New-Look Penguins Bop Blue Jackets, 5-1

The new-look Penguins took to the ice last night at PPG Paints Arena following a big trade at the deadline. Actually, the new-look Pens looked an awful lot like the old-look Pens. Riding a dominant second period, the black-and-gold struck for three goals in under five minutes to rout visiting Columbus, 5-1.

Although most of the damage was inflicted by the Sidney Crosby line, the other units chipped in as well. After spotting the Blue Jackets the early lead on a power-play tally by Gustav Nyquist, our fourth line pulled us even 2:40 into the second period. Spotting an opening, Chad Ruhwedel drove to the left circle and snapped off a hard shot on goal. Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo made the initial stop but couldn’t control the rebound. Brian Boyle nudged the puck to fellow big-and-tall forward Radim Zohorna, who bunted the biscuit into an open net. In the process jump-starting the Pens’ quick-strike offense.

A mere thirty-six seconds later, Marcus Pettersson gained the zone and fed Jake Guentzel a pass below the left circle. Jake slipped the puck to Evan Rodrigues in the slot, but E-Rod was checked and the rubber popped loose to Crosby. Sid cut laterally through the slot, turned and fed Guentzel at the back door to the right of the net. Jake slipped it into a wide-open net for his 30th goal of the season.

The locals widened the gap to 3-1 at 7:28 of the frame, thanks to a terrific individual effort by Bryan Rust. After flagging down a waist-high feed from Evgeni Malkin at the visitors’ blue line, the Rusty Razor skirted rookie Cole Sillinger and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, sliced east-west through the crease and beat Korpisalo at the far post to make it 3-1.

By this time the Pens were entering the Jackets’ zone virtually at will. On an almost leisurely rush, Crosby and Mike Matheson played pitch and catch. Sid flicked a return pass toward the net, where it deflected in off Guentzel.

It was pretty much academic after that. Evgeni Malkin interrupted a mild but hardly threatening Blue Jackets’ push midway through the third period with a 5-on-3 marker to put the game on ice.

Chilled to perfection, like that champagne Other Rick enjoyed on Monday night.

Puckpourri

The Pens held the high ground in shot attempts (58-48), shots on goal (37-27), scoring chances (36-24) and high-danger chances (11-8). We outshot the Blue Jackets, 20-7, during the pivotal second period.

Notice to opponents…give us time and space to make plays and we’ll kill you. The Blue Jackets gave us time and space.

Crosby paced the attack with three assists to earn second-star honors. The top star went to Guentzel (two goals). Number-three star Rust had a goal and a helper. Boyle, Matheson, Rodrigues and Ruhwedel each collected an assist. Brian Dumoulin finished a plus-three. Tristan Jarry stopped 26 of 27 shots in yet another air-tight performance.

Quiet of late (no points in his last three games) Kris Letang had a fairly uneventful night. He had a game-high three takeaways…and three giveaways, too.

Sid leads the Pens in scoring with 64 points (22+42). Jake is right behind with 63 (31+32). Shifting Rust to Malkin’s wing seems to be paying dividends.

Newcomer Rickard Rakell flew in on the red-eye and played left wing on a line with Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen. He registered two shots on goal and a hit in 14:08 of ice time. Rakell joins fellow former-Ducks Pettersson (a close friend) and Danton Heinen.

In deference to Rakell, Zohorna switched to No. 63.

With our third win in a row, the Pens (39-16-9, 87 points) grabbed sole possession of second place in the Metro, two points ahead of the Rangers and three behind front-running Carolina. However, there’s no rest for the weary. Our guys shuffle off to Buffalo to take on the improving Sabres tonight.