The Penguins played a tight game against Boston on Sunday at TD Garden. They held their opponent to just one goal after the Bruins scored 10 the previous day, but couldn’t find any of their own, with 1-0 standing as the final score.
“Honestly, a back-to-back game, keeping the score to 1-0, I think that's a challenge in today's game,” goaltender Stuart Skinner said. “So, the fact that we were able to do that – obviously, we just weren't able to capitalize on some goals. But I think that is very encouraging, because the days that we will capitalize, I think we win that game the majority of times.”
The forward trios saw even more shuffling as Bryan Rust missed a second straight game with a lower-body injury, with his status listed as day-to-day. The fourth line is the only one that stayed together. Anthony Mantha moved to the top line alongside Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell. Kevin Hayes, playing in his 800th NHL game, centered Evgeni Malkin and Egor Chinakhov. Ben Kindel was between Tommy Novak and Justin Brazeau.
But in the first half of the game, it was tough to get into a rhythm 5-on-5, as the Penguins were assessed five penalties (and six total on the night). The personnel going over the boards did a tremendous job of limiting the Bruins on the man-advantage.
“Obviously, power plays can give a team a lot of momentum, and these guys are running at a really good percentage right now. Especially in the last few games, they've been really hot,” Skinner said. “So, how we were able to snuff them out is huge. It's a big confidence booster for this group, and I think doing that gave us a chance to win tonight's game.”
Boston’s only goal came exactly 11 minutes into play, with Skinner’s former Oilers teammate Viktor Arvidsson managing to get the puck over the line. This is what the Penguins goaltender saw on the play:
“Obviously made the first save, pops out, it's on a stick, then it's kind of in the middle of the guy's skate. So, I lost it for a second, then went back out to his stick, and I just tried to spread because I felt like that's the only amount of time I had. And then, with Arvy’s luck, he hits the post, goes off my leg and back in. So yeah, it's tough that that's the goal that wins the game. But I mean, that happens. Stuff like that happens in sports.”
The Penguins finally got a power play of their own over midway through the second, and while they didn’t convert, they started to generate some momentum afterward. They continued that into the third, as there were certainly chances, the best one coming when Brazeau re-directed a puck off the crossbar. But as Skinner said, Bruins goalie Joona Korpisalo played a heck of a game to earn the shutout.
“I think it was a winnable game for us,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “We obviously just didn't do enough today to sustain it long enough to create more chances for ourselves, push for that goal to tie the game. And that's the way it is sometimes.”
Here’s what Head Coach Dan Muse had to say after the game. The Penguins have a day off on Monday before hosting Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
I know you probably would have liked to get to the crease a little bit more tonight. What were the Bruins doing that made it tough?
We come into the game, you knew they were going to be back a lot, they'd have numbers. They make it hard to get to the net and make it hard to stay there. So, it's not a surprise. I think we could have done a better job, one, with our execution. Just to get into the offensive zone more, and then to be able to create just more traffic at the net, more quality around the net, too many outside shots there that at times, nobody was even in the area. So, I think that part of our game has been better as of late, but I think today, we took a step backwards in that regard.
What was your assessment of just the flow of the game, going on the PK numerous times?
It was a lot of time on the penalty kill. It makes it hard. It's a lot of minutes for a small number of players, and then it's also a lot of players that aren't getting into the flow of the game. We've had that before this year, too. And so, we got to do a better job. We have to control what we can control and just find a way to get into it and stay into it. I think we can stay out of the box more, too.
Only drawing two penalties, what can you do to draw more?
I feel like sometimes, each game can be a little bit different... I think for us today, those opportunities missed in the offensive zone where we could have held onto pucks more, I think that's definitely an area that we could have either a) generated more chances, or b) we could have been potentially drawing more penalties. But we miss those opportunities, so we don't get either.
After a few games, your assessment of Evgeni Malkin on the wing?
He's played wing before, so it's not something that’s totally new. I think as a wing, your starting point changes a little bit more in terms of coming out of the zone, through the neutral zone a little bit. But you saw some times here, just through this small number of games, too, where he's able to find that speed. Sometimes it's a chip out to recover, and being able to generate some speed coming through the neutral zone off the rush, which is part of his game as a center. He's still finding different ways to do it. So, it was a good chunk of time that he was out. I think it takes a little while sometimes to get fully up to speed.
