Penguins/Golden Knights Recap: Pens fold in Las Vegas

Not a good night for the Penguins against the Golden Knights

Pregame

It’s an all hands on deck situation for the Penguins after all the trades today. Emil Bemstrom on the second line (with no news of a transaction to the AHL today)? Sure! Boko Imama is back in, Kevin Hayes is on the second line, Tommy Novak makes his Pittsburgh debut.

First period

Evgeni Malkin takes a penalty in the first minute, Pittsburgh’s PK holds.

Ryan Shea is the next to the penalty box but the Pens put up another kill.

After a few Ilya Samsonov saves, Vegas recovers and scores. Mark Stone makes a really nice pass to Tanner Pearson who finds himself unmarked from a prime area. Pearson converts and it’s a 1-0 lead for the home team.

Kris Letang becomes the third Penguin to take a minor penalty in the period, the well-practiced PK group keeps Vegas off the board until the horn sounds for intermission.

Shots are 9-6 PIT, who didn’t play poorly and forced Samsonov to make a few scrambling stops. He did and the difference was the breakdown in front of Pittsburgh’s net.

Second period

The Pens kill off the 10 seconds of carryover PK time but about five minutes in they give up a goal. Ivan Barbashev has all the room in the world to walk in after a cross-ice pass and picks a corner on Nedeljkovic. 2-0.

The rest of the period cycles through without any further goals or penalties. Shots in the second are nine a piece.

Third period

Bryan Rust left the game briefly in the second after blocking a shot but is back for the third.

Brandon Saad scores early in the period, Graves closes in on Tomas Hertl but can’t stop the bump pass over. Absurd shot to the top corner from Saad. 3-0.

Less than a minute later, the Golden Knights add another. Again it stems from a cross-ice pass and Mark Stone loses Kolyachonok completely going to the net. A forehand deke later and it looks easy. 4-0.

It’s not for a lack of trying by Vegas but there’s no further goals. Penguins get shutout in this one.

Some thoughts

• Pens players on the ice for the first goal against: Tomasino, Heinen, Novak, Kolyachonok and Graves. Not exactly a lot of regulars or long-tenured players, which is what is going to happen now down the stretch. It looked like Graves was out to lunch (shocker) away from the net and Kolyachonok moved over to body up the net-front player. That left the weak side player in Pearson wide open. Whoops.
• A very bizarre first period with three Pittsburgh penalties helped to create a situation where Sidney Crosby only took one single faceoff in the first 20 minutes (the opening draw of the game). You won’t see a one faceoff period for Crosby very often, if ever. Does that really mean anything? No. Is it interesting on a late night? A little.
• Due to wheeling and dealing, the Pens didn’t end up assigning Bemstrom to the Wilkes-Barre yesterday to recall after being on the AHL roster at 3pm and let him be in the NHL. Similarly, the team used an “emergency” recall on Jack St. Ivany today after the deadline, even though they had six defensemen and didn’t need him for tonight’s game. Teams only get four normal recalls from now until the end of the season but unless someone was quietly questionable today with an injury or illness it was a questionable designation. If they would have needed St. Ivany to play it would have been an emergency, so that’s all well and good but just a stray observation on the strange roster movement that did and didn’t happen.
• And it’s worse because Bemstrom is such a zilch at the NHL level. Just a guy in a uniform making no impact. Might as well have him in the AHL where he’s a difference maker but only Dubas and Spezza can answer to that.
• Malkin became only the second Penguin to get to 1,200 games played with the team tonight. 1,200 games is 14.6 full seasons and he’s in his 19th year with the team to show what kind of time has been missed due to injury, lockout, pandemic, etc over the years. Malkin is the 134th player in NHL history to make it to 1,200 and with some luck he might even find a way to crack an NHL top 100 list of some sorts if he makes it to 1,258! With good attendance this season and next, Malkin could make a run at his mentor Sergei Gonchar’s mark of 1,301 games in 74th place which would be a fitting place to end up.
• Forget the goals, Nedeljkovic was rickety with decisions to play the puck, causing a few turnovers and close calls against on self-inflicted mistakes. It’s looking like he could use a game off, but will the Pens turn back to Tristan Jarry to play? They’re going to have to at some point.
• Not that much to report on new player Novak. Didn’t get into the flow of the game early due to all the Pittsburgh PKs, had five shot attempts (two on net), lost all 3/5 faceoffs he took, one blocked shot, a giveaway and a takeaway in 14:01 of work. Novak only had one morning skate today with the team so no conclusions can be drawn but as far as first impressions go, it was a forgettable one. Had one good look on a rush in the third period and snapped the puck wide of the net.
• Pens and Knights rematch on Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the visitors will be jetlagged, wouldn’t count on it though.

The next game is Sunday afternoon, the final leg of the road trip. It’ll be a special one too since it’s the last time the Pens will be facing Marc-Andre Fleury.