Despres leads Pens to OT win over Devils in uninspiring game
The Pittsburgh Penguins have won a divisional game! Even more surprising that it is against the New Jersey Devils who are probably the best team that seems to perform against the Penguins, evident that before this game they had won 5 games in a row and 14-3-0 against them since the 2008-09 season.
With Christian Ehrhoff and Olli Maatta out Simon Despres has seen his ice-time increase alongside his responsibilities with him enjoying a lot of ice-time in an all Quebecois line with Kris Letang on the top line, where a lot of people feel he has the potential to be.
The Penguins dominated the Devils for the whole game out-shooting them 43-14. The Devils had a lot of thanks to give to Schneider who saved them with a .953% SV game. One of the effective things that the Devils do is clog the zone and try and make it hard to get shots off. The Penguins exploited this with quick plays and a lot of shots from nearer the blue line. Although, annoyingly no-one was willingly to crash the net other than Patric Hornqvist.
Despite the Penguins dominance the Devils took the lead with a wraparound goal from Steve Bernier 6 minutes into the third period. Fleury really should have done better on the goal but stacking the pads on shots like that is something Fleury has struggled with before as he seems to either lose the puck or get dummied and left out to dry with a simple pass for someone to finish into a wide open net.
The Penguins rallied and managed to score on a power-play after they went to the net. It is a miracle what happens when you actually try and play hockey. Crosby made a shot from the face-off area which was pushed out by Schneider straight to Kunitz who couldn't miss. The OT goal was a satisfying one as Despres is such a likeable player and has had a great season which excellent to see after Bylsma's poor management of him.
One glaring thing that came about from this game was Johnston's decision to drop Bennett as a healthy scratch after "poor performances". Now, I know that Bennett has struggled lately but he is a young player and they will all go through slumps as they're still learning and there is no justice or consistency in sitting him but not sitting Ebbett, Adams or Sill. Players who seem to be unable to do another offensively. Hopefully it is just the one game but if it is more than that then I'd be concerned that there are some tendencies in Johnston that were in Bylsma and led to his firing.
0 comments:
Post a Comment