Hockey Jesus - Game 58 PENS V CGY
Hey, Penguins fans! It's your hockey Jesus here with a quick wrap-up of last night's heartbreaker against the Calgary Flames. We were cruising with a 3-1 lead, but in true Penguins fashion, we let it slip away in the final minutes, ending up with a...
Hey, Penguins fans! It's your hockey Jesus here with a quick wrap-up of last night's heartbreaker against the Calgary Flames. We were cruising with a 3-1 lead, but in true Penguins fashion, we let it slip away in the final minutes, ending up with a 4-3 loss. It's a tough pill to swallow, especially when we were looking like a lock for those two points.Gruden netted his first NHL goal (congrats, kid!), and Eller was on point with a power play goal. We were outshooting the Flames like crazy, but Jari just wasn't tested enough, and when crunch time came, well, he and the defense just couldn't hold the fort.Letang, oh Letang, had a meltdown we're all trying to wrap our heads around. And without Rust and Gensel, and with Malkin's goal drought since January, things are looking grim. Raquel's not fitting in, and Smith seems like he's got one foot out the door.I've heard some chatter about firing Sully, but who's gonna step in? Todd Reardon? Can he magically fix all our woes? Doubtful. It's looking like it might be time to blow it up and start fresh, but that's a tough call to make.So, what's next for our Pens? Well, they're back at it tonight, and we've got to keep the faith. Hit that subscribe button, join me on the porch for all the ups and downs, and let's see where this rollercoaster of a season takes us. Keep the faith, Penguins fans, and let's go Pens!
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Hockey Jesus: Hey, sports porchers. It's your hockey Jesus, and I'm back for game 58, Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Calgary Flames. Wow. I think what we witnessed last night was the end of a season. That's right, I know we're only in game 58, but I don't know how you can have a 3-1 lead going into the third with about 10 minutes left and lose 4-3. Because that's what happened to your Pittsburgh Penguins last night. They managed to take what looked like automatic two points, sail on into Edmonton and see if we can make this thing happen and blow it royally. Hey, you came to the right place. I'm your hockey Jesus. This is the sports porch and we're here to break down all the action that happened last night in Calgary. You know, I did, I was able to watch the game last night, still out here in California, but My goodness, my goodness. When they scored those two goals in the first period, I was feeling pretty good, especially because you're talking about Gruden scoring his first goal in the NHL. Congratulations. And then Eller getting a right in front power play goal, slam it in the net. look good. Look really good to nothing. You know they were out shooting. You know it was very similar period to the last one that they played against Seattle. Only they got two goals. So you're like that's what you need to do. You need to make sure you score the goals when you are out shooting like 18 to 315 to three. It was ridiculous amount of out shooting going on. Jari hardly tested and I think that actually ultimately failed the penguins and let me tell you why. When a goalie doesn't see a lot of shots like Jari did last night, and he's not ready to make those key saves, which I don't think Jari is ever been that way. I think that was the problem. And that's not the only problem, but let's break it down. So end of the first period, fine, no problem. End of the second period, even, you know, that one goal, Eh, what are you going to do? I guess it was a good individual effort. I guess you got to let them have that goal 2-1. But then Carter gets that goal in the third period, 3-1. And actually, you know, Graves was playing really well. And, you know, the only reason they scored that first goal was because of the Letang giveaway. You're like, clearly LaTang's not going to fall apart last 10 minutes of the game. Ruido was a plus two at that point. Everything looked like it was going to be just fine. And then it was a total failure on all parts. And, and how, how does this happen? Momentum is an unbelievable thing in hockey. It really is. Like even after they got that second goal, I'm like, eh, you know, that was a terrible giveaway by LaTang again. There's no way he's going to do it a third time. And when Kadri got that goal and he skated basically end to end and and skated right across and Jari couldn't make that save. I was like, oh, I was heartbroken, honestly. I really just didn't even really know what to think at that point, because the momentum just overtakes you. And Sully did call a timeout, which I think is smart. And we'll get to Sully in a second. because I think there were some other things that Sully could have done that would have been better. But I think calling that timeout, you know, you calm your team down, you're like, look, there's still, I think at that point there were like four minutes left or something like that. Penguins get a power play. They couldn't do anything. And 50 seconds left, scramble. The puck comes to the front of the net. Coleman buries it. 50 seconds left. And that's the game. That's the game at that point. Why did this happen? You know, honestly, I think it's the hockey gods looking down upon this Pittsburgh Penguins team and saying, it's time to blow it up. Look, it was game 58 and who blew it? Your man, Chris Letang. I love him. He's having a great season, but it's inexplainable how he could just absolutely melt down like that, not be able to pick up his man, not be able to skate with his man, try and stick handle the puck away from somebody and lose that battle. Look, you compound that a fact of Letang just absolutely falling apart with the fact that you're not playing with Brian Rust. You're not playing with Jake Gensel. And on top of that, Gito hasn't scored a goal since January 26th. Now somebody explain to me how somebody of the caliber of Evgeny Malkin cannot score a goal for that long. And I know he's had some different guys, but hey, Drew O'Connor can score a goal. Even Raquel can score a goal. By the way, he looked terrible last night on that first line. Sid's got to make up for some of the deficiencies that Raquel just doesn't want to do in his own end. And honestly, Riley Smith looks like he wants out of here. I don't know how you'd make it happen, but here's what I think has got to go, got to happen moving forward with these Pittsburgh Penguins. I think that anybody who calls for the firing of Sullivan needs to think about this. Who are you gonna put in his place? Do you even know? Do you even know who the assistant coaches are? Okay, there's Todd Reardon. Do you think that Todd Reardon can get Brian Rust healthy? Do you think he can get Jake Gensel back in the lineup? Do you think that he can make Chris Letang not melt down like that? Oh, the other thing is, do you think he could make Tristan Jarring make a good save sometime in the third period to stop that momentum from happening? If you do, then I guess you should say fire Mike Sullivan. I personally, you're hockey Jesus. I've been watching hockey for a very long time. I don't think that would ever happen with an assistant coach. If you're blowing up the team, then you're blowing up the team. and you're starting from scratch again, and you're basically saying to Sid, look, You're the only guy left. And I know they got to keep the other guys. And that's the other problem. Can Todd Reardon suddenly make Geno the scoring machine he was back in 2016, 2017? I don't think so. I think that's gone forever. And they just have to find a way to make it work somehow throughout the rest of the season. But at this point, I think that essentially that that the Penguins really just need to just blow it up. And that's my analysis. And the good thing is your Pittsburgh Penguins will be back tonight in action. So last night's game was signaling this is not a team that's going to make a run for the playoffs. And it breaks my heart, but you know what? I'll be here on the porch. So smash that subscribe button if you want to join me on the journey towards whatever is going to happen at this point, because I don't really know and you don't really know, but I promise you'll get great analysis here on the porch. So until then, Pittsburgh Penguins fans, you know what you have to do. You have to come to the porch. Get the analysis and be here for the rest of the season. Because without you, we got nothing. And the Pittsburgh Penguins will prevail somehow. So Pittsburgh Penguins fans, keep the faith and let's go Pens
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