Yeah, it's a little obvious, but when your backup goalie has two shutouts against two of the best teams in the league, you’re in pretty good shape. I wrote about how the Avalanche’s goaltending was the real reason for their success, and we saw it again live against the Penguins. If the goaltending can pick this up, the Avs will go from last place to a playoff appearance.
I posted something on Twitter last night during the game, wondering if this was the most uncomfortable Marc-Andre Fleury looked thus far this season. The one thing with Fleury is that you can usually see a rough spell coming from him, sometimes a few games in advance. When he is uncomfortable, he allows rebounds he usually doesn’t, flops around the net more and doesn’t see the puck as well. This was Fleury’s first loss of the year, coming off allowing his first ‘Fleury’ type of goal against the Vancouver Canucks. Let’s hope that he can get his head together over the next three days off.
I like Rob Scuderi. I do. I thought it was a good signing for the Penguins and his simple style of play is one of the reasons why the Penguins are doing so well defensively. Plain and simple though, offense is not his strong suit. The same goes for Robert Bortuzzo. The Avalanche did a good job of crowding the net, making it hard for the Penguins to get pucks to net. Sometimes, the defenseman were forced to take bad shots, but at some point when they aren’t getting the pucks through, they should have pushed the puck back deep behind the net and looked for something else. The Penguins' defensemen combined for five missed shots and had countless shots blocked.
I guess I am in the minority in saying that even though he is at a point-per-game pace at the moment, Evgeni Malkin is not having a strong season. The only thing that keeps him from dominating at all times is that he just can’t accept that sometimes, you have to take the easy play instead of trying to make the perfect pass or highlight reel deke. That’s what causes the majority of his mistakes. It’s an admirable trait, but sometimes he just has to settle for what they give him. Malkin did play better in both ends last night, but it has become apparent that until he gets James Neal back, he won’t be the same player. Whether or not that’s something you want to hear about a player that is about to get paid $9.5 million over the next eight years is a completely different conversation.
It’s easy to try and break down and analyze what happened to the Penguins. The more I thought about it, the more I realized, what is the point? It was nothing the Pens did; they peppered the net with shots, they actually got some traffic around the net, but Giguere just had one of those games. The team should move on, forget about it and get ready for the Islanders. If they continue that game plan, they will still win more than they lose.
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