King Anze and Los Angeles take down Pittsburgh 5-2
by Hooks Orpik on Nov 6, 2009 1:47 AM EST
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Penguins vs Kings coverage - Penguins vs Kings boxscore
Coming into the game, the Los Angeles Kings were a buzzsaw. 5-0-2 in their last seven; and after tonight they've scored 5+ goals in five of the last seven games. They showed why, with superior zone time, cycling, shots on goal. Usually all the aspects the Penguins outmatch others, that's what LA did to them tonight, and they pulled away late in the third period to get a deserving result, a 5-2 victory.
Right off the bat in the first period, the Kings collected a puck in their zone and rushed it up the ice, Justin Williams crissed, Anze Kopitar crossed and Kris Letang was somewhere in the middle. That's not a good equation. Kopitar showed the skill that's why he's currently the league's leading scorer when he stepped up, smoothly went to the backhand and beat Marc-Andre Fleury cleanly for a goal.
The next shift the Penguins put Jordan Staal out with Chris Conner and Matt Cooke. On a breakout Jay McKee (of all people) ended up driving towards the net. Conner dropped the puck to Staal who slapped it to the net. It found paydirt 1-1.
The very fact a defensive defenseman like McKee finds himself in the position to be a little ahead of the play and ends up driving to the net just shows how much the entire team has bought into the system that Dan Bylsma wants them to play. When Jay McKee is your lead force center driving the net and a guy like Jordan Staal knows to pull up, everyone's clicking, everyone's on the same page. In a nutshell that's why Pittsburgh's had so much success since Bylsma took over.
In the second period Brooks Orpik took a shot that Chris Kunitz and Sidney Crosby waived their sticks at. Kunitz got a piece and it was enough to beat Jonathan Quick. IT was 2-1 Pens after two, despite being out-shot and generally out-played they took a lead into the second intermission. It wouldn't last though.
In the third Kopitar would tie it. He beat Crosby on a faceoff and found Williams for a shot. The shot found Kopitar behind the net (as the puck always seems to find the good ones) and he popped out for the easy stuff in to tie the game at 2.
Following a real sloppy power-play by the Pens (what else is new recently), Dustin Brown made a great pass to Jarret Stoll and he buried it. 3-2 Kings. The very next shift the Kings kept the pressure up, Craig Adams was no match for Alexander Frolov and he fired a pass out that bounced around and Michal Handzus got the goal, with Wayne Simmonds right there to get it too. 4-2 Kings just like that.
And in the "piling it on" folder, the Kings got zone time, they cycled well and drew a penalty. With the extra man they got some great passes, caught the Pens running around and Stoll made a great pass to Dustin Brown for an easy slam dunker. 5-2 Kings.
- The goalies really settled down after two goalies in the first 1:10 of gameplay, for a while at least. Fleury stopped the next 24 shots, and the only way the Pens beat Quick was a deflection out front. MAF got victimized in a flurry in the 3rd, but let's absolve him because the Kings applied a lot of pressure and outworked a lot of Pittsburgh players to get their goals.
- It's not even that Kopitar scored his two goals: the way he did it was almost effortless and very skillful. If he played in the eastern time zone he'd be one of the most hyped players in the game. He's definitely one of those guys like a Rick Nash or Ilya Kovalchuk that is worth watching any chance you get. A supremely talented player and Kopitar put on one of the best performances tonight that I've seen all season.
- It should be noted that Kris Letang played 24:49, and though Kopitar made him look foolish twice, he escaped with an even plus/minus rating. Fellow youngster Alex Goligoski logged 21:32 of ice-time and was a +1.
- Not to say the usually solid four more defensive defenseman (Jay McKee, Brooks Orpik, Martin Skoula and Mark Eaton) deserve all the blame; but that foursome combined to have a plus/minus rating of -7 (all were negatives except McKee). Pittsburgh's not going to win many games under those circumstances, especially with the power-play not clicking.
- Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin combined for 10 of the Pens total of 23 shots on goal. Guerin got a couple wonderful feeds but couldn't convert (including one that hit Quick's pad and then the post). Can't knock those two for a lack of effort, but the results generally just haven't paid dividends.
- Matt Cooke, Pascal Dupuis and Ruslan Fedotenko -- three veteran wingers all relied on for contributions didn't fare as well. That trio combined for almost 47 minutes of ice-time but only got one shot on goal (Fedotenko's) and weren't dangerous. They were flat out overmatched by their counter-parts in guys like Stoll, Brown and Frolov.
- Tough night for Craig Adams too. While he registered a game high 8 hits (including one on Matt Greene that dislodged the glass), Adams was a -3 and lost 9 of 12 faceoffs.
- As far as diminutive forwards with the first name of Chris go: Conner > Bourque. Maybe it's because Conner's two years older, maybe it's because he's got 54 more NHL games, but whatever the reason, Conner seems more poised, a better skater and makes better decisions with the puck.
Overall, no excuses, the Kings worked very hard, played a superior game, got some solid goaltending and deserved the win. They displayed all the usual tenets of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, but did so with better skill and execution from top to bottom. One can't help but wonder what the outcome would have been if Pittsburgh was fortunate enough to have their four key injured players (Malkin, Gonchar, Kennedy, Talbot) but let that take nothing away from the display LA put on. Sure would be nice to see a seven game series between these two teams, but that is a long ways away.
Pittsburgh's franchise best of seven straight road wins to open a season is now history, but they still have a big chance to have a winning west coast road trip if they get the result in San Jose on Saturday. The Sharks are no easy task, so time to put this one behind us and move north in California to see what can happen.
