Predators Not Saros (Sorry), Devour Penguins, 4-1
Excuse the clunky take-off on a Reese’s Cup commercial. I couldn’t resist.
In a battle of the mustard-gold uni’s, our Penguins got a heaping (and perhaps unwelcome) helping of playoff-style hockey last night in the Music City. The results weren’t pretty.
Living up to their “Smashville” alias, the Predators played a smash-mouth game and gave our guys a pretty thorough going over, both physically and on the scoreboard. Flexing their muscles, the Preds pounded us to the tune of a 36-14 advantage in hits. Like running into the New York Islanders on steroids.
They were especially hard on our captain, Sidney Crosby, targeting him on numerous occasions. Especially after a retaliatory slash on big Mattias Ekholm. While Sid, no shrinking violet, gave as good as he got, I so wish we had someone in our lineup who could serve as a deterrent. Instead we got Dominik Simon. More on that later.
In an effort to revive Evgeni Malkin (pointless in four games going in), coach Mike Sullivan broke up our uber-productive top line, moving Bryan Rust to Geno’s right flank and elevating Evan Rodrigues to Sid’s wing.