Penguins Crunch Capitals 4-2

I confess, I didn’t watch the Penguins’ 4-2 triumph over Washington due to the funky deal with ESPN+. However, I listened to a good portion of the game on the Pens’ radio network and couldn’t help but be impressed.

After all, our guys were on the tail end of an arduous five-game road trip through western Canada and beyond that matched them with some of the hottest teams in the league. And we were playing without super sniper Jake Guentzel, who suffered what appeared to be a hand injury against Seattle. My goodness, does this team have rotten luck when it comes to its stars.

Which made last night’s win all the more impressive. Once more displaying amazing pluck in the face of adversity, the Pens took down the imposing Capitals with relative ease. In their barn no less.

Embodying coach Mike Sullivan’s “next man up” mantra, the black and gold received production from sources likely and unlikely. Danton Heinen opened the scoring at 16:16 of the opening frame on one of his trademark stealth plays. With Jeff Carter driving to the net to create traffic, Heinen worked a beautiful give-and-go with John Marino behind the play and wired the puck home from the slot. I’ve written this before but it bears repeating. This guy’s got sneaky-good skills.

The Pens’ padded their lead at 8:42 of the second period. Reinforcing the notion that good things happen when you shoot the puck, Brock McGinn launched an innocuous wrister from the left half-wall that deflected in off Evgeny Kuznetsov’s skate.

If our second tally was of the gift variety, the next one came courtesy of a great bit of teamwork by the newly configured top line. Pouncing on a turnover in the neutral zone, Evan Rodrigues sped across the Caps’ line and slipped a short pass to Sidney Crosby, who in turn chipped the puck to a breaking Kasperi Kapanen. Rather than trying to settle the bouncing rubber, “Kappy” adroitly swept it past netminder Ilya Samsonov to extend our lead to 3-0.

Kuznetsov struck back for the Caps at 7:33 of the third period on a wide-open look from the slot, thanks to a great feed from Alex Ovechkin. Lars Eller made things a bit uncomfortable with 2:46 left and Samsonov pulled for an extra attacker, beating Tristan Jarry on a bang-bang play from the left circle. But a minute later Crosby set up Carter for a walk-in-the-park empty netter to conclude our road trip with an exclamation point and claim two huge points.

Puckpourri

Stat-wise, the rivals were evenly matched. The Caps held a slight edge in shot attempts (55-53), the Pens a 33-31 advantage in shots on goal. We dominated the faceoff circle, taking 59 percent of the draws.

Sid extended his point streak to seven games (13 points during that span) with a pair of primary assists. A tip of the cap to esteemed commenter Mike, who asserted a couple of weeks ago that No. 87 would regain his all-world form.

Kapanen (five games) and McGinn (six) snapped lengthy goal-scoring droughts. With two assists, Mike Matheson ended a nine-game pointless skein. Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong each picked up an assist against their ex-mates.

Heinen continues to be a pleasant surprise and a bargain at $1.1 million. He’s on pace for 25 goals. So is Carter.

With Guentzel sidelined week-to-week, Sullivan reconfigured the forward lines, teaming Crosby with E-Rod and Kappy. The Jason Zucker-Carter-Heinen trio remained intact. Sully reunited the “Grind Line” of McGinn, Zach Aston-Reese and Teddy Blueger. The fourth line of Brian Boyle, Dominik Simon and rookie Drew O’Connor barely touched the ice, although Boyle saw some extra time on PK duty.

Jarry’s extraordinary run between the pipes continues. Since yielding six goals to the Caps back on November 14 he’s been lights out, posting an incredible 1.19 goals against average over a span of 10 games with a sizzling .955 save percentage.

The Pens (13-8-5, 31 points) are fourth in the Metro, four points ahead of Columbus (a game in hand). We presently hold the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, two points up on Detroit and three on Boston (three games in hand).

Next up, a short turnaround and vastly improved Anaheim tonight at PPG Paints Arena.