Penguins/Hurricanes Recap: Canes score early, often in rout of Pittsburgh

It wasn’t pretty for the Penguins

Pregame

The Penguins make a pair of changes to their lineup from last game. Kevin Hayes (undisclosed minor injury) can’t go, so Valtteri Puustinen takes his place and Pittsburgh elects to sit Jack St. Ivany and rotate in Ryan Shea for the night.

The first-place Carolina Hurricanes trot out the following lines for the evening.

First period

Carolina scores only 52 seconds in, and it’s more classic Pittsburgh defensive errors on display. First, Lars Eller doesn’t get the puck in deep and puts the team in a bad spot. Next, Marcus Pettersson’s gap control on Jordan Staal isn’t great. Staal makes a really nice pass that Erik Karlsson can’t break up. Finally, Jordan Martinook makes a superb finish over Alex Nedeljkovic’s shoulder to get the Hurricanes on the board in the blink of an eye.

Classic 2024-25 Penguins, three players get the opportunity to diffuse the play, all fail. Puck ends up in the back of the net.

A few minutes later, the Hurricanes add another. Jack Roslovic uses the wall to pass the puck around Karlsson. It then looks like Karlsson’s controller disconnects as he glides slowly in place while Roslovic skates by him. The pass goes back to Roslovic and he calls his own number and rips a shot by Nedeljkovic on the rush. 2-0 game.

Pittsburgh settles in after this, Carolina doesn’t get many more shots for the rest of the period. The Pens get a four-minute power play off a Jesper Kotkaniemi high-sticking call but do precious little with it.

Shots are 10-4 PIT early. Which sounds good enough, Sidney Crosby set Rickard Rakell up in the middle of the ice for a very nice chance but he couldn’t convert. Two slips and the opportunistic Canes made their looks count.

Second period

Kris Letang gets pulled down and the Pens get another power play. They get some looks but no goals.

Michael Bunting draws the goalie out of the net but his centering pass doesn’t connect. Noted dirtbag Shayne Gotisbehere (people don’t forget) then gives Bunting a cross-check in the back of the head and Bunting pulls his opps’ helmet off. As is so often the case, the retaliation is what gets noticed - bad news for Bunting who goes to the penalty box on what is now an automatic penalty for removing a helmet.

Pittsburgh kills it off but Carolina scores a little later. The Canes get the Pens running around in the zone a little bit and then a cross-ice pass to the weak side gives Roslovic plenty of time and space on his off-wing to rip a nice shot in for his second goal of the game. 3-0.

The Hurricanes strike again. Aho makes a tremendous pass from behind the net and off the wall back to the point. Matt Grzelcyk puts a great screen on Nedeljkovic (troublesome being as they’re on the same team) which helps Jaccob Slavin’s point shot to not be picked up until it’s in the back of the net. 4-zip and getting uglier by the minute.

At the buzzer, Carolina has added two more goals in the second period to match the two they put up in the first period. The Pens are...well, they’re sure out there on the ice.

Third period

Carolina keeps going. It’s Eric Robinson’s goal after he gets behind Jesse Puljujarvi on the rush and as Josh Getzoff says on the broadcast the Pens are starting to look deflated. 5-0.

The Pens finally get on the board. Jesse Puljujarvi puts a shot on Kochetkov that leaks through the goalie and Carolina scrambles to clear. But it goes right to Blake Lizotte who is able to score. 5-1.

It’s in too little too late territory, but the Pens nearly score on an almost identical scramble play when Carolina breaks down defensively in front of their net but Kris Letang can’t fire the puck through the traffic and in.

Pittsburgh gets a power play when Marcus Pettersson is tripped. Nothing comes of it.

And luckily the rest of the game plays out fairly quietly until the final whistle.

Some thoughts

• Pittsburgh’s lines got all messed up due to Cody Glass getting injured in the first period, causing him to leave the game. How did Glass specifically get hurt, you might be asking? Well, in “news you can’t make up even if you tried” it was because he took an accidental reverse head butt to the face from his own teammate after a whistle. Truly unfortunate and sort of a perverse microcosm of the Penguins this season for how things are going.

• Outside of a few flashes here and there, it’s been a rough season for Karlsson. Deservedly or not through his style (and acquisition and paycheck) he’s always going to be polarizing but is certainly worthy of the criticism coming his way these days. The offensive game hasn’t been there and his play in the neutral and defensive zones is dreadful. He’s not a graceful player or one whose struggles are hidden easily and there’s plenty of that right now.
• And, interestingly enough, the Pens removed Karlsson from the top power play group in the second period to go with Matt Grzelcyk and Michael Bunting with the three top players. In the third period it was Letang and Bunting with the top group.
• The power play is back to bad, 0-for-4 night and they look out of ideas again. The fluctuating personnel doesn’t look like it’s helping matters.
• With this lineup and talent split the Penguins are fun and must watch when their first line is out there. But then the next 2-3 shifts you are free to go grab a snack or hit the bathroom or check your messages or anything else. ‘Cuz nothing is going to happen (nothing good, anyways).
• That said, it’s fun to watch Lizotte, his goal not withstanding. He does hustle around the ice and with his small size, you can tell he’s giving a big effort. Yep, it’s at the point where it’s nice to see someone visibly trying.
• It was kind of shocking the Canes didn’t do their usual volume shooting and pump up the saves for Nedeljkovic with the low percentage long shots. Bad for his save percentage on the night! Tough to play goalie for the Pens right now, even when they don’t give up a ton of chances the looks the other team is going to get is going to be really tough to keep the puck out of the net.
• To the above note, shot attempts were 49-31 Pittsburgh through 40. That almost never happens to Carolina. But the Canes looked comfortable not playing their usual possession type of game, and since they were winning right from the jump the whole strategy of guiding this one home took on a different tenor.
• If this was a boxing match or UFC fight, a wise ref might have stopped it 52 seconds after the first blow. That was about all anyone really needed to see, given the history between these two teams and the strength of both parties. No such mercy in hockey where you have to play out the full 60 every time.

Nothing to do but move on from this one, and the Pens get that opportunity with a game tomorrow night in Washington in an attempt to salvage a .500 road-trip.