The instant that puck popped high up over Louis Domingue's head, and even before the eternity it took to plop into the net behind him, these three truths became excruciatingly self-evident:
1. We're going to a Game 7.
2. Tristan Jarry had better play.
3. If he doesn't ... just start packing now.
Sorry, but it's well past time everyone hurls up the spicy broccoli, or whatever all that concocted silliness was, and acknowledges that Domingue's been by far the biggest reason the Penguins have blown two chances to bury the Rangers in this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series and, within that, by far the biggest reason they blew yet another two-goal lead in losing a gut-wrenching Game 6 by a 5-3 count Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Which is to say ... yeah, this:
Want to blame Evan Rodrigues for how this wound up?
Hey, go nuts. He's got no business taking a retaliatory penalty with a two-goal lead in the second period of a put-away game. Whether or not Ryan Lindgren's latest taking of liberties came first, this is no way for a player as smart as Rodrigues to conduct himself:
Mike Sullivan confirmed that with a menacing glare for the ages upon Rodgrigues' return to the bench once the Rangers scored five seconds later, and the coach would have this brief reply afterward when I asked how disappointing this must've been, coming from one of his most trusted players: "Yeah, he can't ... you know, he just simply can't ... he's got to keep his emotions in check. That's a necessary part of winning at this time of year."
Want to blame the refs?
Fair game, too. Both Kevin Pollock and T.J. Luxmore were brutal, and it was the latter who made the call on Rodrigues -- all the way out from center red, while Pollock was 25 feet away from it -- but ignored Lindgren shoving Rodrigues from behind into the boards just beforehand.
This doesn't alter that Rodrigues shouldn't have had the reaction he did, but it also doesn't absolve the officiating. A one-for-one was the common-sense call.
Want to blame Bryan Rust?
OK, but ...
... that'd be awfully tough. If he takes his time to settle the final piece of that terrific tic-tac-toe rush, maybe he buys time for Igor Shesterkin to make the save. Then we'd all be pointing the finger at him for failing to shoot rather than the one-timed push he tried.
Also, I mean, he scored a huge goal earlier, he's been part of the solution all along, and his own stare up to the heavens after that missed shot told the tale that no one could've felt worse.
Want to blame Jacob Trouba?
I'm all on board. His chicken-wing cheap shot to Sidney Crosby's head in Game 5 was chicken-something-else, and it concussed the most inspirational version of this living legend any of us had witnessed in half a decade. Worse, it was a crime that'd come without punishment.
But on this night, Trouba was on the ice -- no, principally responsible -- for all three of the Penguins' goals, and that's only the purest form of retribution. So there was at least that.
Anyone else?
Nah, didn't think so.
I'm going to go at this subject, hopefully, one final time: No NHL team, no matter what it gets from its skaters, will take a best-of-seven series in front of goaltending that's got a .900 save percentage or lower. And Domingue's currently lugging an .898 save percentage, having given up 19 goals in the first starts since the Game 1 triple-overtime, which he entered in the second OT and stopped all 17 shots ... by opponents whose tongues were dragging.
Understand, please, it's not about nitpicking whether or not he could/should stop this goal or that one. Not when it comes in this kind of bulk. Not when it's in these circumstances.
In Game 5, the Penguins were up, 2-0, and barely allowing the Rangers to breathe all over the rink. And then, in a 2:42 span, the Rangers were up, 3-2.
In this Game 6, the Penguins were up, 2-0, on goals by Jeff Carter and Rust:
And then, in an 8:43 span, the Rangers were up, 3-2:
Splice away, isolate on some Kris Letang screen here or some New York traffic there, and it'll all still boomerang back to not getting the saves when they're needed most. When a team needs a pick-me-up. Or a penalty-kill. Or plain old stability.
Do the Penguins look a little "rattled" in these sequences, as Mike Matheson strikingly suggested after this game?
If so, as anyone at any level of hockey can attest, that tends to begin in the back. Bad goaltending undoes everything. Defenders begin thinking they've got to block everything. They'll stray from position. They'll eschew a smooth breakout in front of a bank off the glass. They'll become .. precisely the mess we've been seeing in those patches.
So, even when Malkin can pull the Penguins up to 3-3 with a brilliant solo effort, as he did later in the second ...
... it can all go poof with a pathetic softy like Chris Kreider's 70-footer with 1:28 left.
A goal that actually had a strikingly similar prequel a couple years ago when Domingue was with the Devils:
Domingue 2 years ago pic.twitter.com/fLeVUulCYV
— Gregory Balloch (@GregBalloch) May 14, 2022
Ow.
All right, that's enough. I'm not here to rip a 29-year-old AHL journeyman who seems to be an awesome guy. He is what he is. And if anything, Ron Hextall did well to have him in the fold in the extraordinary event that his top two goaltenders would go down at the same time.
But this was the worst time.
Check that: Sunday, 7:10 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, would be the worst time.
Look, I'm about as qualified to make medical assessments as I am to replace Domingue myself. So I won't do that with any of Jarry, Sid or Rickard Rakell, least of all those last two, since Sid and Rakell are both presumed to be out with concussions. Head injuries can be life-changers, as the two most harrowing years of Sid's career can linger to remind.
But here's what's known about Jarry's status: He's now participated in two optional skates, before each of Games 5 and 6, and he's acquitted himself quite well in both. Letang, while acknowledging his own lack of medical qualifications when Jarry's status came up after this one, also would say, "He looked pretty good to me."
