The Penguins’ first-round playoff loss to Philadelphia isn’t hard to analyze: They couldn’t score.
A group that finished third in goals during the NHL regular season with 293 — the most by a Penguins team in the Sidney Crosby era — scored just 11 times in six playoff games. One goal was an empty-netter, another an egregiously fluky bounce.
Wednesday’s series/season-ending loss at Philadelphia was a courageous effort, but that doesn’t matter. The Penguins scored zero goals in 77 minutes and 32 seconds.
They got goalie’d, to some degree, by the Flyers’ Dan Vladar.
But there were lots of blown chances among their 42 shots. Lots of shots wide, too, and shots blocked by the Flyers. The Penguins explored every way possible to not score.
Tommy Novak passed up a nailed-on third-period chance right in front of Vladar. It was like Novak had the yips. He wasn’t the only one.
The Penguins tried everything possible.
Except going to the net.
No traffic, no deflections, no rebounds, no chance to get lucky.
Like the Flyers did. Cam York’s overtime winner was a pedestrian attempt from the point that found its way through bodies.
Not scoring was a total team effort by the Penguins.
It had variety, too.
Not crowding Vladar was a constant theme.
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But early in the series, the Penguins had trouble merely getting zone entries as the Flyers tactically dominated the neutral zone. The Penguins got just 18 shots in the opening game, a 3-2 home defeat.
The Penguins solved that by gradually spreading the Flyers both vertically and horizontally. Their shots went up, though not drastically till Wednesday’s loss.
But this is about who didn’t score.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust netted five goals between them in the series vs. Philadelphia after aggregating 101 in the regular season.
Anthony Mantha went from a team-high 33 goals to scoring none against the Flyers. Looking awful in the process.
Egor Chinakhov and Ben Kindel joined Mantha in putting up a postseason doughnut.
That’s especially disappointing in the case of Chinakhov, who had 18 goals in 43 games after joining the Penguins via trade from Columbus and has the look of a pure sniper.
Chinakhov hit the post Wednesday but, in this series, mostly shot as if he thought the net was 6 inches wider.
When a defenseman and fourth-liner are tied for your team’s goal-scoring lead, you’re unlikely to win that series.
The Penguins didn’t.
The obvious lesson from this series is that losing the first three games is fatal. Duh.
You can adrenalize your dressing room, and your fans, and get people talking comeback. “Pens in 7,” etc.
But that particular comeback has been completed only four times in NHL history.
Painful to say, but the Flyers were worthy winners. Their young legs raced to a death-grip series lead, then held off the Penguins.
This space will soon examine where the Penguins go from here. But big change is imminent, and needed.
The Penguins started 8-2-2, abandoned development at the NHL level and gave an older team a chance at making a playoff run.
It didn’t.
Euthanasia must be applied to the aging process.
Kids have to play. Not just Kindel.
It was a fun season, a surprising season, but ultimately a wasted season.
The upcoming NHL draft is top-heavy with star-caliber forwards. The Penguins desperately need one of those, a kid juggernaut up front, but finished too high to select one.
They didn’t win a playoff series. Worse yet, they lost to their bitter rivals.
All the Penguins did was reach the mushy middle.
Better than the last three seasons, and it was exciting to see the old firm of Crosby, Kris Letang and Malkin in the playoffs again.
But the goal isn’t to scratch and claw into the playoffs, then lose in the first round.
The goal is to assemble a championship-caliber team.
That doesn’t happen overnight, and doesn’t happen by staying old. This was largely a lost year in the pursuit of that assembly.
Players always think they can win now, especially players who have won. It’s up to management to know better.