Penguins fall to Lightning as No. 1 question lingers
Dan Muse on Thursday morning shrugged off the need for a true No. 1 goaltender for the playoffs, saying they "evaluate, re-evaluate and make decisions every day."
As part of that evaluation process, they've now deviated twice from their back-and-forth goaltender rotation in the last week, giving Stuart Skinner merit-based consecutive starts against the Senators and Stars, and then against the Red Wings and Lightning.
The Penguins' a 6-3 loss to the Lightning here in Tampa, Fla. on Thursday can't be pinned on Skinner. The Lightning capitalized multiple times directly off of Penguins turnovers. Not only did the Penguins fail to score on all three of their power plays, they allowed a shorthanded goal. The game in reach entering the third period down two goals, but the lifeless Penguins were outshot 13-5 in the final frame, and the only one of those five shots to get past Andrei Vasilevskiy was Egor Chinakhov's shot with 1.5 seconds on the clock, his second goal of the game after Rickard Rakell netted the Penguins' first.
Even aside from the turnovers, the Penguins put Skinner to work. Of the 33 shots they allowed, 15 were high-danger, the second-most they've allowed all season.
"We give up a breakaway shorthanded, the one in the second," Sidney Crosby said. "You know, we've got to protect the good areas of the ice. The (Nikita( Kucherov shot, only so much you can do on something like that. I mean, that had eyes. I'm not going to go through every goal, but we just had to be better."
That's not to say that Skinner was perfect. We've seen him before able to make a diving save on a goal like this one from Zemgus Girgensons in the final minute of the second:
"He got a pass out, I followed that play," Skinner said of that goal. "And normally, when a play like that happens pretty in tight, you don't expect too much time and space. But he was able to get himself into really good position on us, which is hard to do, especially against the guys that we've got, and he was able to make a nice move. Went all the way back and threw it into an empty. It's a tough play for everybody around, I think that was a big part of the game today."
According to MoneyPuck, the Lightning recorded 3.47 expected goals against Skinner, a cumulative stat that just quantifies the quality of chances based on a number of factors. Skinner allowed five, not counting Anthony Cirelli's late empty-netter to complete a hat trick.
Is 1.53 goals saved below expected egregious? Not at all. But maybe an extra save or two keeps the Penguins in the game longer, and that leads to more life in the third period.
Both times now that the Penguins have gone back to Skinner for consecutive starts, he's been just OK in games in which the team struggled in front of him, the other such occasion being a 6-3 loss to the Stars (though, the Stars added two empty-netters in that one).
Has Skinner shown enough in games like that -- or can he over this last stretch of the season -- to show that he deserves to be the No. 1 in the playoffs, and get away from the rotation? Tough to say. But is it really so important that they have a true No. 1?
The tandem going into the playoffs will be the tandem that they have now -- Skinner and Arturs Silovs. I really don't think it makes a ton of sense to add either Sergei Murashov or Joel Blomqvist into that mix this late into the season, and neither one of them has any real playoff experience even at the minor-league level -- Blomqvist was injured in his lone AHL playoff game last year, and struggled in two games the year prior. Murashov had an abysmal three games with Wheeling to start the playoffs last season, though rebounded in a season-ending loss at the AHL level after Blomqvist's injury. Development-wise, it's best for them to stay where they are and get a crack at a real run. Worst case scenario, they get called up before they're ready and are robbed of that crucial experience.
The two best goaltenders for this last stretch might still just be the two they already have -- one who went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and another who just carried his team to an AHL Calder Cup and won playoff MVP.
The rotation, to this point, has seemed to work out fine for either goaltender, at least when the team in front of them doesn't totally collapse.
Is there a page in the rulebook that says they need to pick just one for the playoffs? There's been suggestion that they must need to do so to get one into a "rhythm." Aren't they already in a rhythm? One that they've used all season?
Neither goaltender has gone above and beyond to the point where it's absolutely clear that they have a traditional "No. 1" moving forward. Had Skinner played out of his mind behind this poor defensive showing tonight, maybe that would have added more clarity. He didn't. And at the same time, neither goaltender has been far-and-below awful to make that case for his partner, either.
The rest of the regular-season schedule is condensed, and the Penguins will need to use both goaltenders. And if they carry that setup into playoffs, that might just be the right move.
