Game pic via @Average_AtBest
Pens had to work for this one despite getting up 3-0 in the first because of a shitty start to the 2nd period. But who cares? Pens won and, oh yeah, BEAU FUCKING BENNETT SCORED HIS FIRST CAREER NHL GOAL! He now has as many career NHL goals as Eric Tangradi. All the lolz.
First Period
You just had the feeling the game was going to be a good one because ROOT Sports showed Jimerson singing the anthem. Jeff Jimerson owns. Everything seemed right in the world.But then Errey and Steigerwald had inject reality back into our stupid brains by telling us that Lindback is tall too. Puck hadn't even dropped yet.
Pens took an icing early as the Bolts opened up the game with the Annoying as Fuck 1-3-1 Trap.
Didn't matter because Sidney Crosby rubs his sac on the 1-3-1 For Dummies handbook at night.
It was just 1:16 into the game. Benoit
Errey had a raging erection for 87's skates being at 10 and 2 for like 5 hours. What a snipe though.
Conacher had a good chance right after the goal. MAF was being MAF. Game was setting up to be a track meet.
Sid, Neal, and Kuni were unreal in the 1st. Sid did what he does behind the net, found Neal in the slot. Great chance. No dice.
Orpik was doing work on Stammer all night. Still not clear on how Stamkos ended up with 3 points, but what a display by Orpik.
MAF had to stop St. Louis after that on a decent chance. Marty was basically a non-factor all game. That's not a bad thing.
Somewhere in there, Steigerwald mentioned that Tangradi only played like 6 minutes yesterday lololololol
And den...
Martin had a shot from the point. Puck got lost off the boards or something. Then Lindback kicked it in himself. Apparently Sid got just the tip on it. Probably Bill Lumberg's goal anyway. 2-0
Bizarre goal, but Sid now has 51 career 2 goal games. We haven't pissed without hitting the rim 51 times in our urinary careers...combined.
Honestly surprised the Pens were able to score 2 goals. The flow of the game was shit. TONS of icings in the period. Too lazy to look it up, but we're setting the over/under at eleventy billion.
Vitale and Vinny got into it sometime in the first too. Vitale trying to make his mark after being scratched Friday night.
ROOT Sports then showed some thing for Hit of the Season, but apparently Nisky's hit on
"He's going to shoot the puck no matter what." - Steigerwald on TK after TK failed to pick up his head and just blindly shot the puck. Shocking.
Stammer came flying into the Pens zone after that, but Letang is fast and made a great play to stick check Stamkos. Unreal speed from Tanger.
MOAR ICING. At this point (no idea when this was), but 20 faceoffs had taken place.
Kuni good chance in there, but Lindback stood tall (pun intended). But man, Sid was on another level.
Then Paul Martin did was Paul Martin does, since he didn't get credit for Sid's second goal. Martin, Cooke, and Dupes came in on a 3 on 2. Cooke to Martin back to Cooke. Cooke drove the net. Puck finds its way back to Martin on the rebound. Goal time. 3-0, 34 seconds to play in the first.
Puck dropped after the goal, and so did the gloves. Vitale vs. Adam Hall.
Second Period
Guy Boucher started the second by pulling Lindback. Garon in. No idea how in the hell we are supposed to know the definition of "tall" after that.
Letang got away with
But oh, how the hockey gods made everything right. Puck somehow went in off of Orpik on an Erik Brewer shot. 3-1, 1:37 into the period.
The goal was so bad that a video of it doesn't exist. Had a bad feeling about this start to the period.
A minute later, Despres took a penalty for hooking. Then 25 seconds later, Adams went to the box for boarding. Still not sure it was a penalty, but a 5 on 3 for the Bolts. Had to know what was coming.
Stamkos started the 2 man advantage at the right point, then, on a set play, he sneaked over to his spot on the circle. Never going to stop him from there. 3-2
What a player. Can't even be mad about that, either. Just not fair.
Pens still had work to do on the PK. Killed the rest though.
Pens were doing everything in their power to choke on the 3-0 lead by trying stretch passes after TB set up the 1-3-1. Never gonna work ever. We have no idea what happens in the locker room between the 1st and 2nd, but it's sickening to see how bad the Pens are consistently in the 2nd. Although, this 2nd period ended up not being SO bad towards the end. (SPOILER ALERT)
ROOT showed a shot of ROBERTS DRINKING THE WATER! Pretty sure Errey is on a constant acid flashback.
With 10:26 left in the 2nd, Sid finally registered the first shot of the period for the Pens. Just a sign of how miserable the first half of the period was.
Crosby and Neal combined for the James Neal Play, but it went off the knob.
