The Penguins got destroyed in Boston, and it doesn’t matter
Thursday night didn’t end well for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they lost to the Boston Bruins 8-4, but Pens fans shouldn’t fret over one game.
For a regular season NHL game in early march, the Penguins traveling to Boston to take on the Bruins shaped up to be a fun matchup. Both teams had just made big acquisitions at the trade deadline, and both are considered candidates to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
But one team looked like it was ready to roll into the playoffs Thursday night, and one team decidedly did not.
The Penguins got the opening tally from defenseman Olli Maatta, and they seemed to be ready to roll. That was really the lone bright spot, as the Bruins seized control of the game shortly after that and ran roughshod over the defending Stanley Cup champs.
The Penguins were disjointed and never in the game, getting punished physically and on the scoreboard. Bruins star David Krejci netted a hat trick to pace the Bruins.
After three straight losses, there seems to be a “sky is falling” mentality among some Penguins fans.
The reality is there shouldn’t be that much concern right now. Is it ever fun seeing your favorite team look overmatched an opponent who isn’t well-liked? Of course not.
The thing about the NHL regular season is it’s a very long grind. In 82 games, there’s bound to be eight to ten that just don’t work out. The Penguins suffered through one of those last night. They’re a veteran team that has all been in these ruts before.
For an offensive-minded squad like Pittsburgh, it’s easy to get in the mentality that playing defense isn’t mandatory. After a game like this, it’s refreshing to hear alternate captain Evgeni Malkin squash that notion to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“We need to understand, we can’t play the game like this,” Malkin said before rattling off various scores — 6-5, 7-6 — of teams trying to one-up each other. “We need to understand that the game starts in the defensive zone.”
One of the reasons some fans seem to be panicking is because the Pens traded away steady defenseman Ian Cole to acquire center Derick Brassard without any obvious replacement.
The prevailing theory was general manager Jim Rutherford would get a depth defenseman to replace Cole and call it a day.
That didn’t happen, and Matt Hunwick has not played well since. However, he’s the team’s sixth (maybe seventh) defenseman. If the Penguins don’t win the Stanley Cup this season, it won’t be because their sixth defenseman wasn’t good enough. They just won it last season without Kris Letang.
The entire team needs to play better defense as a whole. It’s not just one man, as Malkin alluded to.
The only small legitimate concern is the goalie situation. Starter Matt Murray has a concussion, and the only options right now are rookies Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry.
Neither goalie got much help on Thursday, but neither played well, either.
Pittsburgh can afford to tread water until Murray is back. The Penguins almost certainly cannot win the Cup without him this year. There isn’t a Marc-Andre Fleury to bail them out in 2018.
The bottom line here is the Penguins will be totally fine. Coach Mike Sullivan should just burn this game tape. There’s not much to take out of it. They need to get their goalie healthy and play better team defense but as long as the team is in one piece come early April, they’ll be contending for a third Stanley Cup.