A bunch of changes for Pittsburgh from last game; Sergei Murashov is in net. Ville Koivunen is hurt, so the team opts to bump Ben Kindel back to the third line, shuffling Connor Dewar up with the first line and Kevin Hayes looks to do a Justin Brazeau impression on the second line.
Kindel makes a great defensive play and starts a rush up the ice the other way. The two former Predators nearly strike when Philip Tomasino sets up Tommy Novak for a great chance but Novak can’t finish.
The Pens get the first goal a few minutes later. There’s all kinds of traffic for Juuse Saros to deal with and Parker Wotherspoon does well to hold a puck and drift far enough so that rookie Matthew Wood is no longer in the shooting lane. The puck from Wotherspoon has eyes, and Saros doesn’t, finding the back of the net. 1-0 Pens.
Pittsburgh stays on the gas, it pays off when Evgeni Malkin gets the second crazy bounce for a goal. Something about Sweden for him. Malkin is behind the net and trying a center pass, it banks off Predator defenseman Nic Hague and jumps into the goal. 2-0 Pens.
The Pens keep pushing and get another, a long shift in the offensive zone leads to Sidney Crosby flinging the puck quickly on net after Justin Barron accidentally touches it over to him. 3-0 game, Nashville only has one shot on goal at this point.
Wisely, the Preds use their timeout in an attempt to break the momentum. It works to stop the onslaught of goals against but doesn’t much wake them up much more.
After a dreadful, boring and awful Friday, this first period was more like it! Maybe the Pens just needed a few more days to shake off the jet lag? Shots go 11-2 PIT, scoreboard is 3-0 and Nashville looks a lot more like the last place team they have been so far.
Fairly quiet start to the second period with neither team recording a shot on goal in the first six minutes. Ryan Graves took the first penalty of the game for tripping former teammate Michael Bunting. Pittsburgh survives the power play after Nashville pokes a puck in under the pad of Sergei Murashov, which didn’t count since the refs had ruled the play dead already. (Sounds familiar…)
The Preds are playing better, Ryan Shea has to slash a player in front of the net to erase a scoring chance. During the power play, Pittsburgh gets popped for too many men on the ice, which gives Nashville 34 seconds of a 5v3 advantage with 7:37 to go in the period. Steven Stamkos does get one hard shot but then Blake Lizotte hounds down the puck to keep much else from going.
Not a great second period with three trips to the penalty box and a diminished offensive effort. You can afford that when up a few goals and the PK goes 3/3 though. Give Nashville credit, they didn’t go away without a fight.
Nashville pushing for a goal but can’t find it past Sergei Murashov. The Preds get their fourth power play of the game with 8:00 to go but they can’t score on it.
Blake Lizotte can score though, especially into an empty net. The Preds lift Juuse Saros and it doesn’t take long before Lizotte hits the open target with 2:48 remaining to extend the score to 4-0.
It was an ugly lineup for the Penguins with all the injuries they have and players in spots they shouldn’t be in (first line Dewar, Hayes with Malkin). The best way to make up for that is 87 and 71 just taking over and scoring themselves, they’re still the best deodorant to cover up those types of unavoidably stinky lineups.Even Crosby’s dad is getting into mustache November, the movement can’t be stopped!It’s always easier to find that extra energy and joy for the game after an early goal, even with that I remain extremely impressed by the skating of Malkin. Given his age and the fact he’s faded away big time in the recent past after the start of seasons (or long layoffs) that kinda became my expectation. Now almost 20 games in there’s still a ton of spring in his step. He’s obviously still 39 years old and not quite galloping around like he was 25 or anything, but it’s fun to watch him still have a lot of gas in the tank.Danton Heinen didn’t get credit with a point on the game’s first goal, which is cruel since he had as big of a hand as anyone in why the puck ended up in the net. Heinen was good with the puck prior to the play going to the point and then he went straight to the net. Between his screen and the defender’s, Saros didn’t have a chance with all the traffic to find the puck (Joona Koppanen and another defender were in the area too). Simple stuff, yet also very beneficial.Blake Lizotte was a fun watch today, as he is most days. All over the ice, grinding away. Lizotte’s work on the 3v5 pretty much single-handedly kept Nashville from getting much going. That was a huge moment in the game considering the Pens have blown a couple of 3-0 leads this season. The game might have unfolded differently if the Preds popped in a goal and took some momentum from it. Very fitting Lizotte put the finishing touch on the win, well-deserved goal considering his excellent play earlier in the game.Ryan Graves uber-majorly pissed off the whole Nashville team in a hilarious fashion. Graves hit Luke Evangelista a little high along the boards, Evangelista’s own stick knocked his lip. From there, hostility was on sight for the Preds against Graves after the whistle and an excessive amount of shouting and yelling. Not sure if he did something else too, it’s rare to see the rancor get so heated, especially for a player like Graves who isn’t exactly Darius Kasparaitis or Matthew Barnaby about there..Of course, the annoyance went both ways, Crosby sent a pointed little cross-check to Evangelista’s back after the second period ended to send a message that the Pens weren’t amused by his antics.A lot of whining on Preds social media (forgot how whiny they are) about some of the elements of this game’s refereeing. Some bad luck that their apparent goal was washed out, but when the puck disappears you can’t count on play going on forever. Power plays were also 4-0 NSH, so how mad can you really be about officiating? There was still every chance to get back in the game courtesy of how these games that get one-sided early tend to get called.Murashov was pretty good in the third period and clearly did everything he had to do by making 21 saves for his first career NHL win (and shutout), he probably barely broke a sweat today too. Moneypuck had Nashville with a total of 0.1 expected goals through 35 minutes, virtually nothing going on. They did manage to build their cumulative to 1.4 by coming to life a little in the third period, but there wasn’t many challenging chances to have stop. Just the same, probably the first of many for the youngster and a great step to watch him take.
Always makes for a happier trip home coming off a win, and the Pens were very good at the start of this game and that was more than enough to coast to the finish line against an opponent like Nashville. The boys get a few days to reacclimate and are back in action on Friday.