The Pittsburgh Penguins are on a roll. Winners of five straight, including Saturday’s 4-1 thrashing of those notorious bullies from Broad Street—the Philadelphia Flyers—in the latest installment of the Battle of Pennsylvania. One that enabled the black and gold to leapfrog the Islanders and claim third place in the Metropolitan Division.
For the record, that was no pushover they thumped. Paced by All-Star Claude Giroux and rookie sensation Shayne Gostisbehere, the Flyers were a piping hot 8-1-1 in their last 10 games entering yesterday’s contest.
The Penguins handled them with shocking ease. Beat them like a drum. Before a throng of 19,967 mostly crestfallen Philly faithful at Wells Fargo Center.
Perhaps the Pens’ most impressive effort under Mike Sullivan. A notion seconded by the 48-year-old skipper.
“I thought it was the most complete game that we’ve played to this point at both ends of the rink,” Sullivan said. “I thought when the time came to have to defend, we defended hard. Our attention to detail was really good. I thought everybody trusted one another out there. And when we play that way, we’re hard to play against.”
Hard to play against, indeed. Though the Flyers had some early odd-man breaks and grabbed a lead on a second-period goal by rugged Radko Gudas, they struggled to cope with the Pens’ team speed and relentless forecheck. Indeed, while the locals piled up 35 shots on goal, the flagging Flyers mustered a paltry 17—their lowest total of the campaign.
Even Phil Kessel got into the act. Turning on the jets, No. 81 hounded Ryan White into a critical turnover with three minutes left in the second period. The puck popped loose to Nick Bonino, who threaded a pretty pass to Carl Hagelin in the slot. “Hags” went top shelf, roofing the puck over harried Philly goalie Steve Mason.
Although Kessel didn’t earn an assist, he made arguably the play of the game.
The tally followed Trevor Daley’s equalizer, which came scarcely a minute after Gudas opened the scoring at 1:58 of the second period. The mobile Pens defenseman swooped in and beat Mason high to the glove side to finish off a pretty passing sequence by Bonino and Eric Fehr.
A minute and a half after Hagelin staked the Penguins to a 2-1 lead, Chris Kunitz padded the advantage with his 15th goal of the season, thanks to some diligent board work by Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist and a fortuitous bounce off the end boards.
After the Pens limited their hosts to eight third-period shots, Kris Letang provided some insurance by deflecting (some thought kicking) a Kunitz feed into an empty Flyers net. Following more reversals than a disputed court case, the goal stood.
So, most emphatically, has our hockey team.
No Evgeni Malkin? No problem. Our boys just close ranks and keep comin.’
Call it the march of the Penguins.
Bonino Hot
After struggling to produce for most of the season, Bonino appears to be hitting his offensive stride. Since returning from a hand injury on February 27, the faceoff specialist and penalty-killing ace has two goals and four assists in a dozen games.
Since replacing Malkin on the second line? He’s got a goal and three points—including yesterday’s two-assist performance that earned him a No. 1 star.
Better still, “Bones” has displayed good chemistry with his new linemates.
“We’re getting used to each other,” Bonino said. “Just trying to utilize (Hagelin and Kessel’s) speed. They’re really quick, and anytime we can back the D off and get the puck in their zone, whenever we’re in their zone, we’re really dangerous.”
Kunitz Too
With little fanfare, assistant captain Chris Kunitz continues his stunning resurgence.
Through the first two months of the season, “Kuny” collected a meager three goals in 23 games. Beginning with a two-assist effort against San Jose on December 1, the Saskatchewan native’s tallied 12 goals and 21 assists in 46 games.
Kunitz ranks seventh in the league with 238 hits—remarkable given his age (36) and smallish stature. He’s a plus-30 to boot—tied for third in the NHL.
Hi Rick,
Watched the game and here was my three impressions.
1.Our defense played both ends of the rink well. To me that was the biggest surprise of all. Cole,who I really liked last year after the trade,and then had to eat my words this year, did not look out of place.Schultz,who will never win any awards as a stay at home defense man played better than I expected.Did he make a few mistakes,yes but overall he deserved to be playing and he carried himself well. Dumoulin and Daley also play very well together. Letang and Maatta there is nothing to say. They hold their own against anybody. So for me, what I thought would be the Achilles heal of the Pen’s has actually surprised me and performed well in a physical enviorment.
Moving forward I strongly suggest to keep Lovejoy and Pouliot in the press box.
2.The play of Sidney Crosby !!! With and without the Puck ….. Off the chart.
Before Mike Sullivan he was 79 th in points in the League.Today he is third!!
