Empty Thoughts: Bruins 2, Penguins 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 2-1 loss to the Bruins:

First things first: There was no real update after the game on Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, who left in the first period after being hit by Bruins defenseman Jarred Tinordi.

As Malkin tried to play a puck out of the right corner of the offensive zone, he was just flattened on a big body check. In the process, their right knees collided and Malkin was hobbled.

He retreated to the dressing room and returned a little bit later for a shift on a power-play opportunity but didn’t stay long. His night was over pretty quickly.

His departure was coupled with the absence of Teddy Blueger who was scratched with an undisclosed injury that coach Mike Sullivan termed as “longer term.”

As a result, the Penguins were left with Evan Rodrigues, Mark Jankowski and Sam Lafferty as their second-, third- and fourth-line centers, respectively, for most of this game.

That’s clearly not a tenable situation, at least not for a team professing to harbor hopes of contending for a Stanley Cup.

Any kind of long-term absence by Blueger alone would be difficult for the Penguins to contend with. But Malkin? Ouch.

Forward Jared McCann appears to be close to a potential return and he could reasonably replace Malkin to some degree as the second-line center, to say nothing of Blueger on the third line.

But obviously, the Penguins’ center depth has taken a hit.

General manager Ron Hextall has previously indicated he is not interested in dealing away a future asset for a rental player on an expiring contract. If that stance changes in light of Malkin’s injury (coupled with Blueger), that remains to be seen.

Regardless, the Penguins are clearly a lesser team at the center position currently.

“We’re going to do the best we can with what we have,” Sullivan said via video conference. “That’s what we did (Tuesday). We had a short bench for quite a long time (Tuesday). We moved people around to try to keep everybody involved. We’re trying to spread the workload as best we can because we’re playing a lot of games in a short period of time. That, in and of itself, is a challenge.”

What happened

The Bruins took a lead 3:20 into regulation with a power-play goal. Bruins forward Brad Marchand gained the offensive zone on the left wing and zipped a cross-ice pass to the right wing for forward David Pastrnak streaking up the ice. Facing minimal resistance, Pastrnak attacked the net and tucked a smooth backhander through goaltender Casey DeSmith’s five hole for his 13th goal of the season. Marchand and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk had assists.

The Penguins tied the game, 1-1, at 15:22 of the first period. After forcing Bruins defenseman Jakob Zboril into a turnover in Boston’s slot, Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen settled the puck on the left half wall. Surveying the zone for a moment, Kapanen shuffled a forehand pass to the front of the crease for Rodrigues, who re-directed the puck on net. Goaltender Dan Vladar, making his first career start, made the save but allowed a rebound in the blue paint that forward Brandon Tanev cleaned up with a forehand shot for his seventh goal. Assists went to Rodrigues and Kapanen.

The Bruins reclaimed a lead, 2-1, at 7:07 of the third period. Settling a puck at the left point of the Penguins’ zone, Zboril fed a pass to forward Trent Frederic rushing into the zone. From the high slot, Frederic floated a wrister past a screen by Pastrnak that sailed by DeSmith’s glove hand for his fourth goal. Zboril and forward Patrice Bergeron collected assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 35-33.

• Penguins forward Sidney Crosby and Bruins forward Nick Ritchie each led the game with five shots.

• Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy led the game with 30:16 of ice time on 33 shifts.

• Defenseman Kris Letang led the Penguins with 28:11 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• The Bruins controlled faceoffs, 32-23 (58 %).

• Bergeron was 14 for 21 (67 %).

• Crosby was 15 for 26 (58 %).

• Penguins defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Chad Ruhwedel, Letang, and Tanev as well as Bergeron, forward Charlie Coyle and defenseman Steven Kampfer each led the game with two blocked shots.

• Vladar made 34 saves on 35 shots.

• DeSmith made 31 saves on 33 shots.

Randomly speaking

• The big story of this game was Tanev dropping Tinordi with a big hit at 12:57 of the second period that led to Tanev getting a five-minute major for boarding as well as a game misconduct.

