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Pens vs. Jets Recap: Oh no, we suck again

The Penguins play the second game of a back-to-back and you know what that means: a blowout loss. Come see the higlights (lowlights?) of Pens/Jets here

By Hooks Orpik
NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins at Winnipeg Jets James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports

Lineups

The Penguins decide to buck conventional wisdom by playing Matt Murray for both ends of a back-to-back games.

The forwards are different too. Not really sure why coach Mike Sullivan elects to play arguably the two best offensive wingers in Jake Guentzel and Phil Kessel with a center who has 2 goals in his last 90 games in Riley Sheahan. Similarly, Evgeni Malkin is tasked with playing with Carl Hagelin who has 1 goal and 2 points in 12 games this season. Ok.

1st period

Shit goes bad, and quick. Andrew Copp gets a little whoopsie on net and whaddya know it goes in. This would be a theme. 1-0 Jets.

Pittsburgh actually stabilizes a bit and goes about 12 game minutes without allowing a goal until Mark Scheifele turns Ian Cole around with a great centering pass and Blake Wheeler scores his first (but far from his last) goal of the game past Murray to make it 2-0.

Wheeler gets his second of the night to make it 3-0 with a tip of a Shawn Matthias centering effort. The wheels are off at this point.

If the wheels were off, 23 seconds later it’s 4-0 and the Pens are just terrible.

Finally, the hook is pulled on Murray and Casey DeSmith makes his NHL debut. Unfortunately the distance of time between his introduction and first goal allowed fits within the time for a GIF, which is never good. Blake Wheeler skates through Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang as if they aren’t there, and they barely were. 5-0

Mercifully the period ends. Shots only 10-7 for Winnipeg. Embarrassingly, goals 5-0.

2nd period

Is this still on? Pittsburgh actually outshoots and shows a little life but doesn’t have a lot going on. Finally Evgeni Malkin gets the Pens on the board tipping in a Phil Kessel centering effort and yay it’s 5-1.

Shots 15-4 for the Pens in the period (yay score effects!). But they only get one goal back, which stinks but oh well, not like you’re digging out of a 5 goal hole in the NHL too many times.

3rd period

Blah blah, Scheifele scores on the power play. 6-1.

Brendan Lemieux gets his first career NHL goal because hey why not. 7-1.

Finally the game ends.

Some Thoughts

  • Back to backs are tough, but that’s no excuse for how awful the Pens have been at the start of each of them. Just gross. Concerning. Mike Sullivan looked like he wanted to strangle someone behind the bench, but we need more than dirty looks at this point.
  • Somewhere Antti Niemi laughs?
  • Next game Wednesday night in Edmonton. Can’t be any worse, right?

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