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Penguins vs. Stars Recap: It was all I could do to keep from crying. Pens lose

The Pittsburgh Penguins drop a game in fairly pathetic fashion to the Dallas Stars by the score of 4-1, but let's break it down and look at it anyways

By Hooks Orpik
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Penguins concluded a 5 game home-stand tonight against the Dallas Stars and it didn't go too well for the home boys. Well, actually the Pens got out to a great start (getting 9 of the game's first 11 shots) but couldn't convert and it was all downhill from there.

The Goals

Dallas made it 1-0 on a fairly weak looking shot from way out by Johnny Oduya that was going through the "dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge" school of thought. Very odd, came close to catching a stick but didn't appear to do so.

The Stars would strike again quickly on the power play after a Patric Hornqvist puck-over-the-glass delay of game penalty. John Klingberg is very #good.

Damage would get worse when Rob Scuderi made a poor pass attempt to Olli Maatta that David Perron recovered. Perron then proceed to set up a goal...For Jason Spezza . Oof

Finally, 5 periods into playing the Stars and Antti Niemi, the Penguins score a goal on him to make it 3-1, courtesy of a great individual effort by Nick Bonino, for his first career goal as a Penguin.

The good vibes wouldn't last long for the Pens, with Mattias Janmark scoring off a rebound right in front with Kris Letang and Ian Cole doing....well, I'm not quite sure what they're doing. 4-1 Stars.

And that would be it for the scoring, sadly.

Some Thoughts:

  • Shame the Pens gave up the first goal of the game, they had their best start of the season and shots at one point were 9-2 Pittsburgh early. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both generated some good chances early, but no dice, and they would pay with Dallas striking twice quickly.
  • Welcome back Pascal Dupuis - who slotted immediately into the top PK unit in his first game since November 2014.
  • In the first period alone David Perron hits the post, Chris Kunitz fails to score on a good chance, Hornqvist as we mentioned takes a costly delay of game penalty. Story of the season for those 3 guys. Perron then one-upped himself big time with the awful turnover that led directly to a goal against, getting Perron a demotion to play on the lower line with Kevin Porter and Matt Cullen.
  • Down 2-0 after the first period (and starting the second on a power play) the Penguins responded by not getting a shot on goal until 11 minutes into the period with Bonino's goal. Not exactly a great response, especially considering Dallas got that goal back less than 2 minutes later.
  • The Pens elected to keep Marc-Andre Fleury in the net for the 3rd period, but I wouldn't have. Fleury's been fine, but some of the "efforts" defensively were just absolute jokes. Scuderi and Perron didn't manage the puck. Letang and Cole totally coasted on their goal against. Jeff Zatkoff hasn't played a single minute this season. The Pens should have pulled Fleury if only to see if it would jolt the skaters. And to give their workhorse a much deserved break from a senseless game.
  • Jason Demers elbowed Bonino big time late in the 3rd, drawing a 5 minute major. We'll see if there's any fallout but that was not a good looking hit upon first glance.
  • Sidney Crosby broke his stick on the ensuing power play. He's certainly got more broken sticks this season than points. For some reason it just isn't working quite right.
  • Pittsburgh looked like a team without an identity tonight. Really good early, but once they went down, it was like the air went out of their balloon and they couldn't recover.
  • From the "always look on the bright side of life" file...Pittsburgh's 3-2-0 against the NHL besides the Dallas Stars. And have no more games against them on the schedule this season.
  • Also, a point that shouldn't be lost on- Dallas, now at 6-1-0, is a really good team. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin didn't even have to do anything tonight and they easily won. Granted, we've seen them in 2 games at their best, but I'm glad they're not on the schedule any more.

Come back tomorrow for Mike's in-depth recap! He promised me he would be more of a "good cop" to my initial "bad cop" recap tonight. The Pens are back in action Saturday night in Nashville, which means there will probably be even more country music references in the recap on your favorite site pensburgh dot com.

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