THE ASYLUM
Penguins fall to Lightning as No. 1 question lingers
Dan Muse on Thursday morning shrugged off the need for a true No. 1 goaltender for the playoffs, saying they "evaluate, re-evaluate and make decisions every day."
As part of that evaluation process, they've now deviated twice from their back-and-forth goaltender rotation in the last week, giving Stuart Skinner merit-based consecutive starts against the Senators and Stars, and then against the Red Wings and Lightning.
The Penguins' a 6-3 loss to the Lightning here in Tampa, Fla. on Thursday can't be pinned on Skinner. The Lightning capitalized multiple times directly off of Penguins turnovers. Not only did the Penguins fail to score on all three of their power plays, they allowed a shorthanded goal. The game in reach entering the third period down two goals, but the lifeless Penguins were outshot 13-5 in the final frame, and the only one of those five shots to get past Andrei Vasilevskiy was Egor Chinakhov's shot with 1.5 seconds on the clock, his second goal of the game after Rickard Rakell netted the Penguins' first.
Even aside from the turnovers, the Penguins put Skinner to work. Of the 33 shots they allowed, 15 were high-danger, the second-most they've allowed all season.
"We give up a breakaway shorthanded, the one in the second," Sidney Crosby said. "You know, we've got to protect the good areas of the ice. The (Nikita( Kucherov shot, only so much you can do on something like that. I mean, that had eyes. I'm not going to go through every goal, but we just had to be better."
That's not to say that Skinner was perfect. We've seen him before able to make a diving save on a goal like this one from Zemgus Girgensons in the final minute of the second:
"He got a pass out, I followed that play," Skinner said of that goal. "And normally, when a play like that happens pretty in tight, you don't expect too much time and space. But he was able to get himself into really good position on us, which is hard to do, especially against the guys that we've got, and he was able to make a nice move. Went all the way back and threw it into an empty. It's a tough play for everybody around, I think that was a big part of the game today."
According to MoneyPuck, the Lightning recorded 3.47 expected goals against Skinner, a cumulative stat that just quantifies the quality of chances based on a number of factors. Skinner allowed five, not counting Anthony Cirelli's late empty-netter to complete a hat trick.
Is 1.53 goals saved below expected egregious? Not at all. But maybe an extra save or two keeps the Penguins in the game longer, and that leads to more life in the third period.
Both times now that the Penguins have gone back to Skinner for consecutive starts, he's been just OK in games in which the team struggled in front of him, the other such occasion being a 6-3 loss to the Stars (though, the Stars added two empty-netters in that one).
Has Skinner shown enough in games like that -- or can he over this last stretch of the season -- to show that he deserves to be the No. 1 in the playoffs, and get away from the rotation? Tough to say. But is it really so important that they have a true No. 1?
The tandem going into the playoffs will be the tandem that they have now -- Skinner and Arturs Silovs. I really don't think it makes a ton of sense to add either Sergei Murashov or Joel Blomqvist into that mix this late into the season, and neither one of them has any real playoff experience even at the minor-league level -- Blomqvist was injured in his lone AHL playoff game last year, and struggled in two games the year prior. Murashov had an abysmal three games with Wheeling to start the playoffs last season, though rebounded in a season-ending loss at the AHL level after Blomqvist's injury. Development-wise, it's best for them to stay where they are and get a crack at a real run. Worst case scenario, they get called up before they're ready and are robbed of that crucial experience.
The two best goaltenders for this last stretch might still just be the two they already have -- one who went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and another who just carried his team to an AHL Calder Cup and won playoff MVP.
The rotation, to this point, has seemed to work out fine for either goaltender, at least when the team in front of them doesn't totally collapse.
Is there a page in the rulebook that says they need to pick just one for the playoffs? There's been suggestion that they must need to do so to get one into a "rhythm." Aren't they already in a rhythm? One that they've used all season?
Neither goaltender has gone above and beyond to the point where it's absolutely clear that they have a traditional "No. 1" moving forward. Had Skinner played out of his mind behind this poor defensive showing tonight, maybe that would have added more clarity. He didn't. And at the same time, neither goaltender has been far-and-below awful to make that case for his partner, either.
The rest of the regular-season schedule is condensed, and the Penguins will need to use both goaltenders. And if they carry that setup into playoffs, that might just be the right move.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits!
We’d love to have you!