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Before the match
-The season is finally back! Penguins go as planned by pre-game predictions
First period
The Pens have a little time at the start, then bounce back to get the game and the first goal of the season. Jared McCann does a great job holding the puck and making a nice cross-center pass. Mark Jankowski did well to slip behind the net, the defenseman followed the puck and not Jankowski, which proved problematic when Jankowski had the opportunity to quickly pass Carter Hart. 1-0.
Pens go to the power play but don’t generate a ton of it.
Cody This has his first noticeable moment, doing a little slash while getting pounded at full speed to the outside. Tristan Jarry made a good save on the opportunity that followed but the Flyers went to their first power play. They make it count when Mike Matheson can’t handle a puck in his own zone, then allow James van Riemsdyk to stand in front of the net and deflect a shot from the point. 1-1.
At the end of the period, Matheson takes a retaliation penalty and Philadelphia strikes quickly before the end of the period with a second point from a point shot that ends up in the net. 2-1 Philly.
After 20 minutes, the shots are 13 to 10 pens. At 5v5, Pittsburgh moderately carried the game with 56.7% Corsi For and 66.6% scoring chances … But the penalties and power-play execution of Philly to score two similar goals in just 1:32 tilt the dashboard.
Second period
Another good start for the third row, McCann takes a penalty. The Pens’ power play seemed disjointed again until Sidney Crosby made a Sidney Crosby play, knocking down a misguided attempt to release Hart out of the air and knocking it into the empty net. Beautiful things. 2-2.
Pens get another power play, but fail to get a rabbit out of the hat like the last one.
The game opens up a bit with end-to-end play, and the Flyers strike again towards the end of the period with 1:06 to go. Sam Lafferty can’t corral the puck and Joel Farabee was able to squeeze behind Matheson. Farabee makes a good move and Matheson can’t recover as Farabee rounds the far corner on Jarry to get him in with the keeper in front of the nearest post. 3-2 Philly backs up.
Shots in the second period were 9-6 Pens, they are 23-16 PIT overall for the game. Pens continued to maintain a 5v5 advantage with 55.9% CF%, 55.6% scoring chance for%.
Third period
The Pens are hit just 39 seconds into the period for a Penguin too many men are calling after a really sloppy first change to give the Flyers the third power play of the night. Pittsburgh kills their first penalty of the night.
Soon after, the third row buzzes and hits. Jankowski recovers a loose puck and makes a nice, long backhand pass to Brandon Tanev who pulls hard back on Hart and beats his glove to tie the game again. 3-3 with 16:59 remaining.
The Flyers push back ahead by scoring the run when the Pens pinch and can’t hold the line, John Marino can’t keep it on the outside and the forwards can’t quite come back in time. Scott Laughton made a nice centering pass for Michael Raffl to get on the board with 14:23 to go.
The pens are two behind, still in a hurry. This pinch and can’t come back and Pittsburgh has no defensive form in the fray as the Flyers get a few cracks to a loose puck, ending up with Travis Konecny turning it over. 5-3.
20 seconds later, the rout is launched, Joel Farabee shoots from the outside, Jarry throws a big rebound for a Kevin Hayes wide open to easily tap into an open net. 6-3 and it quickly went off the slopes.
At this point, the game calmed down and the teams ended this opening game quietly.
Some ideas
- The Pens’ best line in this game was surprisingly, the McCann-Jankowski-Tanev line. The wingers’ speed was noticeable and will be interesting to watch progress. The East Division has a lot of strength, but skating ability among the lower line defending pairs isn’t really one of them.
- The Pens’ power-play breakouts weren’t smooth, with the only defenseman telegraphing a turn and looking for the slingshot-style back pass. It’s a move that used to work in the NHL, but has now been spotted and adjusted by the PK’ers. The way the pens perform or modify this will be a critical aspect.
- According to NBCSN, Crosby’s goal was his seventh time in an opening night, passing a franchise record of six to Mario Lemieux.
- Matheson’s involvement in the second and third goals against was sort of living up to the negatives of his scouting report with defensive inconsistencies. You could also see why recently the D-pairs were changed to put Matheson with John Marino, at one point Matheson / This got stuck in their own area together and didn’t look very hot.
- Also, without checking the switch board as a possible answer if he was just coming off, why was Matheson playing on the PK and Marcus Pettersson was there no change until the third period? And Matheson didn’t play on the PP all night, while Pettersson spent more than 2 minutes there. It does not appear that the players are placed in the optimal places. (shouts our friend Eric for this observation).
- Not a great night for special teams, the PK gave up two goals on three occasions. Both times pulled out of their structure losing face-offs and the Flyers’ puck movement. And both times allowing forward deflections. It needs to be cleaned up. The Pens’ power play finished 1/3, which doesn’t look bad on the scoresheet, but doesn’t look good on the night – recouped by Crosby’s individual effort on Hart’s gift.
- Random Stats: Despite a goal scored, no player has had less ES ice time in two periods than Jankowski at 6:40.
- A 3-3 match, on the road, in the third just collapsed into this one. Sometimes it happens. The Pens did well to fight a bit, but then they got away from them.
- Jarry didn’t seem to be playing badly, but he also only made a really nice save that I remember (on the ensuing penalty that the Flyers were going to score anyway). He did not go beyond that. He didn’t get much help from his team. Philly is picking up speed and by the end of the game they were off to the races, the Pittsburgh defense doing them no favors. The team will surely be looking to improve in a number of areas next time around.
This will end for this game, with the new wrinkle of this season, these two teams will meet again on Friday night for a second game. Pittsburgh can look back and see what mistakes they made and try to clean it up for the next time. It’s a short 56-game season, but it’s also a year without exhibitions. Each team will need to clean up their games and improve as the year progresses.
For Pittsburgh, it starts with trying to win some of the first two games.
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