Penguins 4, Canucks 1: The boo-birds come out as hosts Pen’d in - The Province

A second-period hat trick from Penguins winger Jake Guentzel was the difference in a 4-1 win for the visitors Saturday night at Rogers Arena

Author of the article:

Patrick Johnston

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel scores his hat-trick goal, all of which came in the second period, against Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

You make your own bed in the NHL.

And for these Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, a late second-period stretch was their downfall. The Canucks took three penalties in quick succession, leading to a pair of power-play goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The two tallies, both by Penguins winger Jake Guentzel who had a hat trick on the night, held up as the difference in a 4-1 win for the visitors.

Even before the Canucks took the crucial penalties, the Penguins were dominating play — they outshot Vancouver 34-12 through the first two periods — but couldn’t find a goal as Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko was at his cool-as-a-cucumber best, turning away nearly every shot directed his way.

“He’s been our most consistent, one of our best players all year round,” Canucks winger Tyler Motte said post-game. “He’s kept us in a lot of games. He’s given us opportunities to push back and you know, unfortunately, it’s sad the amount of times that we’ve hung him out to dry.”

Before the score finally turned against them, the Canucks were even a goalpost away from taking a 2-1 lead midway through the second frame, as Elias Pettersson rifled a wrist shot from the slot off the post to the right of Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry.

The Penguins were 2-for-6 on the power play, as the Canucks’ penalty kill once again struggled, even if both goals came on two-man advantages.

The Canucks have given up two power-play goals in 10 of their 25 games played this season, the first team to match such a miserable rate since the 2007-08 Atlanta Thrashers.

Overall the Canucks just didn’t create enough and late in the third period, the fans started to make their feelings heard, raining boos down from the stands as some called out embattled general Jim Benning in the process.

Portions of the crowded chanted “Fire Benning” at least twice, including once that was loud enough to be heard on the Hockey Night in Canada TV broadcast. And by the final whistle a larger portion of the crowd had already left.

One fan flung their Canucks sweater on the ice with 1.6 seconds left on the clock.

“Fans want wins and we’re not giving it to them,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said post game of the crowd’s third-period reaction.

“Obviously disappointment,” he said about what he and his teammates were feeling about the result. “I thought we did a good job to make it 1-1, and then obviously we got into penalty trouble there in the second. It’s hard to play catch up against that team.”

The Canucks did muster 11 shots in the third period, but it was too little too late. They were outshot 44-23 on the night.

“We should have come harder out there in the third, but it’s tough when you run into penalty trouble like that,” Horvat said. “It is deflating when you’re playing catch up against a team like that, where they’ve got some pretty good players over there. They did a good job shutting us down.”

The Penguins were led by the Guentzel hat trick and then a third-period marker by Sidney Crosby, who also had assists on Guentzel’s latter two goals, to seal the game in the third. The Canucks’ lone goal was scored by Vasily Podkolzin.

Here’s what we learned…

Pittsburgh Penguin Evan Rodrigues reaches for the puck in front of Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko as Penguins captain Sidney Crosby watches during the first period of Saturday’s game at Rogers Arena. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

Bounce, bounce, bounce

For all their dominance through the first 20 minutes of play, the Penguins couldn’t find a goal.

So of course they got their first one because of a bounce, as a point shot by Pittsburgh defenceman Brian Dumoulin ricocheted off a leg in front and the puck landed on the stick of teammate Guentzel.

Guentzel, the Penguins’ leading scorer, made no mistake, burying his shot behind Demko to put the visitors up early in the second period.

Vancouver Canucks forward J.T. Miller (left) fends off Pittsburgh Penguin Evan Rodrigues during the first period of their game Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

What gives with the PK?

Horvat was honest about how the struggles on special teams, the penalty kill especially, have hurt the team this season.

“A big reason why we’re not doing as well as we are right now is our special teams. I mean, at the end of the day it’s cost us a lot of games, and it’s been a difference in a lot of hockey games, and it was a difference again there tonight,” he said. Not only did the Penguins score twice on their power plays, the Canucks went 0-for-3 on their own man-advantages.

“Obviously our PK hasn’t been tip-top to this point. We’ve gained a little bit of momentum with it, maybe, over the past couple of weeks, although the statistics may not show that. But again, it’s kind of shoot yourself in the foot sometimes with those things,” Tyler Motte said of his team’s struggles on the penalty kill. He missed the first 15 games of the season, but has played in the last 10 and is looked to be a key penalty killer.

“You simplify, first of all. Get back to the details of it. Make sure we’re all on the same page,” he said when asked what a cure for the penalty kill’s struggles.

“I think the chemistry has come a long way. I think you look at the the ways in which pucks are going in, like tonight a couple went off our own guys. You know, people block a shot, it lands on a stick. Unfortunately, those things happen,” Motte said.

“Are there ways and things that we can do better to limit those? Absolutely. And I think one of the big things is when we win draws to start a PK, we’ve got to find a way to get better clears. I think we’ve been pretty good, gotten better up ice in forcing teams to get the puck out of their hands on entries. I think that’s where we found a little bit of success, especially on that road trip but again, it comes down to getting the job done and to your point, it has cost us.”

Asked whether the team had the right personnel to find better results on the penalty kill, head coach Travis Green did give a yes, but with conditions.

“Yeah. Well, it’s what we have here,” he said.

The booing

“When you lose, it’s hard. I get it. Fans, people, get frustrated. We get frustrated, too. Our players, they’re mad when they lose. Coaches are upset when they lose as well,” Green said of the fan reactions during the third period.

