Recap: Conference Semis #4: When the Levee Breaks

Remember when everyone said there was no chemistry between Iginla-Malkin-Neal? Remember when everyone said that the Pens were going to get Halak-ed again? Remember when the “Pesky Sens” won Game 3 and everyone knew what was going to happen next? Remember it all. Because that makes yesterday’s game feel so much sweeter.

Contrary to what everyone on the Twitter-verse is saying, this series isn’t over. The Pens still need to come home and continue that effort on home ice tomorrow night. Although it is pretty bad when a so-called “class act” leader, face of the franchise Daniel Alfredsson doesn’t believe in his team anymore.

Pretty certain that he, Gonch, and Chris Phillips are going to carpool to League offices in Toronto to file their retirement papers all together.

A couple more thoughts:

• Mark Eaton and Douglas Murray were both nearly invisible on the ice. And that’s a good thing. Neither are especially young and neither are fleet of foot, when you notice them that means they’re more than likely out of position. Neither were. They both played about 16 minutes, and seemingly a lot of it came on the penalty kill. Good stuff.
• Vokoun made what was far and away his worst start of the playoffs yet still managed 30 saves and a .909 S%. Simply put, he made the plays that he needed to make.
• James Neal finally looks like he’s figuring out how to play in the playoffs, and that’s scary indeed. Even if he hadn’t scored two goals yesterday he would have stuck out as one of the best Pens on the ice last night.
• Jokinen and Bennett are doing perfectly fine work. It’s almost impossible to grasp how versatile Jokinen is, he literally played in every situation, even strength in a checking role, even strength in a scoring role, on the PK, and on the PP, and although you can tell he’s not 100% he helped in all of those situations. Bennett is just so electrifying, you can’t not watch him. No doubt, when Morrow is healthy again he’ll be back, but it’s just so nice to know that Beau will be around for years to come.
• You can teach better team defense. One thing you can’t teach is scoring. Occasionally the team didn’t look great in the defensive zone (ahem, the second goal) but they also played well in a good defensive posture after the floodgates opened in the other end. Could the Pens have scored more against Lehner? Probably yes, they got one past him on four shots. But that wasn’t the nature of the beast. They needed to make sure they didn’t sacrifice defense for offense and they walked that line beautifully.

(Not that you weren’t already) but wear black on Friday. We have a burial to attend.

Recap: Conference Semifinals #1: v. Ottawa Senators

Not too much to say about last night’s game. Pens offense, especially their PP is just scary good right now, between their puck movement and their pure shooting skill this team reminds me so much of the teams from the late ‘90s, except with better defense and goaltending.

But with that said I do have two minor critiques of the Pens forwards, it was easy to look past these faults yesterday but they could become more obvious in time. The Pens still need to work on creating a better forecheck in the offensive zone, we saw some amazing shifts, but they were separated by long stretches of dump and chase, and it seems like Anderson knows how to move the puck quickly. Additionally, the forwards were a little flighty in their own end last night. Occasionally the forwards were aggressive on the backcheck, but the Senators were able to get a lot of bodies in front of the net over the course of the game. If Jason Spezza can get back in the lineup (which is anticipated by most) and he can play even 80% of his game, he could actually exploit the Pens and the big bubble they left between the goal line and the points. Can one forward turn the series around? Probably not, but he can at least show the young impressionable Sens a plan for the future.

One thing that struck me is that this game was simultaneously closer, and less close than the 4-1 final suggested. It was closer because of the Penguins lack of forecheck, it was closer because the Pens (read James Neal) took way too many undisciplined penalties, and anytime you’re allowing 36 shots to a road team that’s just too many. It was less close than the score would indicate because answer yourself this, when were you scared in this game? Not very often if you ask us. Sure the Senators managed a lot of shots on goal, but they weren’t good shots. They were shooting from all over the ice, from the points, from the sidewalls, from the goal line, they were just trying to throw things at the net, but from there they didn’t have enough skill or resolve to actually punch the puck into the net. I won’t complain about the Pens allowing low percentage shots, but it would be nice to see fewer attempts in general.

I think we can comfortably say there isn’t a goalie controversy in Pittsburgh now. After yesterday’s game Vokoun is 3-0 with a 1.28 GAA and a .962 S%, he’s been named a three star in each game he’s played, and he’s just a calming influence. Voki has an uncanny ability to know when to play a puck and when to freeze a puck, that’s how he’s managed to keep the team collected in front of him.

Great TOI distribution again. As these playoffs go on you’ll see the benefits to only playing Sid 17 minutes a night, and Geno even less. If you’re looking for a critique of the TOI, what’s the point in playing Deryk Engelland if he’s going to play less time than your fourth line winger Craig Adams? We don’t know, but if we saw all the fight that the Senators are capable of then I also don’t expect we’ll see Engo play a lot of games this series.

Long break til Friday night before Game 2. Could that impact the momentum that the Pens have or that the Sens lack? Probably, Pens need to not let up.