Penguins Routed by Rangers in 5-1 Loss
Recap by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato
In the early first period of the Penguins/Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, I was reminded of the January second game against the Sharks at PPG, which I attended and live-tweeted. Then, goals were being scored so quickly that while I was writing up a tweet for one, another one would be scored.
The difference? In this game, it was the Rangers basically scoring at will. The Pens were sent reeling and never really recovered, as the Rangers won easily, 5-1.
Not even five minutes had elapsed in the first period before the Rangers had a 3-0 lead. Alexis Lafreniere struck first at 2:07, getting one over Tristan Jarry’s glove hand, assisted by Filip Chytil and Barclay Goodrow. Then, Chris Kreider, who’s having an outstanding season, scored his 43rd goal at 3:58 on an admittedly slick pass from Mika Zibanejad as he was coming off the bench. Which meant breakaway. Which meant my silent acknowledgment that Jarry still scares me in a breakaway situation, a fear that was realized. A mere eighteen seconds later, Kreider and Zibanejad teamed up to assist Frank Vatrano, who sent it through Jarry’s five-hole. Rangers fans rejoiced, Jarry threw his stick in disgust, and Mike Sullivan’s face turned that shade of crimson that always signals a thorough locker room chew-out during intermission.
How bad were the Penguins in the first? They got off only five shots on goal, plus they blew a double-minor power play towards the end. Still, it was only the first period. The Pens have come back before, so there was reason to have faith.
That faith wobbled in the second when Kreider and Zibanejad said to each other, “you know, that first goal was fun. Let’s do it again.” And so they did, with Kreider notching goal number 44 with a Zibanejad assist. That goal got Jarry yanked. His exile, however, lasted less than five minutes, as Casey DeSmith got the back of his head knocked against the goal pipe courtesy of Brian Dumoulin’s butt and was taken out on concussion protocol. That was the kind of luck the Penguins enjoyed during this game.
The only good thing to say about this game is that it wasn’t a shutout. Jeff Carter finally got the Pens on the board at 6:00 of the third on a power play, aided by Kasperi Kapanen and Danton Heinen. The goal was initially credited to Kap, so I happily posted the OOOH AND TOTS ON IT greeting. Yeah, my luck wasn’t good either. New Ranger Andrew Kopp sealed the Pens’ doom with a final goal with 2:13 left in the game.
Evgeni Malkin was a late scratch with a “non-COVID illness,” which meant Carter centered the second line with Rickard Rakell and Kap, not that it really made a difference. The Pens were noticeably slow all game, and the amount of time the Rangers spent in their zone was borderline ridiculous. Sidney Crosby got juked a couple of times, a rare sight. As I noted in the live tweet, sometimes live-tweeting isn’t fun when the Pens are getting shellacked. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen too often.
Announcers Steve Mears and Bob Errey kept saying that Rangers/Pens could be a first-round playoff matchup, and the teams play three more times in the regular season.
Learn from this game, Penguins.
Learn from this game.
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