Score one for the defense
Malkin, Crosby never got going
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In the second period of Tuesday's 5-2 thumping of the Penguins in Pittsburgh, a rarity took place: a Zdeno Chara turnover.
With the Bruins holding a 2-1 lead, Chara received a cross-ice pass in his zone from defense partner Shane Hnidy. Initially, Chara couldn't handle the pass. Then, when Chara tried to go up the left wall, he didn't get enough juice on his clear, which allowed Sidney Crosby to glove the puck. Once Crosby gained control, he hit linemate Pascal Dupuis with a sharp pass, and the winger hammered a slap shot over Tim Thomas's left arm to tie the game.
Chara's error, however, was one of the few defensive breakdowns the Bruins committed in their ninth straight victory. It was an otherwise typical Chara performance in which he showcased his unparalleled reach and stick skills to shut down the Pittsburgh attack.
To start the game, Crosby centered the first line between Dupuis and Miroslav Satan, and Evgeni Malkin served as the pivot for Petr Sykora and Ruslan Fedotenko. Bruins coach Claude Julien, tabbing Malkin as the bigger threat, matched Chara against the second line whenever possible, leaving Dennis Wideman as Crosby's primary shadow.
But late in the first period, Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien put his two best players together. So in that way, it became easier for Julien to deploy Chara as a shutdown player against Pittsburgh's power line. And aside from his second-period giveaway, the Boston strongman (33 shifts, 27:44 ice time) helped neutralize Pittsburgh's fearsome duo. In turn, the Penguins didn't have enough firepower on their three remaining lines to dent what would become a three-goal Boston advantage.
"[Malkin and Crosby] are some of the best players in the league," Chara said. "Any time they're on the ice, you have to be aware of them. You have to play really smart and make good decisions with the puck. I thought we did a pretty good job."
Of course, Chara had help. Wideman wasn't on the ice for either Pittsburgh goal, and had a goal and two assists (a game-best plus-3). Thomas stopped 32 shots, his best save coming in the third period to stuff center Jordan Staal's shorthanded bid.
For the most part, the Bruins executed Julien's box-plus-one system, clogging up the slot and preventing the Penguins from generating any offense in the middle of the zone.
"That's something they do extremely well," Julien said of Pittsburgh's net-front play. "They cycle the puck and they find those guys in the slot area. We had to address that before the game, really making sure to take that part of their game away and making sure our guys collapsed. I thought they had a couple of chances in that first period from the corner to the slot area. But we tightened up after that."
The Bruins made one other move, assigning Martin St. Pierre to Providence. The 25-year-old St. Pierre appeared in five games with the big club since his recall Dec. 20. St. Pierre scored a shorthanded goal against the Penguins. His demotion indicates that Petteri Nokelainen, out since Dec. 12 with an upper-body injury, is ready for game action. Nokelainen will likely skate on the fourth line with Vladimir Sobotka and Shawn Thornton tonight in the rematch against Pittsburgh at TD Banknorth Garden.
