No Stars No Worries; Penguins Paste Toronto, 7-1

As I watched in slack-jawed awe from my perch on a bar stool at the Pennsbury Station last night while our Penguins pounded visiting Toronto, I confess to being astounded. Not to be negative, but I figured this would surely be the night when all the injuries and illnesses caught up to us. After all, we were down top guns Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Jeff Carter, not to mention ace blueliner Kris Letang. Flex Seal be darned, here are only so many holes you can patch before a ship starts to take on water and sink, right?

Yet to my utter amazement, not only did we stay afloat, we destroyed the Maple Leafs in the process. For the record, a pretty good team.

Drew O’Connor drew first blood for our boys just past the midway point of the opening period. Planted in the crease, the big rookie served as a bank board for Marcus Pettersson’s long-range shot. However, the Leafs quickly knotted the score less than a minute later on a tally by Jason Spezza to cap the scoring for the opening 20 minutes. Giving scant indication of the fireworks and utter domination to follow.

Mike Matheson lit the fuse on the Pens’ pyrotechnics 98 tics into the second stanza. Gathering in a pass from Kasperi Kapanen, he turned Leafs defender and former Pens draft pick Jake Muzzin into a blue-and-white pylon, circled behind the net and beat netminder Jack Campbell to the far post.

On the ensuing shift Jason Zucker lasered the puck past Campbell from the left wall to make it 3-1 good guys. From there we proceeded to methodically pour it on. O’Connor notched his second goal of the night, working a give-and-go with Danton Heinen before barreling past Alexander Kerfoot and banking a shot in off Muzzin’s stick blade. (Dare I say shades of Kevin Stevens?) Less than three minutes later Pettersson scored on a prudent pinch to make it 5-1.

Hoping to salvage something from the game, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe pulled the beleaguered Campbell in favor of Michael Hutchinson to begin the final frame. It made no difference who was stationed in the Leafs’ net. Brian Boyle struck on the opening shift, taking a pretty saucer pass from Dominik Simon in stride and blowing it past Hutchinson. Two minutes later Evan Rodrigues scored on a top shelf power-play snipe with Jake Guentzel providing net-front interference.

Down 7-1, the visitors grew surly. Michael Bunting elbowed Brock McGinn up high. Following a scrum around the Toronto net, Wayne Simmonds roughed up O’Connor and whacked the rookie with his stick for good measure.

Welcome to the NHL, kid.

Call me Neanderthal, but I kept hoping Boyle would answer the bell. Minutes later I got my wish. As Simmonds toted the puck through the neutral zone Mark Friedman gave him a shot with his stick. Simmonds responded, chopping down the feisty Pens defender before running Simon in the corner. Boyle flew in like a freight train to intervene.

The big guy didn’t win the ensuing fight. In fact, he absorbed a pretty good beating from Simmonds, one of the genuine tough guys in the league. But standing up for his team?

To borrow from an old MasterCard commercial.

Priceless.

Puckpourri

The locals outshot Toronto, 33-29, and dominated the faceoff circle (64 percent). Just about every other aspect of the game, too, including blocked shots (17-8) and hits (33-20). Zach Aston-Reese led the way with a whopping 10 hits.

Pettersson paced the black and gold with three points (1+2), followed by Heinen, Kapanen, Matheson, O’Connor and Rodrigues with two apiece. Eleven Pens tallied at least a point. Pettersson and Friedman led the way with a plus-five each. Marcus is now a league-best plus-10 on the season!

Tristan Jarry quietly turned in another stellar performance, stopping 28 of 29 shots. He presently owns a sparking 1.47 goals against average to go with an equally impressive .943 save percentage. Shades of 2019-20, when Tristan earned an all-star game berth.

The Pens are presently tied for second place in the tightly packed Metro with a record of 3-0-2 and eight points, one behind the division-leading Rangers.

Next up, Tampa Bay on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Sully for the Adams

Mike Sullivan doesn’t get a lot of love on our blog. I’ve personally had issues with him from time to time on matters of personnel. But there’s no denying the magnificent job he’s done thus far. The league should call time out and award him the Jack Adams right now.

Seriously.

Sullivan’s performing absolute wonders with his banged-up squad. Everybody’s playing a role. Five games into the season, 14 different skaters have scored goals. That’s remarkable. He’s got guys like Rodrigues thinking (and playing) like he’s Crosby. To say Sully’s pushing all the right buttons would be the understatement of the century. He’s motivating, teaching and preparing…and the guys are producing…in spades.

Perhaps most important, the Pens have melded as a team. I sense a unity and cohesiveness, an all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit at this early stage that other teams (the Leafs for example) lack. Again, that reflects on the coach and his staff.

Bravo, Mike, for a job well done!