It isn’t often I can claim to be a good luck charm. In fact, most of the time I have the opposite effect (the dreaded PenguinPoop curse). But for one night I was a bringer of good fortune.
Literally the moment I arrived at Pennsbury Station (formerly Pennsbury Pub & Grille) and planted my keister on a bar stool, Evgeni Malkin sprang from the penalty box, took a long lead pass from Josh Archibald (?!) and snapped the puck beneath Brian Elliott’s pads to knot the score at 2-2. A happy harbinger of things to come.
Following a nine-minute lull, our boys exploded for five (count ‘em…five) goals in a near-record span of 4:27. It wasn’t so much that we scored as who did the scoring that made it special. Indeed, following a power-play marker by Sidney Crosby at 15:28 to give us a 3-2 lead, a cavalcade of guys who quite literally haven’t scored since the eighth-grade picnic breached the score sheet.
Digging like Mike Lange’s proverbial coal miner, Teddy Blueger dove headlong into the blue paint to swat home a loose biscuit at 16:20…his first goal since December 6. You could sense the 800-pound gorilla of a 32-game goalless drought being lifted off his shoulders as his celebrated.
Needless to say, I was thrilled for him. Few players work as hard as Teddy, and after a bucketful of near misses of late it was great to see him finally get rewarded.
Turns out, we were just getting warmed up.
Ninety seconds later, Jeff Carter cruised through the right circle and tucked a pretty feed from Kris Letang over Elliott and under the cross bar. Only his second goal in 20 games.
Top-sixer Jason Zucker got into the act at 18:37, lifting a dagger of a pass from Malkin over the beleaguered Elliott’s glove on the backhand for his 16th goal of the campaign.
And then? Brian Dumoulin (yes Dumo!) smoked Elliott with a long-range blast just before the horn for his first goal of the season, in the process running the score to 7-2!
A second period to remember.
I won’t lie. When Brayden Point struck for the Lightning on the power play at 7:57 of the third period, my gut began to twist a little. After all, we’ve raised blowing leads to an art form. But mercifully, the Pens hunkered down and successfully let the air out of the game to secure the much-needed two points.
After weeks upon weeks of struggling, it was great to see the players and Mike Sullivan exhale and garner an easy victory. At least for one night, there were smiles all around, and deservedly so.
If I wanted to prick our bubble just a tad, I could mention that we had the extreme good fortune of facing Elliott, who we’ve owned, instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who shut out Detroit the night before. But I won’t go down that rabbit hole.
To lift a line from Other Rick’s favorite movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “This is a happy occasion.” And indeed it is.
Puckpourri
Stats-wise, it was an odd game. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Lightning had the edge in shot attempts (61-58) and scoring chances (34-28), while the Pens prevailed in shots on goal (36-29) and high-danger chances (20-13).
In a most welcome change, 13 black-and-gold skaters tallied at least one point. Malkin and Crosby paced the forwards. Each had a goal and a helper. Remarkably, four members of our light-scoring defense, Dumoulin, Letang, Marcus Pettersson and Jeff Petry registered two points apiece. A total of eight points!
Drew O’Connor notched our first goal on a deflection at 3:20 of the first period. With two goals and three assists in his last 10 games (in limited ice time), DOC looks like he belongs.
The second line of Malkin, Zucker and Bryan Rust has been sizzlin’ of late. With 11 goals and 28 points in his past 21 games, Geno’s been red-hot. Love this combination.
Crosby scaled the 70-point mark for the 13th time in his illustrious career. Quite an achievement.
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves in a workmanlike effort to nab the win. He’s 11-12-4 on the season.
Don’t know if it’s just a coincidence and I don’t mean to cast aspersions, but our chemistry appears to be a lot better sans Kasperi Kapanen.
We’re now 9-12-3 in back-to-backs.
Oh No Jeannot
The Lightning acquired my favored trade target, Tanner Jeannot, from Nashville for defenseman Cal Foote, a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and a third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Yowser…that’s quite a haul for the Preds.
The Devils also went big, acquiring scorer Timo Meier from San Jose for forwards Fabian Zetterlund and Andreas Johnsson, defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Nikita Okhotiuk, a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, and a second- and seventh-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. The Devils also received defensemen Scott Harrington (a former Pen) and Santeri Hatakka, forward prospect Timur Ibragimov, goalie prospect Zachary Emond, and a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Schnikes!
On Tap
The Pens (29-21-9, 67 points) embark on a crucial three-game swing through Dixie to face Nashville (Tuesday), Tampa Bay (Thursday) and Florida (Saturday) before returning home next Tuesday to face the improving Blue Jackets.
We’re presently ensconced in the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot, a point up on Buffalo and three up on Florida and Washington.
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