Finding New Ways To Lose

There are times in sports where I wonder what is going through players' heads when they see something happen that's outside the ordinary, but we saw one of those events tonight in the game between the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins and the host Arizona Coyotes. Besides being two teams moving in opposite directions in the standings, one team has a collection of Hall-of-Fame candidates while the other plays in a rink that's been endeared as the "Party Barn". In any case, one of the rarer sights in hockey was witnessed in the Arizona desert tonight, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what the intention of each player was on this play.

Before we get into the breakdown, let's see the play in question.
With a delayed penalty in effect, the Penguins pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Letang looks like he's going to break out of his zone quite easily as he's already beat one Coyotes player and evades a second Coyotes' check. Inexplicably, he turns away from the third player applying pressure, heading back into his own zone rather than turning up ice when given the chance after skating past the second check. It's at this point that the Coyotes regroup, and Letang drops the puck off for Evgeni Malkin whose casual, one-handed attempt at controlling the puck ends up sliding the puck into the vacant Pittsburgh net to give Arizona a 4-2 lead.

Again, I'm baffled by so many aspects of this play. The Penguins had numbers as Letang broke out of his zone, so why wasn't the puck skated through the middle of the ice away from the two checking Coyotes? What was Malkin doing in trying to corral that puck as casually as he did with a check bearing down on him? Why wouldn't Malkin skate into the pass rather than backing further into his zone? Why did Letang simply not turn to his left where there was no one standing and he had room to attack once again?

Clearly, there was zero communication between Letang and Malkin as Letang's pass was going to be wide of the net before Malkin changed the puck's course, but Letang was literally setting Malkin up for a more difficult breakout with a Coyotes player bearing down on him quickly. That pass has to be perfect for Malkin to turn it up ice past the oncoming attacker, but it was nowhere close to being where Malkin needed it. Beyond that, what was Malkin doing in front of his own net rather than using the net as an obstacle to separate himself from the Coyotes player?

What makes this even more astounding is that it helped the Coyotes set a record that can only be equaled. According to the Coyotes' public relations people, the Coyotes became the first team to score a power-play goal without recording a power-play shot in a game. The Coyotes finished the game 1-for-3 with the advantage while recording zero shots on their power-play chances. That's simply ridiculous, but it's officially a record in the NHL history books.

The Coyotes would win this game by a 5-2 score, but I'm sure it won't be one the Penguins will forget anytime soon thanks to the play shown above. For a team that simply can't find any sort of consistent play, adding to their opponent's score is not something that will sit well with anyone in the black-and-yellow. Maybe it's a lack of communication among players on the ice or maybe it's very good players trying to free-wheel their way around the ice, but there's no way that puck should have ended up in Pittsburgh's net.

Had Letang been more aggressive in moving up the ice, it would have been fine. Had Letang and Malkin figured out how they were going to breakout prior to their mistakes, it would have been fine. Had Malkin simply played conservatively and left the errant pass alone, it would have been fine. Sometimes, a player or players can try to do too much, and it bites them in the rear end. See above highlight.

The Penguins are in danger of missing the playoffs yet again this season, and tonight's loss didn't help their cause. The line "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply here because the Penguins seem to have a lot to fix, so finding a starting point might be difficult. An effective breakout is probably high on the list, but, whatever the problems are, it would be helpful if the Penguins could stop finding new ways to lose on a regular basis.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!