After the Penguins lost in overtime in their qualifying round opener against the Canadiens on Saturday, Mike Sullivan focused on the positives in the Penguins' play in the loss.
“There was a lot of the game that we really liked,” he said on Sunday. “And after we watched the game film, it just provided that much more affirmation. I felt our energy was really good. I thought we were playing on our toes."
Still, going down 1-0 in a best-of-five series to a team with a .500 regular-season record is a little concerning, and the immediate reaction from a segment of the fanbase on social media was to demand drastic changes to the lineup for Game 2. Reconfigure the top two lines. Sit half of the bottom six. Start Tristan Jarry. Put the third defense pairing on a rocket to the moon.
None of that happened. The Penguins rolled out the same four lines, same three pairings, and started Matt Murray again in Monday night's Game 2 against the Canadiens. Sticking with the same lineup worked, and the Penguins came out with a 3-1 win to even the series, 1-1.
"We believe in the group that we have," Sullivan said of the lineup after the win. "We felt as though Game 1, there was a whole lot to like about the game that we played. ... I just didn't feel that it was necessary to make changes at that particular point."
The Penguins again started the game strong, one of the aspects of Game 1 that Sullivan had pointed to as a positive. The Penguins outshot the Canadiens 14-7 in the first 20 minutes on Monday, and Sidney Crosby again scored the first goal for the Penguins, going five-hole on Carey Price:
The goal was Crosby's 16th career postseason game-opening goal, the most of any active player. He's two game-opening goals away from tying Mario Lemieux for the franchise lead, and three away from tying Wayne Gretzky for the all-time lead.
Crosby is also now the franchise leader for goals scored in the month of August, with two.
The Penguins outshot the Canadiens by a 15-6 margin in the scoreless second period, and then Jason Zucker extended the lead to 2-0 with 5:19 remaining in the game off of a great feed from Conor Sheary:
Three minutes later Jesperi Kotkaniemi cut the Penguins' lead back to one goal:
After the Penguins iced the puck twice in the final minute going for the empty net goal, the Penguins sent Teddy Blueger out to take a draw with 19 seconds remaining. He won the draw, and Jake Guentzel sealed the win seconds later with the empty net goal, his first goal since Dec. 30.
“I think (the Penguins) sent a message tonight,” Canadiens center Phillip Danault said after the game. “They were playing more tight. They had the puck a lot, too. Our (penalties) didn’t help. They had momentum and a great chance to have good execution out there."
Other observations from Game 2:
• Through the first two games, John Marino has been the Penguins' best defenseman. He's been strong on both sides of the puck (remember his set up on Bryan Rust's goal in Game 1?), just effective all-around. He had the second-most shots of any Penguin in Game 2 with six, trailing only Evgeni Malkin's seven. Not bad for a "marginal prospect."
• Speaking of Malkin, he may not have a point on the scoresheet yet but he's led in shots on goal in both games now after recording eight in Game 1. Five of his seven came in the first period tonight. Feels like he's due.
• The power play continues to struggle, and went 0-for-5 in this one. Patric Hornqvist was back on the top unit in front of the net, replacing Jason Zucker. It was the only sort of personnel change from Game 1 to Game 2.
Sullivan said that he thought the power play was improved and "had some real good looks," but could get better at breakouts and cleaner zone entries.
• The Canadiens' Brendan Gallagher left the game for a few minutes to go down to the locker room after taking a pass off of the foot. He seemed to be fine after that.
• Matt Murray was locked in tonight and made a number of key saves, including this one to open the third period:
"There was a great save in the first 30 seconds of the third period," Zucker said of Murray. "That's a huge momentum-booster for us. Every save that he needed to make tonight, he did a great job. I thought he battled hard, made some great plays."
"I thought he was real solid again tonight," Sullivan said of Murray's game. "Matt made some big saves. For me, that's what Matt does this time of year. He makes some big saves at key times that help us win games."
By "this time of year," I'm sure he means the playoffs, and not your typical August hockey games.
• And while we're on the subject of August hockey, the Penguins' win ensures that there will be a Game 4, which is scheduled for Aug. 7, Crosby's 33rd birthday.
“Without looking too far ahead, it’s a unique thing," he said on Monday. "I don’t think I’ve ever envisioned that.”
With the way he is about the number 87, he probably won't settle for anything other than eight goals and seven assists. We'll see.
• The Penguins were the designated home team again, which in this case really just matters for getting the last line change in stoppages, and the center getting to put his stick down last in the faceoff circle. It also meant that the broadcast began with Jeff Jimerson's rendition of the national anthem that the Penguins sent over in a recording.
The Canadian anthem before Game 1 was Michael Buble's English-only version, which apparently didn't sit well with the Canadiens. Renaud Lavoie reported that the Canadiens asked that the Penguins play a bilingual version of the anthem, switching to French in the appropriate parts. The Penguins provided a video of Canadian country singer (and known Oilers fan) Brett Kissel singing a bilingual version of the anthem from his appearance at a Penguins game this season. And because the recording was from a Penguins game, Kissel was wearing a Crosby jersey in the video. He got some flack for it on Twitter during the game and issued an apology to Oilers and Canadiens fans:
IMPORTANT STATEMENT — Re: My anthem tonight - for @penguins vs. @CanadiensMTL
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I hope Montreal & Edmonton can understand...
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.@NHL @EdmontonOilers @WarnerCanada 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/xdZKZr2EyE— B R E T T K I S S E L (@BrettKissel) August 4, 2020
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
THE INJURIES
• Nick Bjugstad is out for the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a herniated disc in late May.
• Dominik Simon is sidelined until November after undergoing shoulder surgery on April 29.
• Zach Trotman is being held out this summer with what sounds like a lingering injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel — Sidney Crosby — Conor Sheary
Jason Zucker — Evgeni Malkin — Bryan Rust
Patrick Marleau — Jared McCann — Patric Hornqvist
Zach Aston-Reese — Teddy Blueger — Brandon Tanev
Brian Dumoulin — Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson — John Marino
Jack Johnson — Justin Schultz
And for Claude Julien‘s Canadiens:
Tomas Tatar — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin — Nick Suzuki — Joel Armia
Paul Byron — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Artturi Lehkonen
Dale Weise — Max Domi — Jordan Weal
Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber
Brett Kulak — Jeff Petry
Xavier Ouellet — Victor Mete
THE SCHEDULE
Game 3 is on Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. The full qualifying round schedule can be found here.
THE CONTENT
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