As Tinordi (6-foot-6, 205 pounds) dumped a puck into the offensive zone from the center red line, Tanev (6-foot, 180 pounds) delivered a check that sent Tinordi stumbling into the boards at the visiting bench like a crash-test dummy. With his right leg pinned under him, Tinordi slammed into the boards with his left elbow first then with something of a flat-back drop. As play was halted, Tinordi laid on the ice and required attention from an athletic trainer.

He eventually recovered to his skates and made his way to the dressing room with assistance. He did not return.

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy did not offer an update on his status but labeled Tinordi’s condition as “not great.”

Officials reviewed the hit and upheld the call on the ice. The Penguins, particularly Tanev, objected to the call, but his night was over as well.

• By the strictest interpretation of the rule, the call seemed legit.

The rule, as written:

Really, what Tanev did is explained in the first sentence:

“A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously.”

Add in the fact that the rule allows for a lot of judgment by the on-ice officials and there’s not really a lot of room to object on Tanev’s behalf.

That said, it’s nearly impossible to say the application of this rule is consistent. Crosby made that very clear in his postgame comments (see below).

Frankly, Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese delivered what appeared to be a somewhat worse hit against Sabres forward Dylan Cozens on Thursday in a similar area of the ice that escaped penalty (minus a fighting major he received after dropping the gloves with Sabres defenseman Colin Miller in the aftermath):

If you want to say Tanev didn’t deserve a major and a game misconduct, that’s fine. But what he did was boarding by the letter of the law.

• This is a crusade this author has been waging for many years, but the NHL should make on-ice officials available for comment with independent media after games to explain calls or judgment that have a considerable impact on the game. By rule, every player and coach are supposed to be available to explain the game. Why aren’t the officials? They are participants in the game as well.

Major League Baseball, the NBA and NHL all make their in-game officials available to comment to some degree. Why doesn’t the NHL?

If NHL officials can wear microphones for league-produced or -sanctioned documentaries such as HBO’s “24/7,” they are fully capable of explaining why they called a major penalty in a scenario that calls for their judgment.

• The Penguins offered a pretty honest effort in this despite quite a few impediments with the absences of Malkin, Blueger and Tanev. They maintained pressure in the offensive zone and pressured Vladar quite a bit. If not for a handful of stunning saves by Vladar, this is a different game.

• In reality, this became a goaltending duel between DeSmith and Vladar. Both goaltenders were tuned in during this game.

• The Penguins’ penalty killers — minus Blueger and Tanev, mind you — did a marvelous job on that five-minute major following Tanev’s penalty. They limited the Bruins to four shots with all that extended time and really seemed to create some momentum after that.

• Jankowski actually generated his own breakaway towards the end of the kill and was robbed on a blocker save (and a post). A goal there gives the Penguins a lead and PPG Paints Arena’s roof might have lifted off by the emotion generated by the handful of fans on hand.

• The Penguins’ fourth-liners — or at least the fourth-liners before all the injuries and absences took effect — offered some strong contributions individually. Sceviour was all over the offensive zone and created chances down low. He might have had a goal were it not for Vladar robbing him with a ridiculous stick save on a goalmouth scramble.

Angello and Jankowski even generated a few chances as well.

• Angello was the “designated sitter” for this game as he served Tanev’s major penalty as well as a bench minor for too many men on the ice.

• With Blueger sidelined, the Penguins brought Lafferty back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for five games. It would be a stretch to say he distinguished himself. He logged 12:00 of ice time on 19 shifts and had no shots on three attempts. He recorded a game-high six hits, a blocked shot and was 3 for 8 (38 %) on faceoffs.

There appears to be an opportunity for Lafferty with Blueger, and possibly Malkin, sidelined. He needs to do more to take full advantage of it.

• The Penguins’ six-game winning streak was snapped.

• Malkin’s eight-game scoring streak was snapped.

• The attrition of playing almost every other day is really starting to show.

• With Blueger sidelined, forward Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Malkin and Tanev are the only members of the Penguins who have played in all 29 games this season.

Historically speaking

• Blueger had the team’s longest active streak of consecutive regular season games played at 116. Forward Bryan Rust now has that designation with 70 games.

