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It is rare that I ever go to Negative Town when it comes to the Penguins, a team I am very passionate about.
That said, the Pens lost tonight 4-1 in front of a very large, if not sell-out crowd.
My blog recap goes to Negative Town tonight. But you’ll have to jump through to see the rest. If not, thanks for visiting and have a nice night.
Wow. You are braver than I thought.
The Pens laid an absolute egg tonight. Plain and simple.
Spare me the, “we have to figure it out” or, “this effort is unacceptable” or, “we are a bad bounce here or a bad bounce there” quotes.
The Penguins gave up tonight before the game was over. I think that was the first time, in all the years I have been coming to games, that I have ever witnessed something like that.
Down 4-1 in the third period, here’s the penalties, Penguins in bold: Farnham Wbs (roughing, misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 1:17; Irwin Nor (tripping), 9:45; Mormina Wbs (slashing), 11:47; Hendry Nor (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:42; Thompson Wbs (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:42; Farnham Wbs (roughing), 18:05; Sill Wbs (game misconduct – abuse of officials), 20:00.
Besides the obvious, that being Bobby Farnham, what do you see there?
Look again.
Penguins, instead of being interested in wanting to mount any sort of a comeback, take dumb penalty after dumb penalty.
Credit to Norfolk Admirals Head Coach Trent Yawney for telling his team to walk away when engaged. I have no idea what Paul Thompson was doing, 80 feet away from the play, engaging with Jordan Hendry. You are down 4-1 at that point. You need to score goals to try and get back in the game. What the hell is a 15 goal scorer doing trying to start a fight with a guy?
The Penguins looked so far checked out of this game tonight, it was sickening. The giveaway was a clothes hamper. It may as well had been a trash can, because that is where the Pens playoff chances are going if this continues, and I see no reason for it not to continue.
Norfolk scores on it’s first and third shots of the game. Kyle Wilson on a shot that fooled starting goaltender Brad Thiessen and then Chris Wagner on a shot that Thiessen was screened partially by Philip Samuelsson. Pens would get a power play goal from Alex Grant in the second period when you thought that the comeback would be on but then Riley Holzapfel sits for boarding then Zach Sill for tripping putting the Admirals on a five on three for 1:32. Admirals score at the tail end when Patrick Maroon hacked and whacked at a puck. Then, the Admirals score on a puck that Thiessen got part of but not all of and Devante Smith-Pelly was there to whack home the rebound.
Abysmal second period by the Pens. So Norfolk scores on the tail end of a five on three. It happens. Then they let the Admirals, who thought they scored the sequence before, score on a play that was an absolute back breaker. No response after that. None.
The third period can be and should be ranked right up there with the Game 6 collapse vs. Charlotte a few seasons ago.
Norfolk wanted it tonight. That’s the bottom line. Look at Binghamton. All of their good players are in Ottawa. They have their third and fourth string goalies tending the nets on the Souther Tier, yet the B-Sens keep winning and are two points from being the best team in the league – that is a team that wants it. This Penguins team right now has the look of just wanting to be handed wins and it ain’t happening.
I said on Twitter today that the Pens wanted to see Adirondack beat Connecticut. They did, 5-2. I also said that I wanted to see St. John’s beat Portland. They did, 4-1. I would have liked to saw Syracuse beat Albany. They did, 3-1. The only game that didn’t work out was the Hershey Bears coughing up a three goal lead to lose to the Manchester Monarchs, 5-4.
Playoff picture looks like this:
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Of the teams listed there, Hershey, Manchester, Norfolk have a game in hand. Worcester has four. Albany three.
Bears are in Worcester Sunday. Whale are in Binghamton, Albany in Bridgeport and Portland ahead of us in Adirondack. I’d like the Sharks, B-Sens, Sound Tigers and Phantoms to win tomorrow, please. I now know what I will be writing about Sunday afternoon. Those scores.
I want this team to be successful. I want to win a Calder Cup like I want to take my next breath. Right now though, I just don’t see it. Extremely tough stretch of games ahead. Binghamton twice with Providence and Norfolk in there. This is your season right here, folks.
To the end…
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