Penguins Annihilate Red Wings, 11-2

You would think in the wake of the Penguins’ 11-2 evisceration of Detroit yesterday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena that I’d be bursting at the seams with superlatives. While there certainly was plenty get excited about…especially the way we rebounded from a truly stinko effort against the Rangers on Friday night…it doesn’t change my overall opinion of the team or erase my concerns.

I guess you could say my esteemed colleague, Other Rick, is rubbing off on me.

For one, the game was played at a snail’s pace. To my eye, neither club displayed much hop…the visitors even less than us. I wrote recently that when you give our guys time and space to make plays, we’ll kill you. And that’s essentially what happened. Our foes offered little in the way of stiff checking or any other form of resistance. Add in the fact that goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Calvin Pickard didn’t exactly bring their ‘A’ games?

It was pretty much a cake walk.

Still, the first period gave scant indication of the turkey shoot to come. Four minutes in Danton Heinen nudged a pass from Jeff Carter to Kasperi Kapanen curling through the slot. Kappy made a nifty against-the-grain move to draw Nedeljkovic out of his cage and slip the puck into a yawning net for his 11th goal of the campaign.

With just over four minutes remaining in the period the fourth line pitched in. Brian Boyle ran over Moritz Seider in the Pens’ zone, causing the puck to pop loose to Radim Zohorna. Big Z settled the biscuit and took off on a 2-on-1 with Teddy Blueger. The towering Czech placed a perfect pass onto his linemate’s stick and Blueger did the rest, beating Nedeljkovic top shelf to make it 2-0.

The Pens then exploded for four goals in just over six minutes at the outset of the second period to turn the game into a rout. Evgeni Malkin struck on the power play at 1:48, followed in rapid succession by a shorty from Carter at 3:18 and another man-advantage tally by Bryan Rust at 5:57.

With the crowd already abuzz, Malkin capped the scoring blitz at 7:53 with an absolutely brilliant goal. A vintage Geno goal. Taking a drop pass from Rust at the left point, the big Russian wove some stickhandling magic as he evaded Red Wing forwards Sam Gagner and Adam Erne before torching Nedeljkovic with a blistering shot from the slot.

With a 6-0 lead, you could excuse our guys for coasting a bit. Dylan Larkin and Jakub Vrana countered for the Red Wings. For a few uneasy moments, I had a sinking feeling that we might let the visitors back in the game.

My angst lasted for a little over a minute, or as long as it took for Evan Rodrigues to set up Sidney Crosby for a period-ending goal that had the general effect of slamming the door on a potential Red Wings rally.

We proceeded to pour it on in the final 20 minutes as Heinen, Boyle, Malkin and newcomer Rickard Rakell lit the lamp to run the final score to 11-2.

Great to see so many guys get on the scoresheet and perhaps boost their confidence a bit. But as much as I’d like to celebrate, I’ll reserve judgment until I see how we handle the Rangers tomorrow night.

Puckpourri

It was a whacky game statistically. Detroit held a rather commanding 69-55 edge in shot attempts. Shots on goal were even at 35-apiece. The Pens held the advantage in scoring chances (34-31) and high-danger chances (18-13).

All but two black-and-gold skaters (Brian Dumoulin and Marcus Pettersson) collected at least one point. Malkin led the cavalcade of scorers with three goals and an assist to earn top-star honors. It was Geno’s 13th career hat trick.

Third star Rakell tallied a goal and two assists, as did Blueger (No. 2 star), Crosby and Rust. Kris Letang garnered three assists. Carter and Heinen each had a goal and a helper. John Marino and Zohorna recorded two assists apiece.

Rodrigues reached the 40-point plateau with an assist. Dumoulin finished a plus-five. He leads the team on the season with a plus-23. In a fitting case of symmetry, Tristan Jarry made 33 saves to earn his 33rd win.

The 11-goal outburst is most scored by the Pens during the CONSOL Energy Center/PPG Paints Arena era. The Pens reached a dozen goals on two occasions: a 12-1 destruction of Washington on March 15, 1975 and a 12-1 hiding of Toronto on December 26, 1991.

With the victory, the Pens (40-17-10, 90 points) maintain a tenuous hold on second place in the Metro, one point ahead of tomorrow night’s foe, the Rangers, and three behind front-running Carolina.