Empty Thoughts: Bruins 4, Penguins 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-1 loss to the Bruins:

Evgeni Malkin doesn’t enjoy speaking to the media in any language, particularly a second one.

He’s a relatively introverted person and having to explain why the power play stinks in words that don’t always come naturally to him is low on his list of favorite activities.

As a result, he limits how often he shares his thoughts, at least publicly.

(To be clear, his English is remarkably better than the average Pittsburgh sports writer’s Russian.)

But on the occasions he does, they are often remarkably introspective, profound and frank.

His comments after Thursday’s game were one of those occasions.

Having been limited to three points (one goal, two assists) in eight games, Malkin called himself out for not doing enough to help his sputtering team.

“I understand I (am) not playing great right now,” Malkin said via video conference. “It’s a different season. A short training camp, no preseason games. It’s a little bit different for sure. But I need to look at myself (in) the mirror. I need to find my body, I need to find myself. I have to help the team for sure. I understand that. I’m not happy with my game for sure right now. It’s just come to the rink every day and work and fight like every shift. It’s hard to play maybe right now. No fans, it’s a little bit different.

”But we’re all in the same situation right now, including myself. It’s tough to say about my game right now. I need many good things. But I hope it’s coming and I believe in myself.”

During the 2019 offseason, Malkin beefed up his training regimen to combat the realities of being in his mid-30s and he came through with 74 points (25 goals, 49 assists) in 55 games, good enough for a point-per-game percentage of 1.35, one of the highest figures in his career.

This past offseason, due to the pandemic, Malkin, like so many other NHLers, was restricted in how he trained in Russia.

While he explained that impediment, he was careful to avoid citing it as an excuse.

“We know the situation (with covid-19),” Malkin said. “Everything is closed in Russia too. We have ice but we don’t have many gyms. Everything is closed. It’s not easy to find. I don’t want to say it’s just that I can’t find a gym. … I’m doing my best. I skate every day. I try to do a little bit of workouts with my body, like squats, push-ups. I feel OK. My legs, my body feels fine.”

Regardless of those external factors, Malkin realizes he has to be a better player than what he’s offered to this point of the 2020-21 campaign.

“Need to be a little bit hungry,” Malkin said. “Win every battle in the corner, win faceoffs, just help the team. I understand I’m not playing great right now. But the season just started. It’s a long season.”

What happened

The Bruins claimed a 1-0 lead 6:10 into regulation. Off a one-timer from the right point by Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo, Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry punched away a rebound to the far boards. Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk beat Penguins forward Jake Guentzel to the loose puck, took it low to the left corner and fed a pass to the slot. Penguins defenseman Kevin Czuczman, appearing in his first NHL game since 2014, intercepted the puck and hurriedly flicked a weak clearing attempt to the slot where Bruins forward Chris Wagner gladly accepted the charity and whacked a forehand shot past Jarry’s blocker for his first goal of the season. There were no assists.

An unlikely source scored the Penguins’ first goal at 15:03 of the first. Settling a loose puck at the right point, defenseman Cody Ceci dragged it to the high slot, used Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller as a screen and snapped a wrister past the blocker of goaltender Jaroslav Halak. It was Ceci’s first score of the season and first as a member of the Penguins. Forwards Bryan Rust and Teddy Blueger had assists.

Boston reclaimed a 2-1 lead late in the first at the 18:53 mark. Settling a clearing attempt at the Penguins’ left point, Bruins forward Anders Bjork deked past stickless Penguins forward Brandon Tanev, moved into the left circle and saucered a pass attempt off the backside of a kneeling Blueger and toward the cage. Above the crease, Bruins forward Sean Kuraly shoved Czuczman to the ice to establish position, only to have the puck glance off his left ankle and bounce past Jarry’s right skate. Kuraly was credited with his first goal while Bjork had the lone assist.

It became a 3-1 game at 8:13 of the second period. Chasing down a loose puck in the Penguins’ left corner, Grzelcyk whipped a pass to the slot. Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron fumbled the puck for a moment while battling Penguins defenseman Kris Letang but regained it and tucked a backhander beyond Jarry’s right skate for his fourth goal. Assists went to Grzelcyk and forward Charlie Coyle.

A power-play goal at 1:40 into the third put the Bruins up by three goals. After a defensive zone turnover by Ceci on his own end boards, Bergeron banked a pass from behind the cage off the right wing boards to forward Brad Marchand at the right point. Marchand then fed the puck to the center point for defenseman Charlie McAvoy who, in turn, dealt it to forward David Krejci on the left half wall. Krejci backhanded the puck back to McAvoy at center point. The puck was then slid to the right circle for Marchand who one-touched a pass toward the inside of the circle for Bergeron. With his stick cocked, Bergeron whipped a one-timer over Jarry’s glove hand on the near side. Marchand and McAvoy collected assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Bruins led in shots, 20-17.

• Bruins forward Craig Smith led the game with four shots.

• Forward Sidney Crosby led the Penguins with three shots.

• Ceci (?!?) led the game in ice time with 23:45 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• McAvoy led the Bruins with 23:31 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• The Bruins controlled faceoffs, 27-16 (63%)

• Bergeron was 13 for 18 (72%).

• Malkin was 5 for 8 (63%).

• Blueger, Ceci and McAvoy each led the game with two blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• This was the Bruins’ game in just about every way, shape or form. There were only 37 shots total! The Bruins just made this a tight defensive game, forced the Penguins into mistakes and cashed in on them more often than not.

Even if it was a little on the boring side, this was a thoroughly dominant game by the Bruins.

