The game could be summed up a lot by the Blues first goal. Zatkoff, for some reason, decided to come out his net to attempt to poke check the puck away from Brouwer. There wasn't really a need to as there was no clean shooting opportunity and the defencemen were advancing so would have covered it. Zatkoff miss the puck completely and was left cold and dry as he gave the Blues an open net.
Pittsburgh lead the game briefly in the second period after a late 1st period Kunitz goal and Malkin tally early with 5 minutes remaining in the second. Hagelin earned his first point as a Penguins after springing Malkin free for him to bury it over the goalies far side. The Blues tied it up late in the second just 1 minute and 28 seconds after Malkin's goal.
At this point the Penguins were leading in shots, 31 to 17. Despite having nearly double the Blues shots they were still only able to stay level. With that number of shots you should be winning the game. The Blues didn't have a single period with more than 9 shots. The final period was the only one were they had more than the Penguins, 8 to 7.
The Blues took the most of their chance scoring three times in the final period as the Penguins came up short. It has been a problem that has been running since before Sullivan took over. But it doesn't help when you have a goaltender as inept as Zatkoff is. I really don't believe he is good enough to be an NHL back-up, I'll have more on that in the future in a separate post.
Up next for the Penguins after that disappointing performance? The Flyers. Oh boy.
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