Penguins forced to thrive in Long Island hornet's nest
UNIONDALE, N.Y. – In the first round of last year’s playoffs, Philadelphia Flyers fans yelled profanities so profane that they would make a Teamster blush.
In the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, Nashville Predators fans were chucking catfish in their general direction.
For most of the Pittsburgh Penguins roster, a playoff game in a hostile building is hardly cause for concern.
“It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before,” winger Bryan Rust said.
Still, the Penguins will still need to do a better job handling the fan-fueled adrenaline rush of the opening minutes of Game 2 against the New York Islanders on Friday night than they did in Game 1 if they hope to tie the series before coming home for Game 3.
In the opener, the hard-hitting fourth line of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck started the game and spent the entire first shift in the offensive zone, knocking Sidney Crosby’s line around as much as possible.
By the time the game was two minutes old, the Islanders had scored twice, though one of the goals was waved off on a video-reviewed offside call.
The Long Island crowd, naturally, roared its approval.
“It’s a playoff crowd,” Crosby said. “They’re into it and they got a really good start and got their crowd into it. They were already pretty excited. You could tell from the drop of the puck, but they got some momentum early and got their crowd into it.”
In an effort to stem the early Islanders tide, the Penguins can focus on a couple of basic goals.
One, be the team possessing the puck, not the team chasing it.
“Simplify with everything,” Rust said. “We’ve got to stay close and simplify.”
Two, if that fails, be the team hitting, not the team being hit.
“I just think we have to do a better job of weathering that storm and grabbing some momentum of our own,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “They’re trying to hit us a lot. I think we have to answer with the same medicine.”
The objective doesn’t need to be scoring the first goal, necessarily. Both the Penguins (16-15-4) and Islanders (17-18-2) had perfectly respectable records when falling behind 1-0 in the regular season.
It’s more about setting the tone and establishing a style of play, which can usually be accomplished within the first 20 minutes. The Penguins (24-5-3) and Islanders (22-4-5) were among the top teams in the league when leading after one period this year.
In the second period of Game 1, the Penguins saw how a stretch of strong play can take the frothing Long Island crowd out of the game.
When Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal to make it 2-2, it was so quiet in the building that the celebratory shouts of Penguins players on the ice could be heard in the rafters.
Even Islanders coach Barry Trotz pointed out after Game 1 that the home crowd lost some of its volume in the middle of the game.
For the Penguins, the quieter the better.
“I think guys in here did notice that,” Rust said. “That’s a result of us. We had some pressure there. The more we can do that and the more we can try to carry momentum, the more it takes the crowd out of it.”
Jonathan Bombulie is the TribLive assistant sports editor. A Greensburg native, he was a hockey reporter for two decades, covering the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for 17 seasons before joining the Trib in 2015 and covering the Penguins for four seasons, including Stanley Cup championships in 2016-17. He can be reached at jbombulie@triblive.com.
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