Penguins/Rangers Recap: Pens can’t get the fine details right, lose 4-2 in New York

The Pens can’t get a bounce, lose some key moments and see their four-game winning streak end in New York

Pregame

The Penguins get Cody Glass back into the lineup for the first time after recovering from his concussion and Alex Nedeljkovic is starting in net.

Fresh off trading their captain Jacob Trouba this afternoon and reportedly re-signing goalie Igor Shesterkin to the big money, the Rangers have the following lines.

First period

Eerie environment early on in the Garden, can feel the nerves in the air after New York’s recent losing streak and the big trade of their captain today.

The first big chance comes for the Rangers. Matt Grzelcyk attempts a between the legs backhand pass (c’mon bruh) and it’s picked off. Reilly Smith is in for a clear break away but his former teammate Nedeljkovic stands tall to stop him.

Not much going on, Nedeljkovic has to make a few more nice stops as NY gets the better of the chances early. Artemi Panarin takes the game’s first penalty by tripping Kevin Hayes, but the Pens don’t get much out of it.

Period chugs along with all the excitement of going to the library to study for finals. Shots are 10-6 NYR. No one on Pittsburgh doing much of anything besides Nedeljkovic.

Second period

Reilly Smith pops up again to hit the iron but it doesn’t score. Evgeni Malkin takes a stick up high, so Pittsburgh gets the game’s second power play. Not much to write about again, though.

Blake Lizotte and Alexis Lafreniere get tangled up and take matching minor penalties. The Rangers control the puck on the 4v4 for almost the entire time and treat it cautiously like a 3v3 OT, to the delight of no one.

Lizotte gets out of the penalty box, and scores the first goal. He’s got plenty of room from the wall all the way to the center of the ice. No defender comes remotely close to him so he fires glove high on Shesterkin and into the net. 1-0 Pens with 13:41 to play.

That goal opens the game up, as opening goals tend to do. Nedeljkovic has to rob Chris Kreider on a cross-ice pass. The Pens get caught a little bit in a line change and this time it’s Panarin with all the space in the world in the offensive zone. That’s not the guy you want to give that opportunity to. Panarin leans into a slapper and New York finally gets one by Nedeljkovic. 1-1 game, 12:32 to go.

Philip Tomasino sets up Malkin for a rocket of a one-timer, Shesterkin comes up huge with the glove.

The Pens get whistled for their first stand-alone penalty of the night when Marcus Pettersson trips Kreider. Kreider gets to punching for some unknown reason, Pettersson tries to lure him into getting a call too but the refs let it go and only take Pettersson to the box. Pittsburgh survives on the PK.

Anthony Beauvillier gets taken down and it’s Pittsburgh’s turn on the power play again. NYR gets a 2-on-1 but can’t score, it goes back the other way and Rickard Rakell hits the goal post.

Back at 5v5, Owen Pickering has plenty of space to size up a long shot. It rings of the post loudly but again stays out.

Those missed opportunities come back to bite, Panarin races down the ice and unfurls a shot that handcuffs Nedeljkovic for his second goal of the period with about a second remaining. 10 out of 10 on the oof scale.

2-1 NYR into the break. Not an unfair score being as shots overall are 24-19, but the luck wasn’t pointing in the Pens’ favor late so instead of being ahead they find themselves down a goal heading into the final period.

Third period

Pittsburgh still looking sluggish and having troubles breaking out of their zone under the pressure. Ryan Shea takes a delay of game penalty. Bryan Rust works hard and gets Zac Jones to trip him to end the NYR power play early.

Letang nearly is able to sweep a puck in but it won’t go. The Pens fail to score there but Tomasino is the latest to find plenty of space in the middle of the ice and wires in a top shelf shot for a goal just before Sam Carrick does his Jacob Trouba Memorial Shoulder to the head of Tomasino. 2-2 game.

Grzelcyk is there to give the lead right back 1:24 later. Reilly Smith shrugs Grzelcyk off and skate up the ice, the Pens can’t catch up and eventually Smith taps in a rebound. 3-2 NYR.

The bad luck and slips of detail continue when Beauvillier tries to lift a stick in the offensive zone and lifts it a little too much to turn it into a high-sticking penalty. The Pens don’t even give up a shot on the kill but lose two minutes on the clock to get through it.

The Pens push for a goal but don’t get it, the Rangers get a rush the other way and Trocheck puts on the insurance goal, sniping Nedeljkovic 5-hole. 4-2 with 1:38 to go.

Pittsburgh pulls the goalie but neither team can score before the final horn sounds.

Some thoughts

• Why can’t they make the whole plane out of Blake Lizotte? He’s up to 3G+3A in the five games since returning from injury.
• Tomasino too, for that matter, who recorded his third goal with the Pens (in just five games). Pittsburgh has badly, badly needed some finishing talent and he can convert offensively.
• The Rangers in the defensive zone look as lax, sluggish and free up opponents about as much as the Penguins do. Not a good look for them, the results of the game tonight notwithstanding. They look like a shattered and broken team, maybe they can pick up the pieces now that they’ve finally set a course and dropped Trouba, but as it stands I’m not too sure their struggles are going to be over.
• Somehow NYR won 22 of the first 25 faceoffs in the game. Most of the damage was done by Zibanejad and Trocheck who were a combined 18-2 early on.
• Jaromir Jagr was the captain of the Rangers when Sidney Crosby was named captain of the Penguins. Now that Trouba was traded today, Jagr and four other captains have come and gone while Crosby has remained constant. Crosby’s about to be the NHL’s longest-serving captain ever so it makes sense there would be turnover by comparison but it’s wild to sit and think about.
• Tough one for the Pens to go 0/4 on the power play, looking sloppy along the way. Then the all important swing of the game came late in the second when Rakell and Pickering hit the iron, only to watch Panarin beat the buzzer to tip the game in the other way.
• On the good news side of things: twice the Rangers had a power play while up a goal, and twice the Pens killed it off to stay within contact of them.
• Nedeljkovic was playing a weird old timey stand-up style tonight several different times. It seemed to work for a little while and then the Rangers gave a lesson about why the butterfly came into popularity when they started ripping shots through him low to the ice, highlighted by Trocheck’s late goal.
• Grzelcyk might be the worst regular player for the Penguins since Jack Johnson. How does this guy keep playing big minutes, or any at all?
• Bunting didn’t cloak himself in glory with his role on the first two goals against. Now that the Pens are healthy, it’ll be interesting to see if he cozies up back in the doghouse. But then Bunting did make the very nice pass to Tomasino for a goal. One good impact for two bad ones, then again maybe Bunting is just the perfect Penguin these days.

Just like that, the Pens’ four-game winning streak is history in a disappointing fashion. There was a lot there for the taking but they couldn’t jump out there and take it. They’ll get another chance tomorrow back in Pittsburgh against a Toronto team that also didn’t perform well tonight (losing 2-1 at home to Washington).