It would be an understatement to say that things did not go well for the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night. Despite the close 3-2 final score, as well as the fact they had a prime scoring chance to potentially tie the game in the closing seconds, this game never really felt like it was there for the Penguins to take. They were shut down, struggled to generate chances and just looked like a sloppy team playing a random mid-December game instead of
its first playoff game in three years.
The popular argument I have seeen in the aftermath is that it was rust, and an argument for why the Penguins should not have rested people in the final three games of the regular season. I am not going in that direction, nor do I have any interest in it. This is a largely veteran team with multiple players that have either played in the Stanley Cup Final or won Stanley Cups. They know what the playoffs are about. They should not need a dress rehearsal for that, and they should not have been the timid ones in that game. It is also not like everybody sat out those games. Every player on the roster played in at least one of those three games, and some of them played in multiple games.
It’s also not like they sat around for 10 days doing nothing.
Aside from most of the players still playing in games, they were also still practicing and on the ice. They came back from a month-long Olympic break and played one of their best games of the season. They have had full bye weeks in the past. They also had just played a month-and-a-half of wildly intense games against a lot of the best teams in the league, with a very compressed schedule, and probably needed the rest anyway.
The rust angle works for the 5-10 minutes of the game. After that, it’s time to get into the game.
They were simply outplayed, and maybe outcoached.
If you want to take an optimistic view on all of this, the Flyers played a nearly flawless game and the Penguins played a severely flawed game, and it still came down to one shot at the end of the game. Can the Flyers repeat that for potentially six more games? Will the Penguins be that sloppy for any number of games?
There is also the fact Stuart Skinner, for the most part, played well and kept them in the game while they were bleeding chances against throughout the first two periods. If he can get on a roll and play relatively close to that, the Penguins have a really good chance, both in this series and potentially beyond.
But the Penguins still have to play better — much better — in front of him. And that brings us to the question of whether or not the Penguins should shake some things up.
I liked Elmer Soderblom getting a spot on Saturday over Justin Brazeau. Brazeau has been great this season, but Soderblom has been playing better down the stretch. Do you go back to Brazeau in Game 2 and put him back with Ben Kindel and Anthony Mantha?
Egor Chinakhov remained on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust.
Rickard Rakell remained on the second line with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin.
Kris Letang and Sam Girard remained together on the second defense pairing after really rounding out their games over the final month of the regular season.
These combinations have worked, and they have worked extremely well.
That all went sideways in Game 1. None of the forward lines generated much. The Letang-Girard pairing reverted back to the form we saw when they first started playing together.
It was all ugly.
While it might seem like an overreaction to start screaming about changing things one game into a best-of-seven series, you have to keep in mind this is the playoffs and there is very little margin for error. Especially when you are already down in the series and have, for the time being, lost home-ice advantage.
Based on the line combinations and defense pairings in practice on Sunday, the Penguins are sticking with the exact same combinations that produced the dud in Game 1. Assuming they go into Monday night and stick with them, they would seem to be banking on the idea that Game 1 was a fluke and that they could — and perhaps should — play better. Or that a strategic shift, or simply better execution, is the key.
Given how well everybody has played for so long, I can get behind that.
But if they go through the first period and look the exact same way they did on Saturday, or simply keep struggling to generate offense, you might have to throw some combinations into the blender. Put Rakell back with Crosby and Rust. Put Chinakhov and Malkin back together given the chemistry they have had this season.
Maybe it works.
Maybe it doesn’t.
But based on the way Philadelphia played on Saturday their defensive game came as advertised, and it took away a lot of what the Penguins have been able to do offensively. You do not have much margin for error here, and when you are already down in the series you do not have time to be patient to struggle through a second game.
