Monday, 19 December 2016

NHL - Penguins - Round Up December 08-12, 2016

Pens @ Florida Panthers 5-1 - Thursday, December 08, 2016

The Pittsburgh Penguins used a rare quick start Thursday to defeat the Florida Panthers. Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and the Penguins scored three goals in the first eight minutes on their way to a 5-1 victory at BB&T Center. Pittsburgh matched its season high with its fourth consecutive victory.
It was the first time in eight games the Penguins led after the first period. Conor Sheary had a goal and an assist, and Tom Kuhnhackl, Matt Cullen and Carl Hagelin scored for the Penguins (17-7-3). Justin Schultz and Scott Wilson each had two assists, and goalie Matt Murray, making his first start in four games, made 28 saves. Jaromir Jagr scored for the Panthers (12-12-4), who were playing their first game at BB&T Center since Tom Rowe replaced Gerard Gallant as coach. Roberto Luongo made 25 saves. The Panthers have lost five of six games (1-2-3) since Rowe took over. The goal was the 1,882th point of Jagr's NHL career, putting him five behind Mark Messier for second place on the League's all-time list. Crosby's goal was his 18th of the season, tying him for first in the NHL with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins. He opened the scoring at 3:06 when he skated from the bottom of the right circle to the high slot and beat Luongo with a wrist shot with Patric Hornqvist providing a screen. Sheary made it 2-0 on a pass from Crosby at 4:51, and Kuhnhackl scored his second of the season to put the Penguins up 3-0 at 7:34. Cullen scored his seventh goal at 5:48 of the third period to make it 4-1, and Hagelin scored into an empty net with 33 seconds remaining to make it 5-1 after Murray shot the puck into the Panthers zone.

Pens Quotes
"We thought our start was going to be important with some of the adversity this team is facing. We knew they were going to come out with a lot of urgency. Our start was really important."
"I thought we did a pretty good job. When you get up three goals that early in the game, as a coach sometimes it's a little concerning. Teams have a tendency to exhale and when you do that you can lose momentum fast. I was very pleased at our guys staying with and playing the game the right way." Mike Sullivan.

"It was nice to start with the lead. It was kind of weird the way things worked out. We didn't have many shots, but we had a few goals right off the bat. They had their chances too in the first. We gave up a few odd-man rushes and had to kind of settle in, but once we did, I thought we did a pretty good job of just playing the right way."
"We knew that they were going to be motivated. They've played a lot of close games lately, a lot of overtime games. When you get a new coach, everybody is trying to prove themselves. I think we expected a pretty tough game. It was just nice to get that kind of start." Sidney Crosby Said.


Pens @ Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 - Saturday, December 10, 2016

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored twice to help the Pittsburgh Penguins rally for a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Pittsburgh (18-7-3), which trailed 3-1 in the second period, won its fifth game in a row. Malkin gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead at 8:36 of the third period. His wrist shot went past Vasilevskiy 11 seconds into a power play, with Phil Kessel getting his third assist. Jonathan Drouin scored twice for the Lightning (14-13-2), who are 1-6-1 in their past eight games. Valtteri Filppula scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves. Malkin's first goal at 17:25 of the second period cut the Lightning lead to 3-2. The goal was the result of a passing display capped by Kessel's feed to Malkin at the hash mark, where he shot a one-timer past Vasilevskiy. Crosby tied the game 3-3 with his NHL-leading 20th goal of the season at 5:08 of the third period. Kessel made the pass, and Crosby scored on a one-timer from between the circles. Filppula gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 3:38 of the second period when he beat Matt Murray with a wrist shot to the near post on a 2-on-1. Drouin made it 3-1 at 10:19 of the second on a partial breakaway. Crosby made it 1-0 at 12:03 of the first period, and Drouin tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal at 17:57. Crosby left the game briefly in the first period when he was checked by Lightning defenseman Luke Witkowski and his head hit the boards where they meet the glass. Crosby said he had to go through the concussion protocol at the end of the first period.

