Usually, when you're down to your fourth goalie, it's not a good state of affairs.
And so it was for the Pittsburgh Penguins last night as they finished their 5-game road trip with an ugly 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at GM place.
At least they did it with unusual flair.
In a curious turn of events, the Penguins ended up turning to a guy in goal who they just signed to a one-game amateur tryout contract earlier in the day --- 2008 5th round draft pick Alexander Pechurski.
Pechurski, who came to North America from Russia only 4 weeks ago to play for the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League and doesn't speak a single word of English, entered the game with less than 4 minutes gone in the second period after Pens' starter John Curry was pulled after abysmally allowing 5 goals on 14 Vancouver shots over a span of about 8 minutes.
At that stage, I loved Bylsma's move to put the kid in there. Really. I mean, why not? What did he have to lose? The Penguins weren't going to come back and win the game, and why not see the kid in action?
Truthfully, having the chance to actually see Pechurski play kept me interested in the rest of the game.
Throwing him to the dogs with another goalie's leg pads (he wore Marc-Andre Fleury's because the pads he uses in the WHL are compliant with different rules than those in the NHL) and against the NHL's leading scorer, Henrik Sedin, and one of the best netminders in the leauge in Roberto Luongo, well ... those things were just a bonus.
The good part was the Pechurski -- from Evgeni Malkin's hometown of Magnitogorsk -- acquitted himself quite well the remainder of the game, showing some of the form that he used to fashion a 4-1-1, 1.84 GAA and .936 sv.% while with Tri-City. He stopped 12 of 13 shots in the contest and was awarded the game's #3 star, which was fairly telling considering the type of offense the home team flashed against Pittsburgh last night.
Curry, on the other hand, was being counted on by the Penguins to provide them solid emergeny work since Fleury was out with a broken ring finer on the glove end (erroneously reported by me yesterday to be on the blocker hand) and backup Brent Johnson is still recovering from a groin problem. Unfortunately, Curry was just battling the puck -- and, admittedly, some strange bounces -- for his 25 minutes of work.
It simply wasn't Curry's night.
While Malkin actually staked the Pens' to a 1-0 lead with his first goal in 11 games a little more than 7 minutes in -- finishing a nice play he began by causing a turnover and then getting fortunate as he couldn't handle an expected Ruslan Fedotenko pass but still had it riccochet off him and past Luongo -- things went quickly downhill after that.
7 minutes later, the Canucks' Henrik Sedin began padding his NHL-leading point total by flipping the puck from behind the goal line towards Curry and having it hit Curry's arm and sneak in.
After Alexander Burrows beat Curry shorthanded on a breakaway later in the period after a turnover at the blueline by Pittsburgh defenseman Sergei Gonchar, the onslaught began early in the 2nd frame.
Vancouver forward Mikael Samuelsson watched a meek shot from the point bounce first before he deflected it up and off the knob of Curry's stick and in at the 1+ minute mark, then Canucks' RW Jannik Hansen easily re-directed one by Curry on a 2-on-1 after getting behind the Pens' defense less than 2 minutes later, and then 45 seconds after that, Curry let defenseman Willie Mitchell steam towards the net and toss the puck through his legs for a 5-1 Canuck edge before Curry knew what happened.
Enter the guy on the single day per-diem.
Matt Cooke and Ryan Kessler traded goals after that, but all that did was finalize the score and let Pechurski say he allowed an NHL goal -- not do anything to change the outcome.
Several Penguins other than Curry were visible in a bad way last night. Gonchar and his ghastly turnover were -4 in the game.
Sidney Crosby also was noticably absent from having a meaningful impact in the game. He finished -3.
As a whole, it looked like the team just wanted to get home. Especially after the way the first 25 minutes went last night.
Fortunately, the Penguins didn't lose any ground to the New Jersey Devils in the Atlantic Division, as New Jersey lost in Colorado last night.
Still, the Penguins might have bigger headaches going forward.
While Fleury's injury doesn't appear to be serious, he might have to miss another game or two, and Johnson also may not be ready to return to the lineup yet either. He's reportedly close,b ut only got his first work in nearly a week during the morning skate yesterday after suffering a groin problem at the conclusion of practice Monday. The status of those two position players is particularly meaningful given that Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are coming to town this Thursday. If they aren't ready, Curry will probably continue to play, as the Penguins had no intention of doing anything other than leave Pechurski out west back in Tri-City after his surprise action last night.
Time will tell how all this shakes out, of course.
However it does, hopefully the Pens can get back on the winning track quickly against the New York Islanders at home on Tuesday.
More tomorrow, when I plan to address Evgeni Malkin's recent struggles.
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