Perimeter Penguins Fire Blanks, Swallowed by Kraken, 2-0
With top wingers Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust parked on LTIR, you had to figure scoring goals would become an issue for our Penguins sooner or later.
Such was the case last night in Seattle. Although not for a lack of try, our guys just couldn’t crack the tentacle-like Kraken defense…or find the back of the net against Philipp Grubauer en route to a 2-0 defeat. In the process, snapping our modest three-game winning streak.
Indeed, fueled by a classic Mike Sullivan forecheck, the Pens unleashed a whopping 60 shot attempts during the first 40 minutes, including 28 that found their way to the net. But Grubauer, only recently back from injury, was airtight.
Our lone glaring shortcoming? Failing to get bodies to the net, which led to a lack of second-chance opportunities. As a general rule, if a goalie sees the puck he’ll stop it. Such was the case with Grubauer.
Such wasn’t the case for Tristan Jarry on the first Kraken goal at 12:25 of the opening period. Will Borgen cut loose a long-range slapper that dinged off teammate Alex Wennberg in the slot and popped high in the air.