken it to another level. He really has. It's been incredible watching it all. You know, I think this question was asked again recently and saying, 'I'm not surprised by it,' and I'm not.
"I think you get to this time of year, everything's elevated, and so he's been great all year. When it's getting harder, it's getting tighter, he just keeps finding a way to elevate his game, come up with big plays, big defensive plays, big offensive plays, you name it. He's been unbelievable."
There were several times Karlsson just took the puck out of the offensive zone, skating away from everyone. He erred twice on the tying goal by passing up good shots, but he wasn't the only one. Eventually, Karlsson unleashed a wicked shot to the far post past a good goalie who seemed a bit surprised by it.
Things did not start well for Letang, who had a turnover on the first shift–more of a grenade pass into skates along the wall–and his outlet pass into traffic on his next shift led to Winnipeg's first goal. In between, he lost Adam Lowry near the crease, and Lowry almost scored on a deflection and rebound poke.
It's just not going well for Letang right now. Adding Girard, with whom he has no chemistry, only made matters worse Saturday.
Crosby is not one who comes back quickly or easily from extended absences. Add a Noel Acciari-like knee brace, and Crosby must feel like he's dragging a station wagon in a backpack. As each of the last two games grew longer, Crosby got better.
He was vintage in the third period. Also, credit Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell for submitting the small details and a gritty game in the offensive zone so the line had plenty of chances. '
The Penguins' lines totaled 17 scoring chances. The Crosby line had 12 of those.
The post Penguins Grades: Scrappy Identity, New Shootout Moves & Interference Reaction appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now .
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