Penguins/Oilers Recap: The Penguins are bad, you guys

Hello and welcome to the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Edmonton Oilers recap. This one is a little different than usual, myself and Mr. Gretz took in the game from a lovely vantage point inside PPG Paints Arena. We wanted to get as close to the action as possible to bring you the hottest insights as only PensBurgh can (can’t wait to see what he says tomorrow!).

From Section 111, here was the vantage point of tonight’s proceedings.

The game started off hot, with Kris Letang taking a pass from Bryan Rust and scoring 1:05 in. Was this actually a bad thing in the overall scheme of things? Might have been, considering the home club acted like the game ended as if it was a “first to 1” situation, instead of a 60 minute game.

The Oilers tallied the next seven goals in a row to leave the home club in a tailspin and desperately seeking answers that they just don’t have right now.

There was a “fire Hextall” chant that started in the second period. Luckily being so close to the ice, we can confirm that no Penguin players actually participated in it.

I was also able to bring you this exclusive video of Connor McDavid’s penalty shot in the third period. You can’t even tell he scored on it — but trust me on this — he scored on it for his second goal of the night and 46th of the season.

Some other random thoughts and notes to put a bow on this debacle:

• The Penguins getting caught up in three penalties in the first period changed the tone and tenor of this game. They gave up two goals while short-handed and it was all down-hill from there.
• Shots in the first were 14-3 Edmonton. I believe one “shot” from the Pens was a Letang dump in.
• Tristan Jarry has two games back from injury and two straight games with turning the puck over for a goal against. That led to what could have been a back-breaker, but honestly it was over by then anyways.
• Mike Sullivan shuffled the forward lines and put Evgeni Malkin with Sidney Crosby’s wingers and vice versa once it got out of hand, so that was nice. Didn’t lead to anything positive.
• The refs took away two goals from the Pens, which almost felt bad. The first being a Malkin power play goal and there was an off-side right at the blueline we were sitting at. Not to break my arm patting myself on the back but I did better than the linesman and told Gretz immediately “they better not score, that was definitely off-side”. They scored and after a review, it was deemed off-side.
• The refs also took away a Jeff Carter goal due to him deflecting a puck that truly was above the cross-bar. But there should be a rule that if Jeff Carter is able to put the puck in the net by any means necessary, by goodness that should count!

It was another tough night in a long line of tough nights for the Pens. They barely have a pulse and are far too easy to play against. They will crumble at the first sign of adversity. Who knows what happens next for them, but as one of the most unified chants of the night went, Ron Hextall better change something up very, very soon or else this team is in trouble of going no where fast.

Signing off from PPG Paints Arena, this is your very special recap.