Penguins’ Lackadaisical Play Will Get Them Eliminated – The Hockey Writers –

Coming into the Stanley Cup playoffs, it had to feel good to be a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Making the playoffs in what was meant to be a down year certainly felt good enough, but nearly everyone predicted them to move past their first-round opponents, the Philadelphia Flyers.

After Game 1, it seems like maybe the Penguins were looking ahead instead of focusing on the series at hand. Rather than coming out with a hot effort and a rebound win, the Penguins were shut down by goalie Dan Vladar and the Flyers, falling behind in the series 2-0.

Starting Flat

The Penguins got here by playing above board in nearly every area. This isn’t one of the Penguins teams of old that could show up and simply be better because they had the better talent. This Penguins team had to scrap and fight and defy expectations.

But in two games in this series, they have been outworked, outhustled, and just plain outperformed by the Flyers. There is no clearer evidence of this than the measly two shots the team registered in the first period, and they were lucky to not fall behind in that opening frame.

Stuart Skinner had one of his best performances in some time, otherwise it may have been an even more lopsided result. The Penguins can’t sacrifice an outing like this from its up-and-down goaltending by turning in such uninspired performances.

Letang’s Costly Gaff

Perhaps the most frustrating moment of the game came in the second period, and it underscored the Penguins’ lack of effort so far. On the tail end of a power play with just over two minutes left in the second period, the puck came down into the Penguins zone and Skinner shot it around the wall.

The Flyers’ Owen Tippett outhustled one Penguins defender, shrugged off a hit from another, and set up Garnet Hathaway for what felt like a back-breaking shorthanded goal. But the biggest issue here is what Penguins defender Kris Letang did.

As Tippett broke free of a defender, Letang coasted toward the puck, took a weird angle, and lunged half-heartedly as Tippett went by him. It was an extremely frustrating moment, and it seemed to underscore the struggles the Penguins were facing.

Playing From the Fringes

One of the stories of the night is the performance of Vladar, who turned aside all 27 Penguins shots. He was excellent and deserves all the credit in the world for shutting down a Penguins offense that has been one of the better units in the league this season.

That said, the Penguins played mostly on the fringes on Monday night. They had a whopping 75 shot attempts but just 27 of them made it on net, and only a handful of those were high-danger opportunities.

The Penguins let the Flyers keep them on the perimeter, and it made life a lot easier on Vladar. The Penguins can’t possibly hope to win this series with the way they are playing right now, and that became painfully clear in Game 2.

It’s Desperation Time

The Penguins have dug themselves a massive hole. Historically, just 12.5% of teams that fall behind 2-0 come back to win the series. It isn’t impossible but the margin for error has become razor thin going forward.

The Penguins have coasted through the first two games of the series, given up their home-ice advantage, and given the unheralded Flyers an extra shot of confidence and momentum. Even if they win Game 3 in Philadelphia, the Penguins have made life infinitely harder on themselves, and it may be too late to recover.