Bryan Rust sat prone in the left corner. It appeared he was the victim of a horse collar and dragged down from behind as he chased a loose puck. <\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> lost 6-1 to the New York Rangers<\/a> Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, and with a lopsided score, there are very few moments to circle that could have made a difference. <\/p>\n Ben Kindel<\/a> scored his first NHL goal at 3:04 of the second period for the lone Penguins tally.<\/p>\n However, the Rangers tackling Rust without a call was probably the one moment, if any, that can be debated as a game-changer. The non-call on Rust itself was not the fulcrum of change, but the fallout was. <\/p>\n Was Rust fouled?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just not going to answer that,\u201d Rust said politely to avoid a letter from the league office requesting a tidy check for the transgression of criticizing officials. <\/p>\n Rust didn\u2019t miss the chance to let his feelings be known on the ice. <\/p>\n Sprawled on the ice with his legs extended, the heartbeat of the team sat up and vociferously let the nearby referee, Furman South, know the extent of his unhappiness. At the conclusion of the shift, Rust slammed his stick off the boards, and as it echoed through the arena, he hurled more unfriendly nomenclature towards the orange armbanded striped shirts. <\/p>\n His outburst worked, sort of, and that was when the game changed. <\/p>\n The referees immediately agreed with Rust that they should call the game differently and began calling the game tightly \u2026 beginning with the Penguins. <\/p>\n Trailing 2-1, the Penguins received three minor penalties in the next nine minutes. A 2-1 deficit quickly became a 4-1 Rangers lead and the end of the Penguins\u2019 competitiveness. <\/p>\n First, the rookie Kindel was called for, what was at best, a soft hooking minor. Replays confirmed the questionable nature of the call as it appeared more of an average stick check. <\/p>\n Parker Wotherspoon<\/a> was whistled for tripping less than four minutes later, and then rookie Harrison Brunicke<\/a> got a penalty for skating into a scrum in which a fallen teammate was being roughed up. Brunicke exchanged shoves and was grabbed from the Rangers bench, and received the only penalty, a roughing call. <\/p>\n The calls on the rookies were \u2026 interesting. <\/p>\n The game spiraled after the Rangers scored a pair of power-play goals, and the Penguins pressed. The Penguins\u2019 game quickly got away from the winning hockey they played in the first two games. <\/p>\n \u201cI think it was our second (power play goal against), one that was off the faceoff. To go back and look, you want to get in shot lanes, but they got through,\u201d coach Dan Muse<\/a> said. \u201cWe had the other one there\u2013the play to the backside. Yeah, we\u2019re in the area, but you know, just being close isn\u2019t close enough. We have to make sure that we\u2019re eliminating sticks. Obviously, special teams made a big difference in the game. There\u2019ll be some stuff for us to look at there.\u201d<\/p>\n Penguins Analysis<\/p>\n The first period was a good exposition of how the Penguins want to play and Muse\u2019s system. <\/p>\n Defensemen were deep in the offensive zone on every shift for the first 10 minutes. The Penguins dominated as they had four sticks in the fight at all times. <\/p>\n However, the Rangers countered by \u2026 not countering. The Penguins were sloppy, and the Rangers only needed to wait for mistakes to capitalize on, such as Sidney Crosby\u2019s backhand pass into the slot and Erik Karlsson\u2019s<\/a> passive defense on the resulting two-on-one. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to stay to our game consistently, Rust said. \u201cI think when we get down a goal or two, we can\u2019t unravel and try and go for home run plays. I think we just have to stick to the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n The Penguins just never really got into their game after the first 10 minutes. Chances became missed shots. Passes were just out of reach, in their skates, or to the wrong team. <\/p>\n Unraveled was the right term.<\/p>\n Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs<\/a> allowed a couple of long shots by Adam Fox to zip past, and that was the end of the 82-0 dream. <\/p>\n Penguins Report Card<\/p>\n Team: D<\/p>\n There just wasn\u2019t a lot to like. In the first period, the Penguins dominated play for a good stretch and led the shot counter 9-4. It looked like they were on their way, but as happens so often when a team hits the turbo boost too soon and the other team weathers the onslaught, things change in a hurry. <\/p>\n \u201cI liked our first period. You know, we gave up the shorthanded goal \u2026 but those things happen. And so if you look at the overall period, I thought we were doing a lot of good things,\u201d Muse said. \u201cEven at the start of the second, I thought there was there was more good than there was bad. And then I think we just got away from our game a little bit. And so for me, the biggest lesson is that it doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re up, if we\u2019re down, if it\u2019s even. I think it\u2019s just that consistency that we want to have in our game. And so that\u2019s the biggest lesson I would be taking away right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Sidney Crosby: Fighting His Game<\/p>\n No, we\u2019re not going to give Crosby a grade. He\u2019s earned a few hundred mulligans, but even he would probably admit that his game is out of sorts. He had a couple of offensive zone turnovers via forced backhand passes to the slot Saturday. Crosby was an uncharacteristic minus-3. <\/p>\n As memory serves, he started the same way last season before charging through the rest of the season. <\/p>\n Arturs Silovs: C-<\/p>\n The book on Silovs has thus far been prescient. Great saves. Sketchy rebound control. Beaten by long shots from the top of the zone. All three were in full view Saturday. He made some dandy saves, including a little kick save on Alex Lafreniere\u2019s quick rebound shot in the first period. <\/p>\n Fox beat him on a pair of shots from more than 40 feet away, and each a goalie should have had. Of course, there was also Matt Rempe\u2019s goal, in which the giant 240-pound winger was easily felled by Ryan Shea\u2019s breath, landing on Silovs and getting credit for the goal as the puck squibbed across the line. <\/p>\n Yes, the Penguins and Silovs rolled their eyes at how easily Rempe went down in the crease, but there was enough contact by Shea that the refs would not have overruled it.<\/p>\n Ben Kindel: A<\/p>\n He\u2019s good enough. He\u2019s smart enough. And doggone it, people like him. In a 6-1 blowout, Kindel was a plus-1 in nearly 15 minutes of ice time. Let that sink in. <\/p>\n His first NHL goal was everything that he brings to the table: Hustle, backcheck, zone awareness, speed (who knew?!), and a good wrister. <\/p>\n Nine-game tryout? Nope. You can go ahead and order your Kindel jerseys. Wes Clark and Kyle Dubas outsmarted everyone at the draft. <\/p>\n Connor Dewar: A<\/p>\n Dewar was on his toes. He got behind the defense in the first period and hit the far post. He poked another through Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, but the puck went wide. He was quite good Saturday. <\/p>\n Erik Karlsson: D<\/p>\n Karlsson was engaged early, but then his laissez-faire defense on the shorthanded two-on-one unraveled his game. Karlsson was minus-3 with three giveaways. <\/p>\n Bryan Rust: A<\/p>\n Rust got after it in his usual style. To conclude the shift in which he was tackled, he retrieved a loose puck, cut along the goal line and almost stuffed it behind Shesterkin. <\/p>\n The move was vintage Rust, and he didn\u2019t lack for hustle or opportunity. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Penguins Analysis<\/a> Penguins report card<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n