The opening 20 minutes of last night’s contest between the Penguins and Los Angeles ranks among the most bizarre periods of hockey I’ve ever witnessed. The Kings dominated…and I mean DOMINATED…play for most of the period while piling up a 16-9 edge in shots on goal. As the old saying goes, they were on us like white on rice.
And our Pens came away with a 3-0 lead. Go figure.
We snagged the lead near the four-minute mark during a rare sequence when we actually possessed the puck in the offensive zone. Bryan Rust barreled in on the forecheck to create a loose puck. Jason Zucker nudged it along the wall to Evgeni Malkin, who slung it to Jan Rutta backpedaling high in the zone. Rutta snapped off an innocent looking wrister that traversed a line of traffic and popped through goalie Cal Petersen’s wickets.
Nonplussed, the Kings continued to play like royalty, rolling up a 13-4 edge in shots on a goal, an advantage that all-too-accurately reflected the skew in territorial play. And then the Pens scored again.
At 14:35, Sidney Crosby made a strong play off the wall and flung a backhand pass in the direction of Kris Letang slicing through the slot. From behind the goal line the mercurial defender slipped a pass to Jake Guentzel stationed at the lip of the crease. Jake doesn’t miss from there.
Two-zip Pens.
I’ve made this observation countless times before. When our boys get a whiff of blood in the water, they sprout a dorsal fin and a set of razor-edged teeth. And so it was last night.
With less than two minutes to go in the period, Jeff Petry uncorked a blast from center point. Crosby missed on a deflection try from in tight, but Rickard Rakell cut behind Petersen to whack the biscuit home.
Three-nothing Pens.
Salvador Dali couldn’t have conceived a more surreal period of hockey. But, hey, we’ll take it.
Fully engaged, the Pens upped their lead to 4-0 in the second period. Working on a power play, Danton Heinen set up Petry with a buttery point-to-point pass. Big Jeff ripped the rubber past replacement goalie Jonathan Quick for his first tally wearing the black and gold.
Although overshadowed by the offensive feeding frenzy, Tristan Jarry kept the Kings in purgatory with a series of key saves, including stops on snipers Viktor Arvidsson, Adrian Kempe and Arthur Kalyev.
The Pens pulled away in the final frame. Three minutes in Marcus Pettersson headmanned the puck to Kasperi Kapanen, who nudged an artful one-touch pass to Jeff Carter. The big fella zoomed in on a breakaway and beat his old teammate Quick like Mike Lange’s proverbial rented mule.
Ninety-seven ticks later Ryan Poehling picked off an errant outlet pass while killing off a penalty to Crosby and blew the puck past the luckless LA netminder from the high slot to make it 6-0 Pens.
The Kings managed to spoil Jarry’s shutout bid with 2:28 to play on a power-play tally by Carl Grundstrom. About the only thing that went according to plan for the visitors.
Puckpourri
The Kings outshot the Pens, 40-34. However, the good guys controlled the faceoff circle, winning 58 percent of the draws against an excellent faceoff team. Carter was a demon, winning 83 percent and Malkin was nearly his equal, with a 79 percent success rate.
Speaking of demons, Zucker’s been a force on the forecheck and in front of the net. I’m loving his game thus far…the speed, the energy, the grit. Not to mention the offense (four points in four games).
It was a total team effort, as all but five black-and-gold skaters tallied at least a point. First-star Petry paced the attack with a goal and two helpers.
Second-star Jarry was simply superb, turning aside 39 shots to literally save our bacon, especially during the early going. Once again he appeared to squirt gasoline on smoldering embers, engaging Kings toughie Brendan Lemieux with eight minutes remaining to ignite a wild net-front scrum.
I’m beginning to get the impression that Jarry has more than a touch of Keith Acton and Ken Linseman in him, and that the loquacious netminder may not have been the innocent victim he first appeared to be during last season’s infamous set-to with Boston’s Brad Marchand.
Good for him. The Pens could use a little pee and vinegar.
To my eye, the defensive pairing of Petry and Pettersson has been terrific, much as I’d hoped when I wrote about them this summer. The pair are a combined plus-seven on the young season with seven aggregate points.
Speaking of defensive pairs, did you notice coach Mike Sullivan experimented with a Brian Dumoulin-Rutta combo, while teaming Pierre-Olivier Joseph with Letang? Things that make you go hmmm.
Goal aside, it was a rough night for Guentzel, who absorbed a high hit from Lemieux and a shot off the ear from Crosby, courtesy of a rolling puck.
Sully Gets 300th Win
Sullivan earned his 300th career win with the Pens, most of any coach in team history. “Sully” downplayed his achievement, preferring instead to deflect praise to his players.
“It’s humbling,” he said. “It means a lot. I’m grateful to the players–they go out and get the wins for us. They are the ones that make the sacrifices every day to make us the competitive team we are.”
Spoken with his typical thoughtfulness and class. Congratulations, Mike!
On the Road Again
The Pens travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets Saturday night. Then out west for a brutal four-game swing that features two sets of back-to-back games.
Ugh.
For now, I’ll revel in our 3-0-1 start.
