Flowering Penguins Chomp Coyotes, 4-1

It’s said that some of the prettiest wildflowers in the world bloom on the desert floor. In their last visit to the Gila River Arena in the foreseeable future, the Penguins’ aggressive forecheck blossomed yesterday afternoon against Arizona to the tune of a stunning 49-21 edge in shots on goal. Although finding the back of the net proved to be considerably more problematic due to a sterling performance between the pipes from Scott Wedgewood, we eclipsed the Coyotes on the scoreboard as well by a 4-1 count.

If ever a game had “upset special” tattooed all over it, this one did. The ‘Yotes were 6-1 in their past seven, including victories over Colorado and Toronto. However, as we’d done in our two previous contests against Western Conference foes, the Pens shifted their speedy forecheck game into top gear and overwhelmed the desert dogs to the tune of a staggering 19-5 edge in first-period shots on goal. However, Wedgewood was air tight.

The Pens finally broke through early in the second period on a tally by Kasperi Kapanen. (Yes, you read that right.) The Big Z, Radim Zohorna, started the scoring sequence by disrupting a clearing attempt along the wall. Jeff Carter emerged with the puck and cut sharply toward the Coyotes’ net before snapping a cross-slot feed to Kapanen slipping through the back door. Kappy dropped to a knee and drove the biscuit home for his first goal in 21 games. He seemed so stunned by his sudden turn of fortune that he forgot to raise his arms in celebration.

The Coyotes knotted the score at 1-1 with 8:32 left in the period. Clayton Keller took a beautiful headman pass from Anton Stralman in full stride, split black-and-gold defenders John Marino and Mike Matheson with a burst of speed and beat Tristan Jarry from close range.

Although the Pens amped up the pace again in the third period, the game remained deadlocked until 12:36 of the frame. In his typical “skilled grinder” fashion, Bryan Rust retrieved a loose puck in the corner and dished a backhand pass to Evgeni Malkin in the slot. Wedgewood thwarted No. 71’s initial backhand attempt, but the big Russian would not be denied. Geno chipped a follow-up shot over Wedgewood’s outstretched glove to make it 2-1, good guys.

The Pens finally put the game out of reach with 3:47 to play. Sidney Crosby fed Jake Guentzel high in the Arizona end. Jake drove to the net, eluding defenseman Dysin Mayo with a nifty curl-and-drag move before slipping a return pass to Crosby. Sid banged the puck home to give the Pens a much-needed cushion.

Our captain delivered the final dagger minutes later, taking a short pass from Evan Rodrigues and fending off Nick Schmaltz with almost casual disregard before coolly depositing the puck into an empty net.

Puckpourri

The Pens dominated in terms of possession, racking up mind-blowing advantages in shot attempts (85-40), scoring chances (47-20) and high-danger chances (20-6). We hounded the ‘Yotes into 21 giveaways.

However, finishing (or lack of) continues to be an issue. We’re 22nd in the league in shooting percentage (9.19), ahead of only the Bruins and Kings among teams presently holding a playoff spot. Five-on-five, we’re a notch lower at 7.61 percent.

Playing like Mike Lange’s proverbial man possessed, Malkin unleashed a game-high eight shots on goal and snapped a six-game pointless drought, the longest of his career. Crosby (two goals) earned star of the game honors. Carter, Brian Dumoulin, Guentzel, Rodrigues and Rust each picked up a helper.

Hidden stat. Zohorna is a plus-eight in 12 games. Quote of the day by Kapanen, “I don’t know how to celebrate.”

Following a slight midseason wobble, Jarry is back on track. Over his past seven starts he’s 6-1 with a 1.71 goals against average and .942 save percentage. He recently became the fourth goalie in franchise history (Tom Barrasso, Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray being the others) to record 30 wins in a season.

Coach Mike Sullivan kept his defense pairings intact: Dumoulin-Kris Letang, Matheson-Marino and Marcus Pettersson–Chad Ruhwedel. For the moment, he seems to have hit on four reasonably effective lines as well.

Not sure what to read into this, but Dominik Simon once again suited up in place of Zach Aston-Reese. Is it possible ZAR’s being held out as a possible trade piece?

The victory enabled the Pens (38-16-9, 85 points) to maintain their hold on second place in the Metro, two points ahead of the Rangers and three behind front-running Carolina (two games in hand). On deck…Columbus at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night.

Wheelin’ and Dealin’

Florida made a second huge move ahead of the deadline, acquiring long-time Flyers captain Claude Giroux from Philadelphia for forward Owen Tippett, a first-round pick in 2024 (or 2025) and a third-round pick in the 2023 draft. Philly also agreed to retain half of Giroux’s remaining salary.

The Panthers also received forward prospects Connor Bunnaman and German Rubstov…both Ron Hextall draft picks.

Boston acquired top-pairing defenseman Hampus Lindholm and fellow blueliner Kodie Curran from Anaheim for defensemen John Moore and Urho Vaakanainen, a first-round pick in 2022 and second-round picks in 2022 and 2023.

Among our Eastern Conference rivals the Panthers, Rangers, Bruins and Lightning have all made trades to bolster their Cup chances.

The Pens are rumored to be interested in Detroit’s buzz-saw forward Tyler Bertuzzi (24 goals, 49 points, AAV $4.75 million). So are a lot of other teams.

Last but not least, Minnesota acquired bottom-six hammer Nicolas Deslauriers from the Ducks for a third-round pick in the 2023. I would love to have seen us get Deslauriers, one of the toughest heavies around and a decent role player to boot (five goals, 10 points, 210 hits).