After Saturday night’s Game 1 overtime loss to the underdog Montreal Canadiens, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan is going to have to go back to the drawing board. Major tweaks aren’t needed or helpful, and there’s no point to panic and make wholesale changes. The Pens controlled 60% of all shot attempts in the Game, firing 96 total towards Carey Price. They got 41 on goal. 5v5 scoring chances and high danger chances were 55.9% and 57.8%, respectively (according to Natural Stat Trick). The Pens did a lot of good things.
But Game 1 input shows there are several areas where the Pens can improve.