Penguins fail to capitalize on opportunities
DETROIT — Evgeni Malkin on a breakaway, just missed. Miroslav Satan with an open net in front of him, just missed. Sidney Crosby off the post, just missed.
The Pittsburgh Penguins in Game One of their Stanley Cup finals rematch against Detroit? Just missed.
The Penguins were certain they had shed the inexperience, the shakiness, the lack of confidence and the unfamiliarity with the championship setting that marked their 4-0 and 3-0 losses in Detroit during the first two games last year.
After goalie Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a soft goal less than seven minutes in to Brad Stuart, they were a much different team than that in those two forgettable losses last May, controlling the play for most of the next 25 minutes.
The problem during their 3-1 loss Saturday night was they also were a much different team than the one that swept Carolina in the Eastern Conference finals and rallied to beat Washington in seven games in the second round. The big plays were mostly missing from Malkin and Crosby, the two leading scorers in the playoffs, and so was their finishing game.
“We had our chances — our chances to win,” defenseman Kris Letang said after Malkin and Crosby, with 28 points apiece coming in, were limited to a Malkin assist.
Repeatedly, the Penguins were an inch or two off on a shot, a split-second or two behind on a play and, in Fleury’s case, a bit too slow to react to pucks off Joe Louis Arena’s notoriously lively boards.
It made all the difference as they lost for the first time in six games and only the second time in 11 games during a playoff surge that was beginning to resemble that of their last Stanley Cup run in 1992, when they won their final 11.
It may still be, but Game One—again — wasn’t their game, and they now find themselves playing from behind against the NHL’s most accomplished group of winners, and without home-ice advantage. The Penguins have only about 21 hours to regroup before Game Two tonight (8 p. m., Chs. 2, 5), unless they want to go home down, 2-0, like they did last year.
“When you’re on the road, the goal is win one of two, and if we play the way we did in the second period for 60 minutes, we like our chances,” Penguins forward Max Talbot said. “When they get the lead they’re a very good team, so maybe we need to get the lead.”
“It’s a race to four,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “They got one.”
Unlike those first two games last year, this was a winnable game for the Penguins, who appeared to find themselves once Ruslan Fedotenko tied it late in the first. They controlled much of the second period, but they couldn’t convert on the game’s first two power plays.
“It’s a different feeling [from Game One last year],” Fleury said. “We feel we can win.”
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