Figures don’t lie.
3. The play of the Nobody’s.They had at least 10 different Pen’s players playing like they were Sidney Crosby. Rust breaking in alone and shooting a howitzer off the post.Had 4 hits as well. Hagelin scoring the same way. Daley,Dumoulin Cole, Bonino, Hornqvist, Kuhnhackl, Sheary. All played above their pay grade yesterday. Plus they did not back down when hit by the larger Flyers.
Solid effort by all !
We have watched the Bruins,Lighting, Rangers, Islanders,and now the Flyers. If we can win today convincingly against Washington, then I have to eat my words because I never believed our defense and smaller forwards could stand up against the bigger and more talented opponents.
Especially the Western teams.
I am glad to be wrong in this case. Hope we win big tonight.
cheers.
Hi Rick,
One other quick point. Yesterday,in Canada TSN,one of our TV sports channels picked up the game but it was off the Flyers network. I was very impressed how they commented positively about the play of the Penguins through out the game,much like the way Mike Lange does on his radio broadcasts that I enjoy so much. When I watch the Pen’s TV feed,I do not get the same feeling,if you know what I mean.Case in point, when Letang crossed checked his man from behind in the first period and no penalty was called. It was a penalty,but the refs missed it. It happens in Hockey.
The Flyers crossed checked the Pen’s player in the third period, exactly the same way and the ref called it. So the Flyers media shows both calls and they talked about it for 30 seconds and they got on with the game.If that was the Pen’s video feed, their announcers would still be complaining about it.
They certainly watch the game thru a different set of glasses than I do.
We are very lucky to have a solid Radio broadcaster like Mike Lange. He calls a great game and is usually impartial as much as he can be under the employ of the Penguins.
How do you feel about it Rick, or do you only have the Pen’s video feed to watch? Where I live we have 4 or 5 different sources of NHL Hockey, counting the Pen’s media link. So we get exposed to good and bad broadcasting. Easy to see the difference.
Cheers
Hey Rick,
6 to 2 ! Incredible. Yes I am eating my words now Rick .
Tommy K. with 3 points and a fight. Rust and Cullen playing like Super men. Great effort guys. Cole,Daley and Schultz all helped to shut down the number 1 team in the league.Not to shabby.
I still prefer size and grit on my team, but these last five games have made a believer out of me.
I think now these guys if they can stay healthy, just might make it to round two or even round three of the play offs and that my friend, was a huge change for me in these last two weeks.
cheers
Hey Jim,
Sorry I haven’t responded to any of your posts until now. I’ve been caught up in writing about this weekend’s wins.
Your comments are spot-on…especially your point about Crosby. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him play with this much focus and fire. He just looks reborn as a player.
I hear ya’ about eating your words. Me, too. I’m the guy who predicted a collapse about three months ago. Not to mention a gloom-and-doom future. Shows you what I know … 🙂
Most everybody’s playing well. But the kids have been something else. They’ve helped make us a pretty complete team. (Still wish we had some muscle to counter teams like Washington and Columbus.)
Sullivan and Rutherford deserve a TON of credit.
Right you are Rick..JR and MS do deserve a ton of credit. More than I ever gave them.
Also I think it is the play of the bottom six forwards and bottom 3 d men being thrust into such high profile situations that are leading the way. Sullivan has a lot of faith in his AHL alumni and it is starting to pay big dividends. Dan and Mike J. would never play the call ups the way Sullivan has.
Could you ever imagine a time when Dan B. would put a player like Rust and Tommy K. on a Power play at the same time ?? Never.
Remember how Mike J. used Daniel Sprong early this year and what a disaster that was? No excuses.
In previous years the former Pen’s Coaches would never play the Kids as they do now.
That to me is the Sullivan difference !! He made the decision to sink or swim with the kids….It worked.
Cheers.
Excellent point, Jim.
The kids have added so much to this team. Energy, grit, speed, enthusiasm…and now the (more than) occasional goal.
No, Dan Bylsma wouldn’t have played them. Although in all fairness, it was a different dynamic during his tenure. The Pens were on a short list of Cup contenders. Going with known quantities (veterans) trumped player development. It was the same way for the Pens back in the early-to-mid 1990s.
While we still had Cup hopes, I think the expectations for this team were lower. Makes it a little easier to tinker and experiment without all that pressure. Plus, with Duper’s retirement and all the injuries, we really didn’t have much choice. We had nowhere else to turn.
It helped that Sullivan coached these kids at Wilkes-Barre and knew what they could. He’s shown confidence in them and they’ve rewarded him…in spades.