Golden Knights Complete Kessel Run, Defeat Penguins by 12 Parsecs

What a difference a month makes. Back on December 1, our Penguins beat the Golden Knights in impressive fashion at PPG Paints Arena to trigger a seven-game winning streak. Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?

Our on-again, off-again Pens were mostly off, at least during the critical early phases of a dismal 5-2 to the Golden Knights in Sin City. Indeed, courtesy of our comatose start we were never really in the game. Old friend Phil Kessel struck just 1:52 into the opening frame, followed in fairly rapid succession by goals from Jack Eichel at 5:17 and Chandler Stephenson at 11:20.

Don’t know what was said by Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff during the first intermission, but it may have contained an expletive or three.

Whatever the source of motivation, the Pens outshot the Golden Knights 20-12 in the second period before yielding a late tally by Mark Stone to pretty much dump the last shovelful of dirt onto our coffin.

If you’re searching for positives, we did manage to win the third period, 2-1. Playing in his third game for the black and gold, Ty Smith notched his first of hopefully many goals for the Pens at 4:04 of the frame. Sidney Crosby outworked three Golden Knights along the wall to force a turnover at the Vegas line before slipping a pass to Jake Guentzel. Jake meandered to the net, then laid a perfect drop pass to Smith in the right circle. Taking full advantage of a Bryan Rust screen, the young defender laced the puck past Adin Hill far side.

Our moment in the sun was short-lived. Just past the 12-minute mark Kessel flew up ice with Paul Cotter on a 2-on-1. After turning lone defender Marcus Pettersson into a plate of soggy noodles, the Thrill delivered a sharp pass to Cotter, who beat poor Casey DeSmith with ease.

One of the few Pens to play with discernable passion, Crosby snapped a personal four-game goalless drought with less than two minutes remaining. Sid crunched Knights defender Ben Hutton into the end boards with a hard check to free up the puck for Guentzel, who in turn slipped the biscuit to Rickard Rakell at the right dot. The silky Swede slung the puck to Crosby at the side of the net for an easy tap in.

Maybe we can build on our strong third period for the next game. Then again, maybe not. To borrow a phrase from Forrest Gump, you never know what you’re gonna get with this bunch.

Puckpourri

The Pens held the edge in virtually all major statistical categories, including shot attempts (75-54), shots on goal (40-31), scoring chances (30-21) and high-danger chances (17-11).

Sullivan juggled his lines, shifting Rust to Crosby’s trio and Rakell to Evgeni Malkin’s flank. With a Corsi of 75.76, Sid’s line dominated 5v5. Crosby (1+1) and Guentzel (2 helpers) finished with two points apiece. Rust had six shots on goal.

Drew O’Connor returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for two games. He had three shots on goal and three hits in 8:58 of ice time while skating with Teddy Blueger and Brock McGinn on a recast fourth line.

Jeff Carter centered for Danton Heinen and Kasperi Kapanen. They broke even on Corsi as well, a rarity for the third line these days.

Speaking of rarities, struggling Brian Dumoulin finished a plus-two with three blocked shots in 19:55 of ice time. Mark Friedman was a healthy scratch. Which leads me to…

Opinyinz

While the game slipped away during the critical opening minutes, both play-by-play man Steve Mears and sidekick Bob Errey implored someone to get involved physically and throw a check.

With the feisty Friedman sitting out in favor of “safe choice” Chad Ruhwedel (gee, there’s a surprise) and our only other “physical” players Jeff Petry and Josh Archibald on IR, I’m not sure who they were expecting to step up.

It points to a deep flaw in our roster construction (not to mention Sullivan’s personnel choices). One I’ve bemoaned time and again, most recently in my last article. There’s no one to lead the physical charge or light a fire on nights when the skill guys are struggling to find the on switch.

Other teams have these guys. Vegas, for example, employs designated hitters William Carrier (10 goals) and Keegan Kolesar. But not our Pens.

An unfortunate result of Sullivan’s preferences and aversion to guys who play with an edge…like Friedman.

On Tap

The Pens (19-13-6, 44 points) trek to the desert to take on Arizona (13-19-5, 31 points) on Sunday night. We beat the Coyotes, 6-2, in the season opener on home ice.

For the record, the Yotes are 6-6-1 in their past 13. We’ve lost six in a row (0-4-2).

We’re presently in sixth place in the Metro, two points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff slot.