Finally, some shit starting going in the positive direction. Bennett drew a penalty with 8:57 left as Brewer went for interference. Maybe a dive. So what? Then the Pens would get a 5 on 3 as Kuni was interfered with by Salo. Over a minute of a 2 man advantage with 2, count 'em, TWO, Bolts defensemen in the box.
Bylsma sent out Bennett with the top unit and deployed him on Stamkos Street. Sid, working the right half wall, found Beau through the triangle. Boom. 4-2
What a feed by Sid. What a shot. What a shitty celly.
That's now 11 straight games with a PPG. Pens had a little over a minute of 5 on 4 time left. Just enough time to give some joke a shorthanded breakaway for MAF to save. Rest of the penalty killed.
Then Flower had to make another save on St. Louis from in tight.
Pens went down the other way and forced Garon to make a huge save on Glass off a nice pass from Vitale.
Pens started turning the game back to their favor and getting a lot of zone time. Nisky had a patented one timer from the point stopped late.
Despite a shitty start to the 2nd, the Pens turned it around. They needed needed that PP to turn the momentum and the goal got shit back on track.
Letang plastered Stamkos in there somewhere too. Probably when we were multitasking and watching The Walking Dead.
Third Period
The 3rd started with a Kunitz deflection off the post from Sid. Gross, but nothing.
Then the Bolts decided to try to make it a game about 3 minutes in as Conacher scored off a shot-pass from Hedman. 4-3
Can't find the video, but the Pens had the 4th line on the ice against the Bolts top line. This would be a trend all period.
On the next shift, Tampa had a balls out shift, but Fleury and the boys did work.
About 6 minutes in, it was all Tampa.
Kuni had a MONSTER on Carle in there, then Fleury had to make a big save on Panik.
Pens hit another post after that.
Byslma continued to put the 4th line out a lot against the Stammer line. Almost asking for disaster.
Cooke and Dupes then went down the other way on a 2 on 1. Dupes fanned on the shot. Blah.
With about 6 to go, 14-87-18 finally got some offensive zone time, but couldn't come away with anything. Might have been their only shift of the 3rd.
More Bylsma making all the effort in the world to match the Adams-Vitale-Glass against Stamkos and St. Louis. It really started to hurt our heads. So noticeable and annoying, especially when you have Brandon Sutter, Matt Cooke, and Pascal Dupuis at your disposal. The just seemed content on letting the Bolts come at them and just defend and kill the clock. Defensive shells suck.
Vinny Lecavalier, who, up until the 3rd, we forgot was even playing, got a shot on MAF, but Kunitz made a nice stick check on Vinny to prevent him from scoring on his own rebound.
Pens took a timeout with 1:57 left in the 3rd to give the guys a breather.
Garon pulled not long after with 1:12 left.
The Pens were just holding on. St. Louis had a nice deflection in front on a Hedman shot, but it just went wide.
Some how the puck got out of the zone and TB was flagged for a delayed offside. Letang found Sutter. Sutter made an audacious pass across the ice to Cooke for the empty netter. 5-3.
Garon went off again, which means Flower had to take a shot at the empty cage. Not enough on it though. Game.
Highlights:
Notes:
1) Concussion Blues. No injuries. Holy shit. However, Malkin was officially diagnosed with a concussion. He had some short term memory loss, but has no symptoms now. He won't be on the 3 game road trip coming up. He has since been put on IR and can return as early as Saturday in Montreal.
2) Bennett's first career goal was the GWG. What a move to throw the right handed shooter out there with the top unit on the other side of the ice from Sid. Whole new dimension.
3) MAF was still really good. He just seems so in control of everything lately, and his numbers show.
4) Despite Stammer having 1 G, 2 A, the Pens kept him in check. Doesn't seem that way on the stat sheet, but Orpik and Letang individually did well against him. His goal came on the 5 on 3 and that's just automatic so there's that. Stamkos only had 2 shots, so that says a lot about how much he was actually shut down. That makes a total of 2 shots in the last 3 games against the Pens for Stammer.
5) Looking at the TOI for both teams, looks like the Pens let Tampa control who they were putting on the ice. The Bolts rolled 4 lines all night, so the Pens were using all 4 a lot more than usual, especially making an effort to get the 4th out there against Stamkos...in a 1 goal game. Sorry, but that doesn't sit well with us. Tampa's 3rd goal game came with that match up. That said, Disco coached well. Subtly mixed in Despres and Engo and didn't overuse Sutter as a traditional second line center so he was available to kill shit off at the end.
6) Sidney Crosby is kind of good at hockey. 2 G, 1 A. Just stole the show.
Pens are back in action Tuesday night to start a 3 game road trip in Florida to take on the Panthers at 7:30. Go Pens.
I could totally see Bennett doing this Black Ranger celly after his next goal
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