I’m running out of adjectives, superlatives and just about anything else to describe the way our Penguins are playing. So I shamelessly stole the title of an old Neil Young album for the headline of this article.
Truly, Rust (as in Pens winger Bryan) never sleeps. He bagged two goals out the chute last night to get our boys off and running toward a 6-2 throttling of the undermanned Flyers. If you’re counting, that’s seven…count ‘em…seven goals for the Rusty Razor since returning from a lower body injury.
The rest of the team followed suit. Jake Guentzel stuffed the puck home from the corner of the net at 16:16 of the opening frame to give our guys a 3-0 edge heading into the first intermission.
Cam Atkinson countered for the Flyers midway through the contest, giving the Philly faithful hope…however slim…of a comeback. But any notion that the home team would recoup a point or two from the game was dashed as the Pens pulled away in the final frame.
Evan Rodrigues struck at 8:50 of the third period thanks to a terrific lead pass from the boards by Kasperi Kapanen. With a step on Kevin Connauton, E-Rod cruised in on goal and tortured poor Carter Hart with a greasy backhand-to-forehand move. I’m still pinching myself at how well No. 9’s playing.
My word.
Next on the black-and-gold scoring parade…an encore from Guentzel thanks to a surgical bit of passing by Rust and Sidney Crosby off the rush. Ninety-one seconds later big Brian Boyle rambled up the ice and celebrated the recent birth of son Callum with a sizzling shorty from the left circle to cap the Pens’ offensive gusher.
Fellow cancer survivor Oskar Lindblom nicked Tristan Jarry for a second Philly goal with seven minutes to play. But that was all she wrote for our former blood rivals.
Six-two Pens. Ten wins in a row…and counting.
Puckpourri
The Pens outshot the Flyers 32-20 and won 54 percent of the faceoffs.
The Crosby line is on fire. Guentzel has scored in 16 straight games. He has 25 points over that span (15 goals + 10 assists). Rust has seven goals and 11 points in his past three games. Incredible. Sid…22 points in his past 14.
Add Rodrigues to the hot parade. E-Rod’s tallied a sizzling five goals and seven points in the three games since the holiday/Covid break.
Jarry stopped 18 of 20 shots in a workmanlike performance. On the season, Tristan’s posted a sparkling .933 save percentage and microscopic 1.90 goals against average.
Following a horrific start, the power play is creeping up the NHL ladder. We’ve converted on 18.1 percent of man advantages…22nd in the league. We’re still tops in penalty killing at 90.2 percent.
Kris Letang is quietly enjoying an outstanding season. Tanger’s recorded 27 points in 29 games, tied for eighth best among NHL rearguards. In particular, I’ve been impressed with his puck distribution on the power play. He’s setting up his teammates (10 power play assists) rather than forcing shots.
The Pens (20-8-5, 45 points) are presently in fourth place in the Metro, two points behind the Hurricanes and three points off the division lead. Next up in the second game of a six-game road trip, Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
