It was a night of firsts on Monday evening at Consol Energy Center. The Penguins won their first game in five tries under new coach Mike Sullivan, beating Columbus for the first time this season. Rookie goalie Matt Murray made 22 saves to notch his first NHL win. Fellow rookie Scott Wilson registered his first NHL point. Defenseman David Warsofsky—his first Penguins goal.
Of all the firsts, Eric Fehr’s may have been the most significant. When he challenged Columbus disturber Brandon Dubinsky thirty seconds into the second period, it was the first documented fight of the Manitoba native’s 11-year NHL career.
“We were playing physical against each other,” Fehr explained. “Emotions got a little high.”
His actions—spur of the moment or otherwise—sent a message. Crystal clear. Crosscheck our captain in the head? You’ll pay. Even if it’s down the road.
The point was reinforced minutes later by Wilson. Boone Jenner thrust out a knee and sent black-and-gold superstar Evgeni Malkin tumbling to the ice in pain. Number 23 didn’t hesitate. He went right after the burly Blue Jacket. In case Jenner misunderstood, Chris Kunitz drilled him into the boards later on.
The Penguins weren’t going to play the patsy. Not on this night.
Fehr and Wilson lost their respective battles. But they helped win the war. The fired-up Pens pumped four second-period goals past Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo—including one by Malkin and a pair by Phil Kessel—to wipe out a 1-0 deficit. Geno tacked on an empty-netter in the third period to seal a convincing 5-2 victory.
Along the way the locals gained a measure of respect…from an unlikely source.
“They have a good team over there,” Dubinsky said afterward.
Hey Rick,
Best of the season to you and your family.Hope your holiday is a good one.
I too was a little inspired by the game against the Blue Jackets. Credos to Fehr for trying to fight. Malkin did once this year,so I guess Fehr thought he should too. But in reality it was just window dressing.Fehr does not fight and he does not intimidate anybody. Wilson, he is to small to intimidate. He is going to get really hurt by a large d man like Shea Weber some day and he will be gone for the season with a lower body injury.Maybe never play in the NHL again.The real problem is Mario does not want a team that fights period ! No grit as you mentioned many times before.
I agree with pen’s 4ver assessment that this team has got a lot of problems and we are not an elite team, no matter what Bulls**t the Pens spin doctors try to sell us.We have not played the elite teams often enough to see how weak we really are. We lost Fleury, Letang and Crosby. All do to physical play.
When they return, all you need to do is hit them again.10 or 20 games.Keep it up.They can not take the physical pounding anymore.Why? Because they are not young men and all have histories of same serious injuries.
Second point,Daniel Spong.( I like him.) He was drafted about 48 th, weighs 180 pounds and is listed at 6 foot.He is our future they tell us. For some magical reason, he was left to play in the NHL.Of course Mc David, drafted 1st, Eikel drafted 2nd, and Hannifin drafted 4th, they are playing in the NHL.But from # 5 to # 48 there are very few players remaining in the NHL.
Rick, it wasn’t because he was that good…it was because our team was that BAD !! On any of the top 10 teams in the league,he would never get a shot at playing until he was ready.Those 10 teams already have a few high first round picks playing in the minors that could play anywhere on our team. We don’t !
Final point,tonight I just read a Pens piece called “Our top 25 prospects under 25.” It sums up the Pens really well.It will make any knowledgeable Pens fan CRY.
It starts off saying “how lucky we are that are core players are 27 to 31 years old”. Rick, that is not young..Letang and Kessel are 28 .Crosby is 29 .Malkin is 30. Fleury is 31.( or they are very close to it.) Their best years are behind them !! Second point is that we all should be really happy this year we get 2 second round picks, for the first time in 9 years unless we miss the playoffs and then we get our own 1st round pick back from Toronto and the Ducks second.Toronto then gets our first in 2017. Lucky?? It is sad.We need to get 2 top ten first round picks this year alone and then maybe we could start to rebuild the franchise.
Then finally read the list and really look at the prospect players. We have Murray and Jarry in goal.( Jarry is hurt again.He was hurt last year too.) Murray is for real.On defense they have Matta,and Derrick Poluot.( Matta has had major injuries and so has DP, plus he can not make the NHL roster for other reasons.) At forward they list,Spong, Oscar Sundqvist and Beau Bennett. The rest are small,3,4,5,6 round draft picks or college pick ups. You can not build a championship team on the caliber of players we have in our minor system.
