Penguins Fail To Generate Offense, Fall to Hurricanes, 4-1

Similar to the way things played out in Pittsburgh’s season-opening loss against the Rangers, it was a divisional matchup for the Penguins to forget on Friday night.

The Penguins fell the the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, in a game that was almost entirely controlled by the team in red. The Canes outshot the Penguins, 39-26. According to Natural Stat Trick, they outchanced the Penguins 46-30. They dominated play in the neutral zone and drove the Penguins to the perimeter in the offensive zone.

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Goaltender Joel Blomqvist gave the Penguins a chance early on and through the end of the second period, but eventually, even the Canes were too much for him. He stopped 35 of 39 Carolina shots on the night.

Simply put, the Hurricanes played their game all night. The Penguins never got to theirs because they never even had the chance to.

“If you can dictate the terms, you can play in their end. If you let them, you’re gonna play in your end,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We played in our end tonight.”

Here are a few other observations from Friday night’s loss:

– Despite giving up four goals, I thought Blomqvist still played a pretty good game.

The Canes had a ton of chances early on in the game. They outshot the Penguins 10-3 in the first period, and Blomqvist had to be good to keep the game within reach. He was, and because of him, the score was tied, 1-1, heading into the second period.

The only goal he would probaby want to have back is the fourth goal, but at that point, the game was already well out of reach.

– Zone entries are still pitiful for the Penguins’ power play, which went 0-5 on the evening. And, honestly, the power play as a whole looks horrendous right now.

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