Publicly speaking

• Crosby is soft-spoken and very reserved on most matters, particularly the rules or the officiating.

On Tuesday, he cleared his throat.

It wasn’t quite Mario Lemieux calling the NHL a “garage league” in 1992, but Crosby made his concerns very clear when discussing Tanev’s hit on Tinordi:

“I hope Tinordi’s OK. He went in pretty awkward. But I don’t think there was any intent. I thought he hit him clean. He hit him timely as far as the puck being there. (Tinordi) did go in awkwardly so you never like to see that. But I didn’t think it warranted a five-minute (major penalty). The (referees) are out there, they’re trying to protect us and keep us safe. I get it. I can see them trying to do that. But I didn’t’ see it that way. Unfortunately, we had to go down. We got a big (penalty) kill there. I hope he’s OK.

“I hope as players, we get some clarity on what’s a good hit and what’s not. It’s tough to really gauge when you’re out there. I know it’s fast but right now, it’s really hard to know what is in fact clean and what’s not. And when you’re out there playing, it’s important that you do know that.”

• Crosby reiterated his point when asked about it again:

“If they’re going to err on the side of protecting us, I don’t think I’m ever going to argue that as a player, especially with Tinordi being hurt and seeing him go in awkwardly. I get it. It’s just understanding that. You see some hits throughout the league, especially in the first half of the season here, it’s hard as a player to know. We look at a hit and think, ‘Oh, that’s a suspension,’ and it’s not. Or we think it’s a penalty and it’s not. Then you see a hit like (Tanev’s), you don’t expect a five-minute major and it ends up being one. I think it seems like it’s a little gray right now.

“Again, I’m never going to argue with them protecting us because I think that’s what they’re trying to do. But I think that it’s important that we understand that.”

• Sullivan on the hit:

“I didn’t get much of an explanation (from officials). My thought on it was I think (Tanev) plays the game hard. He was trying to finish his check. (Tinordi) was a long way from the boards. It’s unfortunate how the circumstance evolved. But the player was a long way from the boards on the initial contact. I just think (Tanev) was trying to finish his check.”

• Sullivan on Crosby’s point of there being confusion as to what is legal or illegal with hits:

“There’s a lot of latitude for the discretion of the referee. I think they’re trying to err on the side of caution to protect the players. I think we would all agree that’s the right way to go. But there’s a lot of latitude and there’s a lot of referees’ discretion in those types of circumstances.”

• DeSmith professed optimism after the game:

“Everyone knows we’ve been playing really well. We played well that game. There was a lot of adversity, a lot of things happened. Losing some guys and things like that. Everybody knows we played hard and everybody is staying positive. We’ve been on such a good run, we’re not going to let this affect us.”

• Jankowski on his breakaway:

“On that breakaway, I just poked it by their (defense) and then wasn’t sure if their goalie was going to come out. He stayed in so I had the opportunity. I tried to go quick shot, low blocker. It just nicked his pad or something then the post. I just thought I’d try to get him with a quick shot, low blocker there.”

• Vladar on his save against Sceviour:

“It was just a lucky save. It probably happens once in a 100 times. I’m really thankful that this just happened today. I don’t think you can really practice that. It’s just big luck. I’m really happy that it happened today.”

• Vladar on the significance of winning his first career start:

“Just the happiest guy in the world right now. It was always my dream to play in the NHL. I got an opportunity and I won. There hasn’t been a better day for me hockey-wise. I really appreciate that the coaches gave me a chance.”

• Vladar was so refreshingly earnest after the game. He spoke to the guidance he has received from veteran Bruins goaltender Jaroslav Halak:

“Jaro on the bench, honestly we didn’t even talk about hockey. We were just talking about random stuff. He told me, ‘Hey, 12 minutes left, then we’ll have some fun on the plane.’ I feel like I’m trying to learn that it’s not just 24/7 hockey. You show up for a game, you do your best, you want to win. Then when you get a chance to kind of leave your brain and just think about something else. It’s really nice. Jaro just does that really well. I think I have a lot of things that I can learn from him, not just on the ice, off the ice too.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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