It’s a “Chili” Night in the ‘Burgh: Penguins Pound Islanders, 7-0

During the second intermission of last night’s resounding 7-0 strafing of the Islanders, PP colleague Caleb Di’Natale texted his approval. Noting Russian strongman Vladimir Putin plans to bar his country’s hockey prospects from coming to North America, I replied that Bad Vlad may have also have secretly abducted the Isles’ all-world goalie Ilya Sorokin and replaced him with Ilya Bryzgalov (or Louis Domingue).

How else do you explain us tagging the usually unbeatable netminder for six goals, and in one period to boot?

All joking aside, it was one of those rare nights when everything went right for the black and gold. At the forefront was Kris Letang, who established an NHL record for defensemen with five points in a single period. Pretty amazing when you consider the great offensive defensemen (Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey…heck…even our own Erik Karlsson) who’ve gone before him.

With six points on the night, Tanger also tied Ron Stackhouse’s 48-year-old club record for defensemen. (I listened to that game on the radio…makes me feel ancient).

“If you give it to the right guy, sometimes they score, and you get the assists,” he said modestly while describing his big night.

Tanger wasn’t the only one to shine. Tandem-mate Marcus Pettersson picked up four assists. Evgeni Malkin broke out in a boisterous way with two goals, in the process passing Sergei Federov and moving into second place on the NHL’s all-time list of Russian goal scorers. Jake Guentzel notched a pair as well. Radim Zohorna scored for the first time since the eighth-grade picnic, or more precisely, November 7. And Valtteri Puustinen scored!

Backstopped by a tidy, 22-save shutout from Tristan Jarry. His league-best fourth of the campaign for those keeping track.

What started out as a low-event affair…the Metro rivals combined for nine shots on goal during the first period…blew wide open in the second stanza. Rickard Rakell tossed the first match on the incipient fire at 6:44 when he nudged a loose puck past Sorokin from the doorstep. It almost wasn’t to be…the play was blown dead early. Much to their credit the zebras conferred and, with an assist from replay officials, awarded RikRak the goal.

The first inkling it was going to be one of those nights, in the best of ways.

Next on our cavalcade of scorers was Guentzel. Doing that voodoo that he does so well, Jake deflected a perfectly paced Letang lob past Sorokin just past the halfway point of the game. A beautiful play on both ends.

Displeased with what he saw, Isles coach Lane Lambert burned his timeout. And…BOOM…the floodgates opened. A dozen seconds later Rakell sprang Guentzel on a breakaway with a gorgeous lead pass. After surveying the scene, Jake pulled the trigger and ripped the puck past Sorokin glove side.

Three-zip, Pens.

Next up…Malkin. Flashing their early season telepathy, Reilly Smith zipped a beautiful seam pass to Geno rambling down the slot. The big guy buried it stick side at 12:48. Number 71 struck again less than four minutes later courtesy of a terrific individual effort by Letang, who sliced through the left side of the Islanders’ zone before finding Geno at the far post for a slam dunk.

Big Z capped the explosion at 17:13 on a net-front backhander following a nifty setup by Puustinen. Giving the Pens six goals in just under ten-and-a-half minutes.

“Puusti” would soon have a goal of his very own to celebrate. At 9:48 of the final period Letang sent a picture-perfect setup from the right point into the drifting rookie’s wheelhouse. The irrepressible Finn blew a slapper past replacement goalie Semyon Varlamov from the left circle. Leaving him smiling like Mike Lange’s butcher’s dog, according to the Ol’ Two-Niner Phil Bourque.

His teammates were smiling, too.

Puckpourri

To no surprise, the Pens dominated the shot activity according to Natural Stat Trick. We held a decided edge in shot attempts (68-48), shots on goal (32-22), scoring chances (43-26) and high-danger chances (22-9), with 14 of the latter variety in the second-period alone!

The game was as noteworthy for who didn’t score as for who did. Sidney Crosby failed to register a point, apparently a subject of some good-natured ribbing afterward. Karlsson, who had a ton of shot attempts blocked, didn’t score either. His shortfall is a little more disconcerting. Despite solid metrics, EK65 has just four assists in his past 13 games.

Thanks to his epic outing, Letang slipped into fourth place on the team’s scoring list with 23 points (3+20), one point ahead of Karlsson. With three points, Jake wrested the team scoring lead from Sid. Does he have hands or what!

Lost in the richly deserved hoopla over Tanger’s performance was Pettersson’s four-assist effort. On a roll of his own, the Dragon has six points in two games and eight (all assists) in his past four. He and No. 58 seem to be meshing beautifully on the top pairing.

Certainly don’t want to overlook Geno’s achievement. What a remarkable career he’s had. For all his recent struggles, he’s still tallied 13 goals and 29 points. Highly respectable on both counts. If the big guy can get dialed in on a regular basis, it’ll really help our cause.

With six points (1+5) in eight games it looks like we’ve, indeed, unearthed a diamond in the rough in Puustinen. Wish I could say the same for Zohorna.

Maybe it’s a coincidence (and maybe not). With a pair of goals and four points in four games, Rakell seems to have found himself skating next to Sid.

In the under-the-radar department, I’ve been really impressed with Noel Acciari of late. He’s making all the hard plays and he’s been physical. The PK’s 11-for-11 since his return from IR. Although he didn’t receive an assist, “Cookie” did the dirty work along the boards on Jake’s first goal. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t mind seeing him in an elevated role, at least on occasion.

Notice I didn’t say anything about us gobbling up the Isles like so many (we want) fish sticks? Oh, and the reference to a “chili” night? Back in the day, local Wendy’s restaurants would serve a free cup of chili to Pens fans in attendance when the team scored seven goals.

On Deck

The Pens (16-13-4) return home for back-and-back scrapes with the Blues (18-15-1) and Isles (16-9-9) on Saturday and Sunday night.

Don’t look now. But we’re 5-1-1 in our past seven games.

With 36 points, we’re three points out of the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.