And now, here's what's known about the Penguins' status: They'll have a better chance of taking Game 7 with Jarry tied to the goal posts, a la poor 'Goldberg' from the Disney's original 'Mighty Ducks' film:
Anyone have some masking tape?
No, really, find a way. Find a faith healer who specializes in feet. Because it doesn't appear there's any other way to finish off this feat.
RANGERS
The Rangers' Igor Shesterkin answers questions from reporters Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.
• The throbbing crowd of 18,352 certainly did its part, front to finish, not only in supporting the home team but also in tormenting both -- and at times almost simultaneously -- Trouba and Shesterkin. The former heard boos with each touch of the puck, and the latter heard the now-familiar 'EEE-GOR! EEE-GOR!' throughout.
Shesterkin's response afterward to all that: “When they say ‘Igor,’ I just say, ‘OK.’ ”
• In general, the Rangers expressed pride in having taken the past two to tie the series, with Gerard Gallant saying, "Showed some character in our group. Being down 2-0, it wasn't looking too good in the first."
And then they started shooting.
"We've been able to come together as a team through hard times over the course of the year," Kreider said. "I'm proud of the way this team competes, whether we're down or whether we're up."
• This might be the best hockey I've ever seen from Guentzel, and that's saying something. He's trying moves -- and pulling them off -- that I'd never seen from him. Amazing awareness, creativity and execution.
• Which has been worse for the Penguins in this series, the power play or the penalty-kill?
The answer might well be both, per our Danny Shirey's new Drive to the Net.
• All I'll add on this subject is that the five-on-three for a full 1:07 of the second period was the sort of passive, sloppy nonsense one might expect from a random mid-November Monday night in Buffalo. It was jarring. Not so much the zero shots, but the zero ... anything. No working the puck low. No support. No ... energy, for crying out loud.
• No clue why the Penguins have habitually slipped off in second periods all season, but I asked Letang, and he replied, "I mean, I think we we came with a strong push early on. The second period, you expect the other team to rebound and come at you, and sometimes it puts you on your heels and you have to you have to manage the ebbs and flows of the game. So we know it was not going to be easy."
After that, I remain clueless about it.
• This, by the way, was Matheson's full "rattled" quote: "I think the issue has more been the second period, where we get on our heels a little bit and can't capture our game quick enough. "They're going to have their pushes. They might score one or two. I think we need to do a better job of not getting rattled in those situations and just staying the course."
Informed of Matheson's quote, Sullivan responded, "I didn't see our team getting rattled. The demeanor on the bench is fine. The conversation on the bench amongst the players is fine. I didn't see that at all. You have to give their team credit. They have a really good team over there, too. They can score goals. I think, for the most part, we've done a good job of limiting the amount of quality looks that they're getting, but they're going to get some."
I'm with Matheson on this, but where I differ is that I see a team getting rattled by the realization it's using an AHL goaltender.
• I'm also with Matheson on this reply he gave to my question about using Sid's injury -- and how it occurred -- as motivation:
"Well, it's always tough seeing a guy like that, who means so much to the team, go down, and I think you can definitely use that as motivation," he'd say. "There's a sense that that you want to step up and do better and take on that challenge and do right by him, you know, to get him to a next game, whenever that might be. I think that's that's the motivation right there."
• Imagine the Penguins being eliminated in back-to-back first rounds because of goaltending: Domingue's .898 is, believe it or not, a bit better than Jarry's .898 against the Islanders a year ago.
There's a reason it's the sport's most important position.
• Anyone up for a little Sullivan for a post-bummer perk-up?
"I just think, when you get in one game, anything can happen," he opened his final answer of the press conference. "And so, we've got to make sure that that we bring the right mindset, we bring in the right positive attitude, we bring a lot of energy, and then it's going to boil down to execution. And I believe in this group. I think we have enough regardless of who's in our lineup. I think we've got enough to win. We were right there tonight. You know, we had opportunities to win. It didn't happen for us. We're playing against a good opponent. Give them credit. But I still believe in the group we have, and I know we're very capable."
• Oh, and the Penguins are 6-0 all-time in a road Game 7, including some of the most spectacular victories in franchise history.
• Thanks for reading, as always. Right back to Manhattan, where all the baristas in Chelsea already know my name.
NHL
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Chris Kreider, Rangers LW
2. Mika Zibanejad, Rangers C
3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brian Boyle, center, left this game in the first period with a lower-body injury and didn't return.
• Sidney Crosby, center, is out with a concussion. His status is day today. He skated with skills coach Ty Hennes early Friday morning, but didn't participate in the optional skate.
• Tristan Jarry, goaltender, is out with a broken bone in his foot. His status is day-to-day. He participated in the optional skate here before Game 6.
• Rickard Rakell, forward, is out with a head injury. His status is day-to-day. He participated again in the skate and was a game-time decision.
• Brian Dumoulin, defenseman, is out with a lower-body injury. His status is day-to-day. He's yet to resume skating.
• Casey DeSmith, goaltender, is done for the season after having core muscle surgery last Friday.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Heinen-Rodrigues-Kapanen
Zucker-Carter-McGinn
Boyle-Blueger-O'Connor
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
And for Gallant's Rangers:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Vatrano
Panarin-Strome-Copp
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Motte-Rooney-Reaves
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Braun-Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
There'll be a practice Saturday, noon, in Cranberry, before the Penguins fly back to New York. And again, Game 7 the next night has a 7:10 p.m. faceoff at the Garden. Danny Shirey and I will make the trip. Taylor Haase is ill.
THE CONTENT
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