Kraken Unleash on Pens, 3-2

Recap by Yinzer Crazy Penguins' Guru Patricia Beninato. Follow her on Twitter @PTBeninato

A former popular Pen proved to be the Penguins’ doom, despite Sidney Crosby notching his 900th assist (and a goal).

Brandon Tanev (who still looks like a lunatic in his official photo) also notched an assist and scored the go-ahead goal for the Kraken at PPG Paints Arena.

Tanev’s goal came shortly after a Pens penalty kill after Sid got called for interference late in the third period, something which Sid spent the rest of the game complaining about to the officials. 

Although there were a lot of shots in the first period, there were no goals until 5:24 in the second, when Sid got a slap shot past Martin Jones. However, that lead only lasted two minutes and twenty-four seconds when Vince Dunn scored for the Kraken, assisted by Yanni Gourde, who had a hand in every Kraken goal.

Gourde scored himself at 7:48 in the third, with Tanev’s assist and helped by Morgan Geekie (so many jokes, so little time). This time the Penguins were the ones to tie it back up, courtesy of Jake Guentzel, assisted by Sid and Kris Letang. But Tanev struck six minutes later, and the Penguins couldn’t rally back.

But as I’ve been saying, it’s only November. There’s plenty of time to tweak things. I remember last season, where the Penguins had the same problem of running out of gas in the third period, particularly after an opposition go-ahead goal. This was a pretty fast-paced game, and as we’re constantly reminded, the Pens skew towards old. I don’t think they’re getting outskated, but just as there’s plenty of time to tweak things, there’s lots of games left, and it’s going to take some pacing not to deplete everything before the playoffs.