Pens Lose To Caps, No One's Surprised

There's not much to be said about the Pens 5-2 loss to the Caps yesterday. I'm not surprised one bit that they lost to the Capitals in such a convincing fashion, especially with how intense Saturday's game against the Flyers was.

Now, this would have been an enormously huge win for the Pens, but it just wasn't in the cards. Let's take a look at the goals against and assign some Hal Gill Quotient points to the deserving players.

Goal #1 - Alex Ovechkin scores on the powerplay - Sergei Fedorov has the puck in the corner and feeds Nicklas Backstrom at the bottom of the right faceoff circle. Shockingly enough, Hal Gill was the man Fedorov beat with the short pass.

Backstrom then sends the puck over to Ovechkin, who's streaking down the weakside with a wide open net. Ovie fires the one-timer and it's 1-0 Caps. Rob Scuderi attempted to block Backstrom's pass, but missed.

Points assigned: Gill - 0.5, Scuderi 0.5

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Goal #2 - Alexander Semin scores on the powerplay - For some reason, all four Penguins were along the near side boards trying to get the puck out of the zone. The four Penguins on the ice were: Sidney Crosby, Matt Cooke, Brooks Orpik and Mark Eaton.

Sid, Orpik, and Cooke were pursuing Backstrom along the wall. Eaton then slides over to mark Ovechkin, leaving Semin wide open in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. Backstrom chips the puck past all three Pens into the vicinity of Semin, who handles the puck and dekes Fleury to the ice for a 2-1 lead.

Points assigned - Orpik 0.5 for being out of position, Eaton 0.5 for cheating to Ovechkin.

Goal #3 - Fedorov blows one through Fleury - Jordan Staal turns the puck over while trying to return a pass to Ryan Whitney along the nearside at the blueline. Semin picked off the pass and found Fedorov entering the zone. Fedorov tees it up from the slot and blows it through the legs of Fleury for a 3-1 lead.

Points assigned - .75 to Staal for the turnover, .25 to Fleury for not getting the pads down quick enough despite the wide open slapper from 15 feet.

Goal #4 - Shaone Morrison scores on rebound blast from tough angle - Ovechkin dances around Tyler Kennedy at the top of the right faceoff circle and dances his way to the nearside to get a shot on net. Fleury makes the save and deflects the rebound aside. Morrison skates down past the hashmarks along the wall and rips the puck right back at Fleury who misplayed the angle and its now 4-2 Caps.

Points assigned - Pascal Dupuis 0.5 for not picking up his pointman (Morrison) streaking to the puck. Fleury 0.5 for not stopping a shot from that bad of an angle.

Goal #5 - Fleury goes behind the net to play the puck to Gill, but the pass gets broken up by Semin. An attempted pass into the slot by Semin goes awry, but the puck finds its way back to Tom Poti at the point. Poti unloads and misses the net by about a foot to Fleury's right. Brooks Laich pounces on the loose puck and just throws it on net. The puck must have had eyes as it found a small opening Fleury must have left and just barely crosses the line. 5-2 Caps.

Points assigned - Fleury 0.5 for not blocking off the post and allowing a very weak goal, Gill 0.25 for not calling Fleury off on the pass or assisting in that aspect of the play in any way, Scuderi 0.25 for not picking up Laich after Poti's shot.


Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Marc-Andre Fleury - 3.58 - 6 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP
Kris Letang - 2.84 - 3 Games Played
Hal Gill - 2.34 - 5 GP
Mark Eaton - 2.33 - 6 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 1.75 - 5 GP
Brooks Orpik - 1.75 - 6 GP
Jordan Staal - 1.75 - 6 GP
Rob Scuderi - 1.25 - 6 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 6 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 6 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 4 GP