Coming off an extended Covid/holiday break, I wasn’t sure what to expect from our Penguins. After all, we were down starting goalie Tristan Jarry and no fewer than six forwards. Two lines worth. I sure wasn’t expecting yesterday afternoon’s 8-5 goal-fest triumph over San Jose.
Moving like a typhoon over the ocean, our Pens literally blew the visiting Sharks out of the water during an incendiary opening period, the likes of which have only been seen once before during the black-and-gold’s 55-year history. Then we hung on for dear life as the Sharks staged a furious third-period rally to make a game of it.
Continuing his stunning transformation from fringe player to star, Evan Rodrigues got us off and running 63 ticks into the game. After taking a short pass from Danton Heinen, E-Rod cut across the Sharks’ zone, faked a look to Dominik Simon, and beat James Reimer with a top-shelf drive from the slot.
Defying all Reimer reason (sorry, couldn’t resist), the Pens struck three more times on rapid-fire tallies by Jake Guentzel, Rodrigues again and Bryan Rust to snatch a 4-0 lead in the first six minutes and change. When the Sharks bit back on a goal by Alexander Barabanov at 15:33, the Pens responded with two more tallies.
Skating in his first NHL game, Kasper Bjorkqvist scored from the lip of the crease off a feed by the “Big Z,” Radim Zohorna, also playing in his first game of the season for the black and gold. Rust closed out the scoring in a mad-cap 6-1 first period with a long-range drive from center point.
The second period was tame enough. Sharks backup goalie Zach Sawchenko served notice that he wouldn’t be an easy mark, stopping Drew O’Connor from point-blank range. San Jose’s blue line behemoth Brent Burns notched the only marker of the period while working on a power play with a long-range blast from center point.
Up 6-2 heading into the final period, the Pens were on easy street, right? Well, not exactly.
In the final period chaos reigned in reverse. Twenty seconds in, Casey DeSmith (22 saves on 27 shots) misplayed a carom off the end boards and knocked the puck into his net to ignite the Sharks’ rally. In rapid succession, Jacob Middleton and Logan Couture scored to cut the Pens’ lead to a goal with nearly 16 minutes to play.
Fortunately, our boys weathered the storm. Leave it to E-Rod to score the clincher on a seeing-eye drive from the top of the left circle while working on a man-advantage with two minutes to play. Triggering a cascade of flying hats. A scene repeated with 11 seconds left when Rust scored into an empty net, capping an exhilarating Pens win and a five-point night for the hustling winger.
Rick
Penguins traded Lafferty to the Blackhawks today for Alex Nylander.
Just wanted to make sure you saw it.
Hey Mike,
I saw that. I was going to write something up but I haven’t had a chance.
I fear that the team has just gotten much softer. In 94 GP Lafferty has 218 Hits and 30 Blks,
the milquetoast we got in return has 31 Hits and 17 Blks.
Another problem I see is that Lafferty only has 16 Gv while Nylander has 29.
I am rather saddened, even though we are talking about minor players, Hextall appears to be kowtowing to Papa Smurf and his shrinking of the team more.
Thanks Mike.
I’ve actually been up to my eyeballs in work and didn’t hear about the trade until a few minutes ago. At first blush, I’m not a fan. I like Lafferty and what he brings to the table. Nylander apparently is his antithesis…skilled enough to be a No. 8 overall pick but (totally) lacking in drive, intensity and grit. Of course … 🙁
I’d be more upset about it if Lafferty had a legitimate shot to develop under Sullivan. But it’s been pretty clear for a couple of years now that he’s not a Sully guy. Another factor…it sounds like the Pens were afraid they’d lose Sam to waivers if they tried to send him to the Baby Pens.
Anyway…I’m happy for him. Maybe he’ll get a real chance in Chicago.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I am happy for Lafferty too, but fear the direction the just went.
Hey Mike & Rick’s, here is my 2 cents: There is a lot of talk on here about draft picks and how the Penguins have no first round picks and how horribly devastating that is. Here we got a young #8 overall pick for for an older 4th rounder who may have or may not have got a hometown draft bump. It really sounds like many here are unhappy about this trade.