You can trade Murray and possibly DP. Then you add Kunitz, Perron, Ian Cole,Ben Lovejoy and now they are talking about Hornquist.
Nobody wants these players except for Murray and Hornquist. To add insult to injury Rick, you have about 1 to 1.3 million in Cap space to work with.You can not add any real talent give those restrictions.
So the only option is to trade some of the CORE pieces. Dump some large salaries and pick up younger talent and draft picks!! Hard to do when the team is for sale.
Merry Christmas Rick ! Thanks again for letting me ramble on.
Hello Jim,
Good points, as always. Like you, I’m not as high on the Pens’ prospects as they seem to be. It’s true that a handful of forwards … most notably Dea, Sheary, Simon, and Wilson…have put up decent to excellent numbers with the Baby Pens. But they’re all undersized. Ditto Jake Guentzel (University of Nebraska—Omaha), who apparently is slow to boot.
Just what we need. Small AND slow.
I truly don’t understand the Pens’ organizational logic—or lack of. With the NHL trending toward a more grind-it-out game, we’re cultivating an army of Smurfs. Talk about a disconnect from reality…
I do like Sprong. Great release, great speed, and a nose for the net. Murray seems to be for real. Defensive issues aside, Pouliot has mouth-watering skills. And I’m hoping the two bigger forwards we have at Wilkes-Barre—Sundqvist and Kuhnhackl—will eventually fill bottom-six roles for the Pens.
Merry Christmas, Jim. Best wishes to you and your family…and to all our PenguinPoop readers…for a wonderful holiday and a blessed and prosperous New Year.
Hey Rick,
Thanks for the kind words.
Another concern about the Pens organization.I have just read a Dec 26 article about how many players each NHL team has playing at the 2016 World Junior Championships . Washington has 3 players, LA Kings has 4 players,Chicago has 4 players,Tampa has 3,Rangers has 3, Dallas has 2,Islanders has 3, Minnesota has 5,Ducks has 3,Detroit has 6 !
THE PENS HAVE NONE ! ZERO. This shows the strength of other top teams with them having young elite talent in their minor systems.
These are the best future players in the World. We always had at least 2 or 3 playing in the WJHC.Some times more. Not today ! Why?? Poor management . I call it greed and stupidity.
To make things even worse.Philadelphia has 7 players,Boston has 6 players,Arizona has 7 players,Calgary has 4 players,Florida has 4 players, even Carolina that the Pens fans like to criticize because of Rutherford has 4 players and the Blue Jackets have 3 players in this prestigious Tournament. I repeat we have NONE.
One must also look at our scouting system as well, because if a team like Detroit can find 6 World Class prospects,many of them drafted in the second,thru fifth rounds ….WHY NOT THE Pens?
Flyers with 7… ouch..That is not good for us moving forward.
Well sorry Rick, good article, but I’m still not impressed with that win, let’s seee how they do after the break with some of the “elite” teams, because the Pen’s are no longer a elite team and if you can’t beat the best you aren’t going anywhere and right now they are not a playoff team heck only what 7pts. from last!!!
Thanks pen’s 4ver.
I try to write about what I see…good and bad. And this definitely was the most inspired outing for the Pens in a long while.
I can’t stress how much the fights made a difference…especially Fehr’s. It completely swung the momentum of the game. How Rutherford (and others in the organization) can’t see the value in having a few rugged players to provide some backbone is beyond me.
Keep in mind–Fehr and Wilson aren’t fighters. It was a real stretch for them to respond the way they did.
Again, I’m not talking about an enforcer. I’m talking about players like Jenner and Dubinsky and Blue Jackets’ captain Nick Foligno. Guys who play a hard game and can handle some policing chores if need be.
Shifting gears, I like what I see in Mike Sullivan. I like the way he communicates with the players on the bench. More often than not with a hand on their back or shoulder–offering encouragement and support. Not to bash Mike Johnston–everybody’s got a different style. But he seemed a bit stiff and removed from the troops by comparison.
While I’m talking positives, the Trevor Daley trade looks like a steal. However, like you, I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet. The Pens need to keep it up.