• Letang had a wreck of a game. He handled the puck like one of his arms fell asleep for most of the game. Considering how beat up the defensive group is, he almost looked like he was trying to do way too much instead of just trying to keep things buttoned down. Either way, he needed to be much better than what he offered in this game.

• The Penguins’ defense is quite an assortment of misfits right now. Sure, there are some incumbents such as Letang and Marino. But between a rookie playing his first NHL games (P.O Joseph), a veteran trying to fix his career (Ceci), a perpetual No. 7 defender (Chad Ruhwedel) and a career minor leaguer (Czuczman), this was a real patchwork crew of defensemen.

• Ceci has been really up and down so far. There have been some reasons for optimism, such as with the goal he scored in this game. Then there have been plenty of reasons to be frustrated, such as with the turnover leading to Marchand’s second goal.

He hasn’t been a complete disaster as some forecast when the Penguins signed him. He’s actually been pretty good in some instances. But Ceci needs to find a greater level of consistency.

• Czuczman had a rough game being directly involved on Boston’s first two goals. Maybe it’s not fair to pin this on him given the circumstances. But he did not impress.

• The Penguins have now dressed 10 defensemen through eight games this season. They dressed 10 defensemen in 69 games last season.

• The Penguins power play was 0 for 3 and only generated three shots. It was 0 for 6 on Tuesday. Suffice it to say, this unit has gone south after a solid start to the season.

• Jarry wasn’t awful. He didn’t steal any goals but he played well enough to win if he had a better defensive corps in front of him.

• Grzelcyk left the game early in the third period at the 19:12 mark due to an undisclosed injury.

Historically speaking

• The Penguins lost their 10th consecutive game in Boston dating back to 2015. Their last win at TD Garden was a 3-2 overtime victory on Nov. 24, 2014.

• Ceci became the 537th player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• Czuczman became the 21st player to wear No. 27 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Jim Morrison, Joe Noris, Jim Shires, Hank Nowak, Yves Bergeron, Pete LaFramboise, Mike Corrigan, Jacques Cossette, Rod Schutt, Todd Charlesworth, Gilles Meloche, Scott Bjugstad, Gilbert Delorme, Jamie Leach, Glen Murray, Eddie Olczyk, Alexei Kovalev, Georges Laraque, Craig Adams, Nick Bjugstad.

• Czuczman went nearly seven years between NHL games. His last contest at this level came with the New York Islanders in a 4-3 road win against the Buffalo Sabres.

Publicly speaking

• Malkin on his team’s woes:

“We all know we have a great team, we have great players. It’s games right now that we need (to) fight every shift. We play against a good team tonight. We see Boston, they (are) faster, they (are) hungry and they win every battle in the corner. We need to look in the mirror. Fight every shift. It’s not a pretty game right now. … We need to play simple and we need to just work, work, work.”

• Coach Mike Sullivan on his team’s poor play:

“We’ve got to play the game the right way. That’s what I think. We’ve got to defend when it’s called upon and not just try to outscore teams. You’ve got to be harder to play against if we’re going to find success consistently. And we weren’t hard to play against tonight.”

• Blueger on his team offering a poor cohesive effort:

“(The Bruins) work together with five guys on the ice really well, in sync. The biggest thing I felt was they just outworked us today. Won most of the puck battles, one-on-one battles, got to pucks along the wall. That ended up being the difference. That’s something we need more of, is to just be a harder team to play against. (Be) a little more physical and work together instead of trying to play too much individually.”

• Blueger spoke about the Penguins surrendering the first lead once again:

“Very difficult. When you’re chasing the game, it kind of ruins the flow of the game a little bit. You’re not rolling four lines as much. Guys aren’t in as much of a rhythm. Obviously, it’s tougher mentally too. It’s frustrating. It’s something that we’ve got to figure out here pretty quick. The longer this goes on, the hard and harder it is going to be to win games. And obviously, with a shorter season, we can’t afford to fall behind.”

• Ceci on the Penguins being limited offensively:

“From a defensive perspective, they’re pretty good at blocking shots. It’s tough to get pucks through. We just need to do a better job of delivering it there and giving our forwards second chances at the net.”

• Sullivan on the lack of offense from his team:

“We need an element of simplicity with our offensive game. I don’t think we’re putting nearly enough pucks in play that give our guys opportunities for next-play chances whether it be off a rebound or a deflection and things of that nature. We’ve got to go low to high and look to shoot the puck. Then we’ve got to get inside and we didn’t do that nearly enough.”

• Sullivan critiqued the power play’s malfunctions:

“It’s a number of things. We didn’t execute. It’s decision making. It’s working together. It’s a number of different things when our power play isn’t firing on all cylinders. You give Boston credit. They defend hard. They’ve got a good penalty kill unit. We just didn’t execute. We can make better decisions. I also think there can be some simplicity with our power play. We’ve got to get more pucks at the net to give our guys an opportunity to create off of that shot. … My experience of coaching our guys is they are at their best when their play turns into instinctive play. That’s what happens off of shots on goal. The rebound goes somewhere and everybody is forced to go somewhere. That’s usually when penalty kills get out of their structure and we can take advantage. We’re just not putting enough pucks there.”

• Malkin on former general manager Jim Rutherford’s departure on Wednesday:

“First off, I think it’s a surprise for everyone. We (were) not ready for that. I want to say thank you to Jim for sure. He’s won with this team two (Stanley Cup championships). It’s amazing. He did a great job every year. He (did not) sit and wait. He was always trying to (make trades), find better players. I remember people (were) not happy maybe when Phil Kessel came to the team. But it was amazing trade. I want to just say thank you. He’s a great person, a great (general manager). It’s a little bit of a surprise at first. But … it’s not the first time. Sometimes coaches, (general managers), players change. We need to focus on just playing games.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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