Penguins Turn Back Sabres, 3-1

In many ways, the back end of the Penguins’ home-and-home set with the Sabres was the mirror image of Friday night’s affair. Uniforms for one. The Pens donned their road whites, the Sabres their home blues. Aided by a couple of early power plays, the locals started quickly and jumped to a 2-0 lead before the visitors gradually took over, culminating in a third-period charge.

However, one thing remained the same…the all-important result. The Pens won, 3-1, to sweep the two-game set.

The game was noteworthy for another reason. Less than two weeks after suffering his second stroke, Kris Letang returned to the lineup and logged a team-high 22:14 of ice time. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe Tanger’s courage, dedication and recuperative powers.

Likewise, I’ve run out of adjectives to describe Sidney Crosby. Exceptional comes to mind. More on Sid in a bit.

The Sabres opened the gate early by handing their hosts not one but two power plays. Until recently, our power play was so bad maybe we should’ve declined penalties, but no longer. We’re keepin’ it simple and attacking the net with force and pressure. On our opening goal at 4:22, both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had Grade-A cracks at the biscuit before red-hot Rickard Rakell scored from the left dot. His 12^th goal of the season for those keeping track.

Just over two minutes later Sid got into the act, corralling a nifty bounce pass off the end boards from Jake Guentzel. Flashing those marvelous hands, Sid went forehand to backhand to beat goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (say that five times fast) and stake the Pens to 2-0 lead.

After that, it was pretty much Katy bar the door. Or should I say Casey bar the door. Fortunately, our plucky backup was razor sharp and on top of his game, not to mention his crease. He needed to be with the likes of Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin and Alex Tuch firing shots at him. Thirty-eight in all. But DeSmith hung tough.

The Sabres foiled his shutout bid at the 11-minute mark of the third period on a deflection goal by Peyton Krebs, leading to some tense moments down the stretch. But No. 87 stepped up to seal the victory, with a little help from his friends.

Letang made a hard play along the wall, crunching Cozens and freeing the puck. Bryan Rust moved it quickly to Guentzel, who spotted Sid busting through the neutral zone. Jake headmanned the rubber to Sid, who whipped it over Luukkonen’s glove to cap another victory.

That makes five in a row and 10 out of our last 12. None too shabby.

Puckpourri

The Sabres dominated in shot attempts (71-53) and shots on goal (38-31). The Pens held the high ground in scoring chances (31-30) and high-danger chances (18-13) according to Natural Stat Trick.

I’m personally very glad to be done with the Sabres. They’re a couple of d-men and a goalie away from being a really good team.

Sid paced the attack with two goals and a helper. He’s presently sixth on the NHL scoring ladder with 38 points, ahead of young guns David Pastrnak, Mitch Marner, Kirill Kaprizov, Auston Matthews and his pal (and fellow Tim Horton’s trainee) Nathan MacKinnon. Amazing.

With four goals in his last seven games and seven in his last 13, Rakell is on a roll. My word, is this guy a complete player. An absolute steal of an acquisition by GM Ron Hextall.

Speaking of Hexie, he doesn’t get much love in a lot of circles (don’t dare mention his name in Philly). But I think he’s done an excellent job of team building…especially given the cap constraints he’s operating under. (Anyone think we’d be better off if Jim Rutherford was still in charge?)

From top to bottom, the Pens are just very solid with few discernable holes…no easy feat in the flat-cap era. Indeed, few teams can boast players like Danton Heinen and Chad Ruhwedel as their spares. He’s done a great job of reinforcing the team with veteran leadership, a quality that’s been increasingly evident over the past month.

While I’m handing out plaudits, some well-deserved kudos for coach Mike Sullivan and his staff. It wasn’t all that long ago that the team was in complete disarray, the penalty kill was leaking like the Titanic and the power play flat-out stunk. I’m not enough of an Xs and Os guy to know what adjustments he’s made, but Mike has made the necessary fixes and the team is humming as a result. Maybe it’s the mustache.

With points in seven-straight games, Guentzel has regained his mojo in a big way following a bit of a downturn. His nemesis Jeff Skinner served the first of a three-game suspension last night.

Overshadowed by Letang’s triumphant return, Ryan Poehling rejoined the lineup following a two-game absence. Heinen and Ruhwedel dined on press-box nachos.

Former Sabres GM (and Pens associate GM) Jason Botterill was excoriated for the deal with St. Louis that brought Thompson (along with draft picks and two other players) to the Sabres for Ryan O’Reilly. Wonder how the Buffalo brass views the trade now?

On Tap

The road ahead gets a bit rougher for our Pens (16-8-4, 36 points) for the foreseeable future. Beginning with a Monday night clash with Dallas (16-7-5, 37 points) at the Paint Can, nine of our next 10 games are against foes currently occupying a playoff spot, including heavyweights Boston and New Jersey and Metro rivals Carolina, the Rangers and Islanders.