"It was a bit of a [mess] in front of the net," Murray said. "I don't know. I'm pretty lucky to be honest. I think he panicked a little bit because he had the whole short side of the net."
"We definitely executed really well, especially late in the second with a quick one to get it close. We had some really good looks."
"It was just kind of a stinger. My neck got jammed and that's basically it." Crosby said.
"What's so impressive about [Crosby] is how he plays. He creates offense so many ways. He's every bit as good a passer as he is a scorer. His compete level and his willingness to go into battle areas ... it's impressive. He's been one inspiring guy for our group." Mike Sullivan
"We have a lot of confidence. We know we can score two, three goals at a time. We play our hockey and we can go down 3-1 and come back and win the game." Malkin said.


Phoenix Coyotes @ Pens 0-7 - Monday, December 12, 2016

It's difficult to imagine the Pittsburgh Penguins elevating their recent play further, but they might have last week. Matt Murray made 32 saves and seven players scored in the Penguins' 7-0 win against the Coyotes at PPG Paints Arena. Sidney Crosby, Nick Bonino, Trevor Daley and Bryan Rust each scored in the second period after Scott Wilson gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead in the first. Phil Kessel and Justin Schultz scored in the third period. The Penguins (19-7-3) have scored 35 goals during their six-game winning streak. Murray earned his fourth consecutive win and is 11-2-0 this season. He is 20-4-1 with three shutouts in the regular season since entering the NHL last season. The Coyotes (9-14-5) have lost seven of their past eight games (1-4-3). Mike Smith allowed four goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Louis Domingue, who made nine saves. Wilson gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 8:40 into the first. He sent a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past a moving screen by Tom Kuhnhackl and Smith's glove. After the Penguins failed to capitalize on a power play early in the second period, Bonino scored 33 seconds after it expired to make it 2-0 at 4:30.
Daley gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead at 6:58 and Bryan Rust pushed it to 4-0 at 8:30 before Smith was pulled. Crosby, who leads the NHL with 21 goals in 23 games, made it 5-0 on a power play with 4:47 remaining in the second.
Kessel extended it to 6-0 at 1:20 of the third period and Schultz scored with 7:34 remaining. After taking a stick to the face from Martin Hanzal, Crosby temporarily left the game with three seconds remaining in the first period. He returned shortly after the second period began.
The Coyotes, unable to compete with the Pens on a skill level, decided to goon it up right from the first puck drop. Top line Center Martinook, who lets be honest here, is a hockey nobody and will not be remembered when his 'playing' days are over, decided to cheap shot Sidney Crosby, but the Pens captain was having none of it and wasn't afraid to square up to him. Then later in the opening period, Dauphin or is it Dolphin? decided to clean out Kris Letang with a knee-on-knee hit but ended up coming off worse going head first into the boards.
I know it can't be easy playing against talented hockey players, when your a team of talentless dirty dogs, but these sort of actions should be removed from the game before someone gets hurt.
As for the Coyotes, what is the point to their existence any more? I mean seriously! what point do they serve other than cannon fodder for the other teams and a laughing stock of a franchise. Located in a non-hockey market and in the middle of a never-ending re-build, surely its time for the league to take a look at moving the team and starting again.

* Crosby scored the Penguins' fifth goal after a slap shot from Evgeni Malkin deflected off Domingue's blocker and the right post. Crosby took a baseball-like swing at the airborne puck to send a shot past Domingue, extending his goal streak to four games and his point streak to eight.
* A turnover helped set up Pittsburgh's second goal. Oliver Ekman-Larsson received a pass from Hanzal and attempted a return feed that slipped between Hanzal's legs to Bonino, who took a wrist shot for his fourth goal of the season.

"They played a hard game. I know they have a lot of youth in that group, so they played hard. I think we just showed that the way we play, we can dominate anybody if we're playing our best. So, they played us real hard.
"It was a pretty tight game, I thought, throughout the first half of the game. Then after that, we just opened it up." Murray said.
"We try to play the right way and eventually, we kind of got some turnovers there in the second. Once we got a lead there, we were able to kind of play our game." Sidney Crosby

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