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Penguins Game 7 Thoughts: Malkin & Letang Finale? Crosby, Sullivan to Rescue?

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2 years ago

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NEW YORK — Like the great westerns, Sidney Crosby might ride to the rescue just in time to save the Pittsburgh Penguins. Game 7s are unpredictable, but the cavalry might be coming with Crosby and No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry.

Just in the nick of time.

The thought didn’t register until close to the puck drop for Game 6 of the Round One series with the Penguins and New York Rangers. It struck me as I did my customary handshakes with several PPG Paints Arena ushers, some of whom are close to 90-years-old. Was Game 6 the final Penguins home game for Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang? Is Game 7 their final Penguins game?

After years of stability, the Penguins have new ownership. New management.

It’s a sobering thought. The Penguins were most likely headed for victory in Game 5 until their fellow core member was taken out by something just short of a flying elbow from Jacob Trouba. The league didn’t see a problem with it or Malkin’s teeth-bruising cross-check later in the third period.

Despite a barrage of colorful language from Rangers fans who generously contributed to PHN’s ballooning profits and Dave Molinari’s new position, their assault on the English language, heavy with misogyny, left my opinion unchanged. Trouba should have received a multi-game suspension, and it is just the latest joke from the NHL DoPS, which has enough comedy gold for an hour-long Netflix special.

However, Sidney Crosby sent electricity through the UPMC Lemieux Complex on Saturday when he showed up at practice–as a full participant. He could play in Game 7.

It’s been 16 years since Evgeni Malkin looked at future captain Sidney Crosby, who was waiting to follow the Russian rookie to the ice for warmups and demanded to go on the ice last, “three years, Super League.”

Malkin asserted himself as the senior hockey sibling, despite Crosby’s eye-popping rookie season the year before, and the boys have held the order for 16 years.

Letang was the steal of the 2005 NHL Draft held at a hotel in Ottawa because of the preceding year-long lockout and a new CBA signed too recently to allow the league to prepare an arena for the draft. The young Letang had boy-band frosted tips and spent another year in the QMJHL before filtering to the Penguins organization.

It’s been a wild ride for all involved. Remember Letang’s early playoff struggles. Crosby’s concussion saga of 2011-12 included the best hockey of Evgeni Malkin’s life. It ended when a specialist figured out that Crosby didn’t have a concussion but a soft-tissue neck injury only after Crosby missed a year of his hockey life.

There were the parties on the South Side. The boys, including Jordan Staal and Max Talbot, held court in Mario’s on the South Side.

And there were Stanley Cups.

Those kids are gone, replaced with men in their mid-30s. A few gray hairs on the beard. Contracts measuring in the tens of millions. They have families and homes of their own instead of living in spare rooms of veteran players like Sergei Gonchar and Mario Lemieux.

“Passion,” their first head coach, Michel Therrien, told PHN in 2019. “I remember, they were teenagers almost. I had to keep them out of the rink because they’d spend their days at the rink. This was all they knew.”

With some irony, the crew might have played their final game as Pittsburgh Penguins because an opponent took away Crosby, though it looks like the Penguins will have a fighting chance in Game 7. Crosby could return, and the trio will get one more crack at it.

Evgeni Malkin turned in a vintage performance in Game 6. The team sure could use another.

But Game 6 could have been the final ride in Pittsburgh.

Penguins Penalty Kill & Power Play Coaches

How much offseason heat will be applied to assistant coaches Mike Vellucci and Todd Rierden?

Vellucci was seen as Jim Rutherford’s guy when he was hired as the WBS Penguins coach. This season, the PK was ranked first or second in the NHL for much of the season, but there were dips and hiccups, especially late in the season.

The PK has been unacceptable in this series. It’s assumed the Rangers will score.

The PK also stumbled greatly after the NHL trade deadline. GM Ron Hextall dealt light scoring forward Zach Aston-Reese to Anaheim in the Rickard Rakell deal. Bryan Rust joined the PK. It shouldn’t have created that much of a disparity.

The Penguins had only a few shorthanded goals this season. And Tristan Jarry was a big reason the PK was stellar.

The Penguins’ power play never got on track this season. It languished in the mid-teens, at best, before falling back near 20th at the end of the regular season.

It seems too easy to dump that on Kris Letang. Or Evgeni Malkin. Those guys were part of the great Penguins power plays, too. For some reason, it didn’t work this season.

The Penguins’ special teams have let the team down and been a deciding factor in every loss. If they stink on both sides in Game 7, that’s probably going to be how the story, and maybe the final chapter of this team, is written.

Pittsburgh Penguins Game 7s

I’ve covered the Game 7s since 2016. The 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2016 Eastern Conference Final remains one of if not the best game the Penguins have played under Sullivan. The 2017 Game 7 in Washington was so intense that a couple of team personnel had to leave the arena to take a walk before the game, but it became a comfortable 2-0 win. The 2017 Eastern Conference Final double OT thriller against Ottawa was a master class in patience–the Penguins dominated for what seemed like hours.

In each of those wins, the Penguins–specifically Sullivan–did a little something different. Sullivan added a wrinkle, a tweak, a surprise for the opponent, which worked magic.

I wonder if there’s anything Sullivan can do with this team. The Rangers are a bit quicker. The crowd feeds them like gasoline feeds a fire. And aren’t we all getting a bit softer in our old age?

I also know that one Penguins player chuckled after the Game 7 win over Washington in 2017, “we knew they’d be tight.”

Jeff Carter won the 2014 Stanley Cup after the LA Kings won three–yes, THREE–Game 7s.

I wonder how much experience will play a role in this game? How will Igor Shesterkin, who has been leaky all series, handle the increased pressure? I wonder how Tristan Jarry (I expect him to play) will handle it and the rust of not playing for a month? Or Louis Domingue?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are never short on drama, but this one especially has more plots, subplots, and secondary characters than any Western. This one could be the end of much we’ve taken for granted.

The puck drops just after 7 p.m.

 

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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4 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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14 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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14 hours ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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