Shea-ved Ice: 5 Observations As 2 Streaks Come To An End
The Pittsburgh Penguins saw their six-game winning streak come to an end this weekend, but they've already gotten back in the win column.
After a 2-1 win over the Oilers on Friday, the Penguins fell 5-2 to the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Let's face it, the Penguins looked every bit like a team playing on back-to-back nights at the end of a long western Canada trip. In fact, it was their third game in four nights as well.
The energy wasn't there, their play was sloppy and Calgary deserved to win the contest. It happens. What matters is how you respond to such an effort.
For the Penguins, they responded by beating the best team in the NHL Wednesday night.
With that in mind, here are this week's five observations:
2 Streaks Come To An End
The Pittsburgh Penguins saw two streaks come to an end in the past week.
As noted above, their six-game winning streak was snapped by the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
More importantly, their 37-game streak of losing when trailing after two periods came to an end Wednesday night!
The Penguins had lost 37 consecutive games when trailing after two periods before tonight.
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) November 12, 2015
That streak goes all the way back to Jan. 5, 2014.
Think about that for a minute. The Penguins hadn't pulled off a third period comeback in nearly TWO YEARS.
It's mind-boggling. Maybe this will instill some more belief in the squad and we'll see plenty of comebacks this season.
Tale Of Two Teams
Last night, the best and worst of the Penguins showed up.
The Penguins played a spirited first period and held a 2-1 lead at the intermission. They even outshot Montreal 14-13.
Then, they only managed to get one weak shot on goal in the second period and found themselves trailing 3-2 heading to the third period.
Now, Marc-Andre Fleury has played incredibly well this season. However, he looked human on two of the goals he allowed against Montreal.
Don't worry, he knows the third one was especially bad.
The good news is Fleury put it behind him and was not beaten again in the contest – shootout included.
As a team, the Penguins came back to life in the third period and won the game 4-3 in a shootout on a night Fleury didn't have his A game.
It was nice to see this for a change because it's been mostly the other way around this year.
I said it last week, and I'll say it again. The most important thing is that this team is winning. It may not have been pretty last night, but they've now won 10 of their last 12 games.
That's pretty to me.
The Struggle Is Real
Everyone wants to jump on Sidney Crosby being off the scoring pace early on this season. That's reasonable, especially considering his track record and pedigree.
However, he's not the only one on this team that has had a frustrating start to the season.
In fact, I'd venture to say Kris Letang is co-piloting the struggle bus.
I'm sure he'll break out of it, but this is Kris Letang's season so far. #Pens pic.twitter.com/VwNepLYzPj
— Casey Shea (@SheaVedIce) November 12, 2015
Here are the numbers:
In 15 games, he has one goal and six assists. The shocking number is his minus-11 rating, which includes a minus-4 against the Flames on Saturday.
I'm not one to normally pay a lot of attention to the plus/minus rating because it can certainly be misleading.
However, Letang hasn't been on the plus side of things since the Penguins' 2-0 win over the Senators on Oct. 15. He's been even five times in that stretch, but is a minus-8 in his last six games.
His defense partner for much of that stretch was Ian Cole, who is also minus-11 this season.
We could explore the advanced stats on them to further prove how bad that pairing has been, but here's the simplified version: It's not working.
Mike Johnston broke them up last night and reunited Letang with Olli Maatta and put Cole with Rob Scuderi.
At this point, they have to give this an extended look. I'm not overly thrilled about a Cole-Scuderi pairing, but if it makes the top two pairs stronger, I can live with it.
Daniel Sprong Stays With Pens
With Crosby struggling, just about everyone on the roster has gotten a shot to play on the top line.
My question: Why not Daniel Sprong?
We got a glimpse of it on Saturday with the Penguins in a big hole against the Flames. In fact, the duo nearly combined for a goal on their first shift together.
The Penguins had the option of sending Sprong back to juniors or keeping him here in Pittsburgh.
They chose to keep him, but now it's time to play him. Is he ready to be a top-line regular in the NHL? Who knows? There's not enough information to go on at this point because he hasn't been given an opportunity.
He's already got two goals to his name in a fourth line role. His release is lightning quick and can be lethal, as was evidenced Friday night against Edmonton.
Yes, he has plenty to improve in his game. Specifically, defensive positioning, but he's learning with each passing day and each shift.
I understand the logic in slowly easing him into the league. But, it can't hurt to at least give him a shot alongside Crosby.
Sidney Crosby Makes Young Fan's Day
This isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time that Crosby has taken the time to make someone's day.
It happened again in Calgary Saturday night when he sat down with 8-year-old Mason Rodriguez and his family.
According to the Calgary Sun, the meeting happened after their game against the Flames and it was away from cameras and reporters.
Rodriguez has been battling lymphoma, which is now in remission. During his treatment, he made a video about his life and future goals.
Being a big hockey fan, it seems appropriate that he wants to be drafted by the Penguins when he turns 18 so he can play with Crosby.
Upon meeting Rodriguez, Crosby apologized for not being able to win the game that night.
If you ask me, the win on the ice wasn't the important part that evening for Rodriguez.
That little boy, who has endured so much in his short life, got to meet his idol. He had Crosby one-on-one for a few moments that he will never forget.
That's the biggest win Mason could have asked for.
That's it for this week. Check back every Thursday for more observations on the Penguins. You can follow Casey Shea on Twitter here!
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