Yesterday? Awesome. Today? Not so much.
If you told me that the Pens would out hit the Caps, have eight chances on the power play and keep Ovechkin limited to only one goal, I would have said the Pens would have a great shot to win.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened.
The Pens allowed two power play goals in the first period.
The first one was a one timer by Ovechkin (who seems to have toned down the celebrations a bit). I think everyone watching the game knew what was coming when Alex snuck in the weakside all alone. Everyone, except the penalty killers for the Pens, who didn't see him and couldn't prevent the pass across.
The second one was a seeing-eye puck that found it's way to Semin all alone in front of Flower.
There's no way Fleury stops either of those two in those situations.
The Pens tied the game briefly in the first (between the two power play goals) when Talbot put a bad Theodore rebound in the back of the net.
The second period is when the wheels came off of the wagon. The Caps scored three times at even strength, leading to Fleury getting yanked. The team looked lackadaisical, especially on the power play, and Fleury also let in some soft goals in the second.
The biggest disappointment was the power play, by far. While they managed one goal on a shot by Sarge skating down the wing, the team as a whole was truly terrible on the power play. That needs to be the biggest point of emphasis for HCDB (Head Coach Dan Bylsma). If the power play can get going, this team will make the playoffs. I think it's as simple as that.
Maybe the lack of effort on the PP was due to the second game in 24 hours. Maybe it was the crappy train ride. Maybe the Caps wanted it more.
Maybe it's best we just move on and focus on the upcoming games.
Next up: A brief stopover at home to play the Isles on Wednesday. Can you say "must win"?
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5 comments:
yesterday was a must win. Why are the Pen faithful playing it down as it wasnt?
Insert fork in season.
eh - I'm not so sure. They had a three game set against the Habs, Flyers and Caps. Before that set, you would have taken 4 points as a reasonable outcome. That's what they got.
That said, having it end with a decisive loss isn't very encouraging.
I agree, it would have been nice to win yesterday but i dont think that loss killed our playoff chances. I dont think we will catch Florida in the standings but it looks like the Rangers may fall out of the playoff race and the Sabers just lost there goalie and Vanek so they may also drop out of the race.
It will be interesting to see what moves Shero makes at the trade deadline.
Must win? The games coming up against Florida and Buffalo are must wins, against a team that is out of reach for the Pens are the games they can lose. No one expects them to win out.
crosby…wimp
http://fanzak.com/fzrants/Is_Sidney_Crosby_a_Wimp
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