Penguins/Ducks Recap: Flat Pens lose Rust and the game in Anaheim

Bryan Rust suffers an injury in the second period and the Pens limp along to a 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks

Pregame

The Penguins are down Blake Lizotte with the latest on the team to take an illness-induced absence from a game. The team adds back Rickard Rakell from his one game family related absence.

The Anaheim Ducks bring the following lineup for the game.

First period

Pittsburgh starts off strong with the first seven shots of the game but can’t crack John Gibson to score.

Then an invisible switch flips and it’s Anaheim who get most of the shots to end the period. One of those goes in, Alex Nedeljkovic leaves a rebound and loses his crease, P.O. Joseph melts away from the front of the net and Mason McTavish charges on to deposit the puck into the net. 1-0 Ducks.

More troubles for Joseph lead to a second Anaheim goal in the final minute of the frame. Alex Killorn finds the bouncing puck on the rush before Joseph can and zooms by him. Marcus Pettersson tries to cover and make up for it but can’t obstruct Killorn’s shot. 2-0.

Tough period for the Pens, they weren’t bad but a classic case of a couple breakdowns ending in their own net and no finish to be found. Shots are 12 a piece but the Ducks hold a two goal lead.

Second period

Evgeni Malkin got taken down and drew a penalty and the red hot Penguin power play made the Ducks pay. Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell work the puck around, eventually Rust hits a cross-crease pass for Michael Bunting to finish for his 14th goal of the season with 14:28 to play in the period.

Sidney Crosby sets up Erik Karlsson and...Gibson with a great stop to preserve the Anaheim lead.

Hayes draws the Pens a power play but they can’t convert in the time remaining on the period.

Pittsburgh down by a goal heading into the last frame.

Third period

The Pens don’t score at the tail end of their power play.

A strange bounce off the glass from a dump in puts the puck on McTavish’s stick in front. He undresses Nedeljkovic with a deke and tucks it in forehand. 3-1 game with 17:54 to go.

It’s not a great response to the goal, Joseph takes a minor penalty soon after. The Ducks don’t score on the power play but threaten, build some momentum and get two minutes closer to the end of the game.

Anaheim puts some more distance in with Troy Terry making a long pass up for Ryan Strome. Strome dishes the sauce by Karlsson and Frank Vatrano is all alone. 4-1.

The Pens get a power play, but with the injured Bryan Rust absent (more in the notes below) it doesn’t get a lot going.

Pittsburgh pulls Nedeljkovic for an extra attacker coming out of a TV break with 5:34 to play and all their best healthy offensive players on the ice (Crosby, Malkin, Rakell, Bunting, Karlsson, Letang). Why not?

They even take a timeout with 3:59 after an icing and leave the big guns out there.

The Pens keep the puck, McTavish looks for his hat trick instead of laying off the puck to an open player and hits the post. Letang and Vatrano mix it up after the whistle and get booted from the game.

Finally the Ducks score from long range with 2:00 to play after 3+ minutes of empty net action.

Cutter Gauthier scoots by Joseph and he impedes him for another penalty in garbage time. Time runs out before any more damage is done.

Some thoughts

• It’s getting to be a challenge for P.O. Joseph out there, ugly game tonight (update the counter for four straight games of Joseph taking a minor penalty, and five out of the last six). He hasn’t been very sharp lately. Those issues aside, it speaks to a bigger a problem in roster construction with Pittsburgh only carrying two right-handed defensemen (Karlsson and Letang) for much of this season which results in often playing two lefties on the third pair. Those players are struggling to hold on as it is, let alone put more on someone’s plate to play that position on the off-hand. Being on the right side of the ice shouldn’t have impacted the goals against in the first period but does go to illustrate a hole in the lineup that sometimes rears an ugly head to not have enough competent and cohesive play on the blueline.
• Through 20 minutes the most noticeable positive performance on the team was probably Kevin Hayes. The big fella is doing well right now. He had one SOG and a takeaway and created a couple of shot-assists for linemates Philip Tomsino and Anthony Beauvillier (who each had 2 SOG in the first). Hayes set Tomasino up perfectly for a dangerous chance but the right handed winger was on the left side and could only get a weak backhander away as a result.
• Alex Killorn ate his Wheaties this morning, great performance by him. Killorn was bolstered by the play of linemate Trevor Zegras. After missing virtually half the season to date, there’s no doubt Zegras adds an extra dimension for Anaheim. Being as this is only his second game back from injury, that is a bit of an uncontrollable bad break for the Pens to catch the Ducks when they have one of their better players in the lineup again.
• Nedeljkovic was tremendous in three of his last four games but rocky in this one. He gambled to lunge at stopping a follow-up chance and lost the gamble, losing his net completely and leaving an easy goal. Then he was badly off his angle on the second goal. Tough business to be a goalie and get hyper-analyzed for every mistake but his ended up sticking out and highlighting the inconsistency that makes him more of a backup type.
• Nine of Bunting’s 14 goals this season have come on the power play. It’s been interesting and effect to watch the group morph into a successful one. Sidney Crosby’s positioning has sunk deeper and deeper into the zone with usually the three other forwards more towards the net. They’ve found something that works with Bunting in tight and having him as the primary finisher with the movement of pucks and bodies from the other players causing a lot of stress to the opponent’s PK structure.
• Penguins are 2-21-2 when trailing after two periods, which now in their 50th game of the seasons means that exactly half of the games they’ve been behind after 40 minutes. Not great! They’ve only had the lead 15 times after two (12-1-2 record) and have been tied 10 times (6-0-4 record).
• Rust left the game with 2:17 to go in the second period after being crunched against the boards by Radko Gudas. The Pens announced soon after on social media that he would be out with a lower body injury for the rest of the night. That’s going to sting if it causes more missed time, Rust has been one of the hotter players on the team with nine points (4G+5A) in the last eight games.
• In Rust’s absence the Pens pushed Anthony Beauvillier up to play with the Crosby line and Drew O’Connor moved up to take Beauvillier’s old spot with Hayes.

After one the Pens’ best games of the season Monday against the Kings, they follow up with by laying an egg against the Ducks. 2-2 now on the long road trip, which continues Saturday afternoon up in Seattle.