Lineups
The Penguins roll with the same personnel as the last few games, but don’t get too attached to the lines, within the first 9 minutes of the game Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel both took extra shifts with different linemates. Very fluid situation with Pittsburgh’s lines as always.
Hella tight lineup right here. pic.twitter.com/q8tGIL3Eqw
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 15, 2018
1st period
The Kings are the better team early getting the game’s first five shots on goal but the Pens get their first on a breakaway by Ryan Reaves who made a nice move to his backhand only to be stopped by Jonathan Quick. A bit later Amanda Kessel’s brother makes a beauty of a pass to get a 2-on-0 (TWO ON OH!!) with Sidney Crosby and Zach Aston-Reese all alone. But it would be Crosby whose pass is off the mark to spoil the glorious chance.
Reaves takes a penalty but the Pens PK does the trick to keep LA off the board.
At the end of the period Anze Kopitar’s stick comes in the area of Conor Sheary’s face and he sells it big, drawing a 2-minute minor on the King.
Shots end 14-12 LAK after one period.
2nd period
The Pens don’t score on the power play carryover, because Patric Hornqvist is still hurt and that’s just the way the % goes. But soon after, Carl Hagelin gets held and Pittsburgh is back to a second power play. Kessel gets a good chance but Quick is excellent at taking everything away down low. Again no power play goal.
But it would be Reaves to open the scoring, collecting a loose puck and firing an actually good wrister from the right side ticketed past the blocker of Quick to put the Pens on the board, 1-0.
The Pens with just a badass graphic on ‘90s night for all us kids of that era that grew up with a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo and NHL ‘94.
GOAL! REAVES! He makes the Kings pay on the turnover. The #Pens lead 1-0 with 13:54 left in the 2nd period. pic.twitter.com/xqBrlbUpyD
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2018
Wicked wrister from @rreaves75! pic.twitter.com/lNNEo3gzG1
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2018
Next up in the parade to the penalty box is Ian Cole, and the Kings do score early in their second PP chance, with new addition Dion Phaneuf making a centering pass that goes off Kris Letang and into the net. 1-1 just like that.
Dion Phaneuf scores his first goal for the LA Kings pic.twitter.com/KE1scvlg5W
— LA Kings (@LAKings) February 16, 2018
More penalties! Letang joins the rush and Alec Martinez hooks him so Pittsburgh is to their 3rd chance of the game. But again, no goal to be found. In fact, Dustin Brown while short handed hand the best scoring chance on a breakaway.
Before the 2nd ends, it’s Evgeni Malkin’s turn to go to the box for the 6th penalty of the game (3 for each team). LA can’t score because Matt Murray does this
Rolie polie goalie. pic.twitter.com/6vvli7qMHn
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2018
Period ends without much further drama, shots in the 2nd were 13-12 in favor of LA (and 27-24 LA overall).
3rd period
Pittsburgh gets a 4th power play on the night on a really lucky break. Brown was trying to poke the puck past Olli Maatta but accidentally chipped it up and over the glass. 9/10 times in that situation it would be low enough to be in the players’ bench and no penalty but this time it wasn’t. The Hornqvist-less top PP couldn’t score but on the second group Letang shoots a hard slapper that Aston-Reese is screening the goalie, possibly tips off his skate, and the puck ends up in the net. 2-1 Pens.
Letang → Aston-Reese → pic.twitter.com/FpZHWtuBGx
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2018
Game ambles on, Murray is sharp and the Kings pull their goalie. After some typical Pens comedy of errors with the empty net (Crosby missing a shot) Sid gets the puck back, pass down to Malkin to slam it home and end this one. 3-1.
Sorry Doughty... You're no match for Crosby and Malkin and no goalie. pic.twitter.com/DaUYrY4153
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2018
Some thoughts
- Reaves took a minor penalty again in the offensive zone. Seem to remember his last minor recently was in the o-zone as well. Not ideal! At least he did something else tonight in the offensive zone, like score a goal.
- As we tweeted, through two periods Carter Rowney played more short-handed (2:30) than at even strength (1:39). Rowney isn’t 100% and getting skipped for shifts at even, yet he’s trusted to kill penalties? One of the few decisions made that it’s tough to understand the reasoning behind why a replacement level player who is banged up needs to be dressed for games when they don’t trust him to play a lot at 5v5 but do somehow want him out there for 4v5 when it’s even more challenging. Ponderous.
- If you couldn’t tell by the tone above, we weren’t impressed by the way the game was reffed. Too many penalties for reasons that didn’t create/deny scoring chances or have obvious physicality. As a result players started gaming the refs on both sides and were visibly looking to them for calls on anything questionable. Not a great standard to set.
- 10 straight wins at home! The Pens got the home cookin’ rollin.
- Malkin’s 32nd of the year. Ovechkin has one as of press time for 34 and the league lead. Malkin has about a million lately though.
- Great to see ZAR get another goal. One has to wonder at this point if he can play himself onto the playoff team ahead of the Kuhnhackl’s and Rowney’s of the world. Those guys are perceived by the coach as trusted PKers though, so would they consider youth (and probably more skill)? Will be an interesting storyline to watch unfold.
- Hits were officially 46-17 in favor of LA. No hometown advantage for the Pens tonight by the statistician.
- Another solid game for Murray who has really been playing well as of late. And tonight was just his 100th career regular season game and he set a record with his 62nd win. All the young man does is win.
One more game in the homestand on Saturday night against Toronto as the Pens look to make it 11 in a row in the friendly confines of PPG Paints.