Nylander was showing promise before he got injured and put up decent numbers while playing on some awful teams. Lafferty started out great, then disappeared. Plus, as Rick stated, there was a good chance we would lose Lafferty to waivers. Because of that my opinion is that this trade is a big wow, good for Hextall.
Nylander’s attitude and drive will change when he is playing for a good coach and not playing on a bottom dweller. Rodrigues was well known as having the same attitude coming off of that exact same Buffalo team. Anyone here feel like perception of Rodrigues may have changed?
My point of points would be that draft picks are either very important or they are not very important, not both.
Hey Phil,
First, the actual players ion the swap, to me are meaningless. It was a question of swapping spare parts.
Second, I do believe getting draft picks are important and on draft day, when all players are unknowns, a 1st round pick trumps a 4th, even when the 4th round pick is nearly a home town boy. However, after draft day, when a prospect starts building their professional body of work, where they were drafted is meaningless, it is what they bring. Anthony Angello and Derrick Pouliot were 1st round picks and Patric Hornqvist was the very last player drafted. I don’t care that someone chose to waste a pick on Nylander, it means nothing to me.
Third: this team is already saturated with players of Nylander’s alleged skill set, they need him as much as a drowning man needs a glass of water.
Fourth, Nylander really isn’t that much of a kid anymore, he is 23 and has played 82 Games ion the NHL, with the bulk of his starts in the “O” zone and has had little to show for it. Maybe with better talent he could have done more, but as I wrote above, we have tons of Nylander clones, we don’t need another, we need grit.
Fifth, if the team needed Cap space, nobody would take Simon, he could have easily cleared waivers, we could have sent him down or swapped him out for Nylander a Milquetoast for a Milquetoast.
Tor, My hope is that somewhere along the line a bunch of scouts were correct about Nylander’s abilities. looking down the line at Malkin, Rust, Kapanen, Rodrigues, Carter, Heinen and many more needing signed next year, if a lower priced clone like Nylander can fill a top six hole that would be fantastic! As of right now, Rust and Rodrigues could demand a couple of bucks on the open market. Pens might lose a lot of talent this offseason.
Let Nylander learn the system at WBS and see what he can do and if he has skill sign him for a few years low. If not pick up another bottom six Lafferty off waivers or in the offseason.
Not arguing that there is about to be a lot of holes come end of the season and now that he is here, I certainly hope you are right because Nylander is here now and at the rate the team is going they are going to finish somewhere in the bottom half of the draft rounds, so they will miss out on any of the top talent in the draft.
Right now, I would rather put my hope in Valterri Puustinen. He has 7G, 9A, 16Pnts, 6PIM, and is only a -6 in 24GP on a WBS team that can’t seem to stop a puck since Lindberg got hurt. Nylander has 8G, 4A, 12Pnts, 2PIM, and is a -10 in 23GP for the Rockford Icehogs. I made fun of the Pens drafting Puustinen but I must confess seems to be able to rise to the top where ever he plays. And watching Puustinen in the preseason, he did drive his line. Everyone he played with finished games with better stats with him that without him.
Furthermore, if they wanted to get rid of Captain Dunsel, they needed to take Simon out of Sullivan’s tool box.
My real concern is in Goal. DeSmith hasn’t been right since his injury and with Lindberg out, no one in WBS looks capable of spelling Jarry in back-to-back series.
Hi Rick,
It was really great to see the 8 goals . The timing was perfect and especially while Malkin is still side lined. The real issue is what do we do when everyone gets back into the line up. We need some tough personnel decisions regarding what to do coming in February. I do not envy GM Hextall and the position he is in.
Cheers
Jim
Rick
How about the Sharks defensively?? Happy to see us put up eight goals but I haven’t seen a team give up that many odd-man breaks since we played the Islanders in the playoffs “WOW”
Impressive showing yesterday after not playing for 10 or 11 days. and we still have guys on the IR. I’m still not getting too high knowing the playoffs are an entirely different game.
Go Pen’s