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View from the Glass
I was at tonight’s game, and the Pens did what they always have done whenever I’ve made it out to see them in person: Lost badly. My version of the game differs a little bit from Hooks. This might have been because I could only see half of the ice, and didn’t have much of a perspective on what was going on as a whole (although I was privy to see Cooke’s devious smile up close). So is the nature of glass seats on one end of the ice. Here were my observations:
- Kopitar moves like the wind! When he broke in off the left side wing and beat Fleury cleanly, all the Pens were in shock. I’m glad Staal came back and tied it up on the next shift or so.
- The Pens looked to be the more experienced, machinesque team on the ice compared to the Kings throughout the first two periods. The Pens play in the neutral zone far surpassed the Kings. They looked like a team that had a system and believed in it, even if it was an off night. The third period was a wreck, though.
- The Pens are in dire need of getting Gonchar and Malkin back in the lineup. The only line that seemed to have any sustained offensive punch was Staal’s line. Crosby seems lost on the PP without Malkin.
- There was a large contingent of Pens fans at the game. The most notable was a Marine that was honored during pre-game ceremonies. He stood next to the chick that sang the new national anthem, “God Bless America”. Note: the real national anthem was not sung, WTF??? When they showed Mr. Marine during the second period on the jumbotron, he pulled out a Pen’s Stanley Cup White-Out Towel and proudly displayed his Penguins loyalty. Kings fans didn’t boo, or care. It was an odd, awkard moment.
- There was a screachy woman behind me that was yelling, “Crosby, go cry with your Phillies.” I’m guessing she thought either the Penguins played in Philadelphia, or the Phillies played in Pittsburgh? Anyhow, she was trying to connect the Phillies World Series loss to the Yankees and Sidney Crosby. Or something.
- Jersey foul of the night (I wish I had a camera to capture this): A season ticket holder a few seats down from me was wearing a new Kings jersey with 99 on it for Gretzky. First, Gretzky was at least 15 years removed from the Kings when that purple blingy monstrosity of a jersey debuted. And the custom text this guy put on it? “CUPB4IDIE”. So, you’re wearing a Gretzky jersey but completely oblivious to the 4 cups he won with Edmonton?
"Oh, buy Sam a drink and get his dog one too!" - Mike Lange
by gorgalor on Nov 6, 2009 5:15 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
"Crosby, go cry with your Phillies."
Hilarious.
by Cari on Nov 6, 2009 7:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Thanks for the in-person thoughts!
“Crosby, go cry with your Phillies.”
Wow what a geography fail.
Pensburgh.com -- it's like the Max Talbot of blogs*
*not just because we only work for 12 minutes a night
by Hooks Orpik on Nov 6, 2009 10:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Well I’m glad I stayed up for this one….I actually though Connor played a pretty good game last night. He was one of a few players to get absolutely robbed by Quick last night. Other than that not a great effort by the Pens. They got dominated. Not sure if its going to last all year long, but the Kings looked damn good last night. They have three really solid lines, and that first line is just awsome. Hope TK didn’t seriously re injury his groin in that ANA game we could really use him.
by genomachine-O on Nov 6, 2009 8:13 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Conner was OK at best. I saw multiple instances where a Kings D-man pushed him off the puck like he was blowing on a dandelion. He needs to talk to TK and learn how a small man can play big.
Absolutely no intimidation factor in front of our net. They need to get angry and make people pay or Fleury’s going to get run every game.
That Anze Kopitar guy is pretty good! :-O
by puckhead45_82 on Nov 6, 2009 11:07 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I was grading Conner’s performance on like the Bourque/Conner scale not the Crosby/Malkin scale. I mean hes like 5’-7" hes going to get pushed around. I saw more from him last night then Chris Bourque has show all year tho. I don’t know, I just don’t understand those two. It makes out offense much smaller I know those guys aren’t playing big minutes, I’d just rather see Luca Caputi or someone up instead. I know they want to take their time with Luca and we probably won’t see him barring any more major injuries til later in the year. But even at this point I think Luca could add more to the Pens than a Bourque or Connor could. Luca’s a power forward type that hounds the net, something the Pens are def. missing right now. On another note the Pens really need to put an end to players running Fleury its gotten out of hand lately.
by genomachine-O on Nov 6, 2009 12:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
definitely too many bodies flying in against MAF… Godard should pick up a fight or something… why is he playing?
You have to see it for yourself...
by Bla Razor on Nov 6, 2009 1:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I wonder if the call for Caputi will get as loud and frequent as the calls for Letang were a few years ago. Eventually it has to happen right?
by PensFan024 on Nov 6, 2009 1:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
my views on yesterday deserved defeat:
- we had virtually only 2 lines offensively … 2nd line was a wreck… Feds is just good support player… Adams and Dupuis – defensively minded… total lack of chemistry and creativity there…
- we need another center who can win some face-offs… (Crosby alone is keeping the team close to .500 FO%) and let Rupp and/or Adams play the wing…
- the Kings are really onto something… I’ll try to stay up late to watch them more often…
You have to see it for yourself...
by Bla Razor on Nov 6, 2009 1:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I agree, the Kings played an awesome game and have been playing this way for most of the season.
Goalie was their biggest question in my eyes, but Quick has been stellar.
Doughty, Johnson, Scuderi and Greene make a good core of defensemen. And if guys like Frolov and Stoll stay healthy and keep contributing they’ve got a lot of support for the guys like Smyth and Kopitar.
Definitely a team to keep an eye on.
Pensburgh.com -- it's like the Max Talbot of blogs*
*not just because we only work for 12 minutes a night
by Hooks Orpik on Nov 6, 2009 1:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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