Motte said the mood on the bench wasn’t good, even as they were chasing the game in the third. They couldn’t argue with the fan reaction.

“Not a good one,” Motte said of the bench. “The only way to get past this is to get through it. As Bo mentioned, we’ve got to continue to look at ourselves in the mirror, find a way to be better because we owe it to more people than just ourselves.

“… We do owe it to more people than just ourselves, to put a better product together.”

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel celebrates the second of his three second-period goals against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday at Rogers Arena. The Penguins won 4-1. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

No flow

The Canucks once again struggled to push play up the ice the way they wanted to, with breakout passes from defencemen to forwards who were too often misfiring.

“We were mishandling pucks and not getting behind their D and getting on the forecheck. I mean, a lot of our game and why we have had success in the past is our forecheck … and we didn’t do that tonight,” Horvat said.

“It’s a matter of everybody doing it. And in following our system and having that desire to get on the forecheck and make a difference in the game, we obviously need to start doing that.”

The Canucks’ effort was perhaps better in this game than it was 10 days ago when these two teams met in Pittsburgh and the Penguins won by the same score, but in the end the result was the same and it was fair in both cases.

“(The Penguins) outplayed us in both games,” Horvat said. “That’s unacceptable on us. Everybody’s got to take a look in the mirror and realize where we’re at and what we have to do better, and obviously everybody in that room has to be better.”

Head to head

Asked if he needed more from his best players on this night, given Guentzel had a hat trick and both Crosby and Letang had three points for the opposition while only Brock Boeser picked up an assist, Green demurred.

“If you’re asking me to call out our top guys, I’m not going to do that,” said Green. “So obviously their top guys had a good night. So it’s easy to say our top guys didn’t get points tonight — I get that. We’ve done a lot of talking about that as well,” he said.

Centre pod

Podkolzin’s role continues to grow, as he’s now found himself a fixture on the power play.

He lined up as the middle-of-the-slot “bumper” player, an interesting spot for him as it requires a deft touch with his stick and an instinct for puck retrievals in the corners and behind the net.

Both are qualities the Russian rookie has in spades.

He showed off the former on his goal, tipping an Ekman-Larsson point shot from a heat-seeking missile into a shot that looked more like a mortar round, looping up in into the air.

It glanced off Jarry’s shoulder and into the net for Podkolzin’s fifth goal of the season.

Canucks head coach Travis Green behind the bench while defencemen Tyler Myers and Tucker Poolman (right) follow the play during the first period of Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Arena. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

Know the rules

Tyler Myers could have just swatted the puck away. But he didn’t and it reminded us of a pretty simple rule: You can’t grab the puck and fling it away.

But for whatever reason, that’s what the giant Canucks defenceman did. Instead of pushing the puck away as best he could, he grabbed the disc and flipped it away.

It was an easy call for the referees and it led to the game being broken wide open.

The Canucks went down a man and then 31 seconds later, the referees whistled Tyler Motte for a cross-check in the corner on Penguins defenceman Kris Letang. It was perhaps a tough call as Letang seemed more off-balance than anything, though Motte did get his stick into Letang’s back.

Motte said Letang admitted to him that he had lost an edge in the collision, though he didn’t complain about the call.

“A bit of a new rule, bit of a change,” Motte acknowledged. NHL officials have been told by the league to crack down on cross-checks in the corners and in front of the net.

“Tough one to take, obviously, when you’re already down a guy. It’s 200 feet (from the Canucks net) with no clear scoring opportunity. I don’t think anyone ever really agrees with one that they take, but you know when a player comes up to you after and tells you he’s losing an edge on the way down, it’s tough. But obviously we took too many (penalties) again tonight.”

NEXT GAME

Monday

L.A. Kings vs. Vancouver Canucks

7 p.m., Rogers Arena. TV: Sportsnet Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650.

Either way, Letang fell to the ice and the Penguins found themselves in a 5-on-3 situation. Then 20 seconds later Tucker Poolman, trying to defend against the two-man advantage, swatted the puck away from the slot.

The problem was the puck went straight into the stands.

Guentzel got his second goal almost right off the ensuing faceoff, scoring from nearly the same spot as his first, and then he got his hat-trick goal a minute later, this time from the other side of the zone.

In all three cases, he showed off the electric shot that should have him in consideration for the U.S. Olympic team come February.

Green said he didn’t like the call on Motte. And he didn’t like the referees whistling Conor Garland for a 10-minute misconduct late in the second period, either.

He said as far as he knew, Garland didn’t say anything to the refs.

“When that happens I think it’s up to the refs to settle it down. I don’t think they needed to give Garly a 10 there,” he said.

“I barely recognized what he even did. I think he’d banged the bench with his stick.”

Canucks centre Elias Pettersson tries to impede a speedy Brock McGinn of the Pittsburgh Penguins during Saturday’s game at Rogers Arena. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /The Canadian Press

Local con-net-tion

Every NHL game now features an emergency backup goalie in attendance, a local amateur goalie who is available to suit up as a backup for one of the two teams in action should a netminder be forced to leave the game through injury.

Their identity isn’t usually notable — most often they’re a local collegiate goalie, usually from UBC — but on this particular Saturday the “EBug,” as they’re called, was Cale Dolan, son of former Vancouver 86ers and Canadian men’s national soccer team goalkeeper Paul Dolan.

Junior Dolan is a 22-year-old goalie for the Simon Fraser University men’s hockey team. His goalie coach at SFU, Patrick Zubrick, was supposed to serve as the EBug but couldn’t make it, so Dolan got the call.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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