Before the Pittsburgh Penguins opened up their sparkling new $321 million dollar bird house for the first time last night to start the 2010/2011 season in front of a standing-room only crowd of nearly 18, 300 gawk-eyed people -- yours truly included -- their players and coaches walked the red carpet into the buliding. Undeniably, a hollywood-like move that presented their organization like hollywood rock stars.
Fittingly, the Penguins played pretty on the ice, trying to look fancy rather than go at their opponent, the arch-rival Philadelphia Flyers, with hard hats and lunch pails.
And in the end, it cost them in a 3-2 season-opening loss.
You would think the Penguins would have been able to capitalize on all the energy that would come from the fans in the first ever regular season game in the new building.
You would think the Penguins could warm up to initiating Philadelphia rookie netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, starting his first National Hockey League game on the road, against a huge rival, in a hostile environment.
You would think there was nothing more fitting than total domination on a night when a moving pre-game ceremony was fittingly capped by showing on the jumbotron (in the dark) some of the greatest franchise highlights from Mellon Arena -- including Stanley Cup wins, huge goals, and other marvelous moments -- together with clips of the Mellon ice melting all while a chemistry flask was being filled with symbolic liquid, then to have owner and legend Mario Lemieux appear at center ice in his skates when the footage was over and the lights came on to dump liquid in a flask on CONSOL's center circle.
But no.
It just wasn't to be last night for Pittsburgh. The Penguins had chances throughout the night, but either passed them up or couldn't finish, and it haunted them in a contest where they skated better, won more faceoffs and probably outplayed the Flyers -- particularly in the first period -- and ended up just one goal behind when the final buzzer sounded.
The Flyers scored the first goal in the history of the CEC when center Daniel Briere redirected a point shot on a Flyers power play past Pens' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury early in the second period.
Then, Philadelphia forward Blair Betts put the screws to the Penguins late in the second when he drove the net on a rush and was the first guy to pick up the loose puck in the crease, finding it before Pens' blueliner Paul Martin and depositing it behind Fleury to make it 2-0.
You'd think the flightless birds might have taken a hint from that style of play.
Tyler Kennedy did get the Pens back into the game early in the third on a bad angle shot from the near corner that beat Bobrovsky, but Philadelphia reclaimed their lead with a killer goal at just before the 5 minute mark of the final frame.
The Penguins were on the power play coming out of their own zone when defenseman Kris Letang tried to drop the puck to Martin. Martin couldn't get to it before Flyers' forward Claude Giroux did, and he chipped the puck behind Martin and had a step on him going in alone on Fleury from the blueline.
Giroux made a nice move and Martin eased up on the play at just the time of Giroux's last deke, and that allowed him to beat #29 for a huge 3-1 lead.
What bothered me most about that play is that the Penguins were making cute drop passes at their own blueline on the power play all night long. There were no strong rushes up the ice, and there was no dump and chase to acquire possession. Instead, it was all east/west or dispy doodle.
Giroux probably watched the Penguins do what Letang did on that play at least a half a dozen times earlier in the game. It's no wonder he was able to read the play and capitalize.
Pittsburgh rebounded quickly with a goal on the same power play before it ended when Alex Goligoski tipped a shot from his fellow point man Zbynek Michalek that went through Bobrovsky's legs to make it 3-2 with plenty of time left.
It was strange to see a blueliner tip one in the slot, but he was skating through there on his way back to the point, after taking the puck deep, moving around and trying to create something.
Anyway, despite a later power play to close the game -- wihch the Penguins relied on to pull Fleury and play 6-on-4 -- the Penguins got no closer.
Bobrovsky finished with 29 stops on 31 shots. Fleury had 24 saves in a losing effort for the Penguins.
One of the biggest problems for Pittsburgh in the game was the power play.
Despite that goal at the end, the Penguins were too fancy on the man-advantage, continuing what they did too much of while skating 5-on-5. They had good puck movement, but TOO MUCH of it. When they had an open shot, they didn't take it. Instead, they tried to find the perfect play. Finishing with only 4 shots on about 9 minutes of man-advantage time isn't going to cut it. Of course, this isn't anything new in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are renown for not shooting enough on their power play.
You know, with Sergei Gonchar gone and Dan Blysma instead of Mike Yeo running the man-advantage, I knew it would be interesting to watch what they did; I just didn't know that it was going to be that ineffective.
At least for one game.
Don't get me wrong. The Penguins did some good things out there. They did have a lot of movement with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Goligoski switching places and passing the puck around a great deal, while one and sometimes two guys stood in front and in the low slot, but it was just too pretty. They need to hammer the puck at the net more and crash for loose rebounds.
I also think they need to find a way to get Letang out there on the man-advantage because of his right-handed shot. I know he still is susceptible to mental breakdowns and I know he doesn't hit the net enough with his shot, but having 3 leftys play the umbrella on the power play is problematic.
And it encourages them to pass the puck around too much.
Crosby and Malkin, by the way, were held off the scoresheet altogether. That only happened twice at home all of last season.
Besides Kennedy, Mark Letestu and Mike Comrie had strong games for the Penguins. Both had several chances but, again, they just couldn't finish. I think both hit posts at some point. In fact, the Penguins clanked the iron 4 times on the night, I believe. There's a bit of bad luck there, but it still comes back to bearing down and finishing.
Eric Tangradi also had a good game for the Pens, as did new rearguard Michalek.
Paul Martin was a bit of a mixed bag out there, in my opinion. I watched him closely last night and it seemed to me that he was standing still more than he should have been, and I wondered if that was just a holdover from playing in New Jersey's trapping system for so long. He also wasn't strong enough defensively on the shorthanded goal, as I mentioned, but he did make a nice pass to Kennedy across the crease for his goal, and made a few other slick, patient offensive plays on the night.
Overall, the Penguins definitely still have to work the kinks out. At times they seemed in slow gear and they weren't nearly as intense as they needed to be against a rival like the Flyers (I mean, did that look like a Penguins/Flyers game to you?). They weren't as crisp and clean as their new building with it's great sightlines and views, huge jumbotron, and wide selection of top notch food -- that's for certain. But hopefully that will work itself out over the next few games.
Next up for the Penguins is another grudge match at home, this time against the Montreal Canadiens, Saturday night (7:00 PM EST).
More soon.
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