In 1886, Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson penned a novella about the good and kind Dr. Jekyll, who morphed into the evil and brutish Mr. Hyde whenever he drank a serum. A transformation so gruesome, it shocked a friend of Jekyll’s who witnessed it to death.
As Penguins fans, I think we can relate. Indeed, the Jekyll and Hyde storyline is an apt description for our 4-1 triumph over the Wild last night, and perhaps our season as a whole.
Fortunately, it was the Dr. Jekyll Pens who opened the game. Playing one of our finest first periods of the season, the black and gold skated rings around the heavier Wild while piling up a 19-5 edge in shots on goal.
After peppering old friend Marc-Andre Fleury, we broke through at the 15-minute mark on a gorgeous goal by Kris Letang. Sidney Crosby won the faceoff and nudged the puck to Jake Guentzel, who pushed it to Brian Dumoulin at the left point. Dumo moved the puck quickly to his partner Letang at the right point and No. 58 did the rest. Tanger skated down the wall and froze Marcus Foligno with a nifty change in speed, then blew around the husky Wild forward and beat Fleury glove side with a sharp-angle snipe.
It doesn’t get any prettier.
After killing off a phantom interference call to Josh Archibald eight minutes into the second period, the Pens doubled their lead with a power-play goal at 10:53. With Wild penalty killer Joel Eriksson Ek incapacitated after blocking a shot, Letang slipped a no-look pass into Rickard Rakell’s wheelhouse in the left circle. RikRak blasted the puck in off the iron where the far post connects to the crossbar for his 28th goal of the campaign and his team-leading 11th power-play tally.
The worm began to turn a short time later when Guentzel was issued a high-sticking penalty. Our much-maligned PK managed to kill that one, plus a late indiscretion by Zucker in the final minute of the period. In between, Tristan Jarry made a huge stop on slippery Mats Zuccarello following a wonky clearing attempt by Jeff Petry.
Zucker made amends at 2:58 of the final period, beating Fleury with a drive from the top of the right circle off a slick setup by Evgeni Malkin.
Enter the Mr. Hyde Pens.
The transformation was quite visceral. Indeed, you could see our guys collectively fall apart at the seams, as if they’d never played the game before and had no idea what to do. In the process, ceding the Wild all sorts of zone time and open looks.
“You still have to play,” I yelled at the TV screen in exasperation, a millisecond before Pens color commentator Bob Errey uttered the exact same words. (It’s kind of scary when me and the normally gushy “Bibs” are thinking the same thing.)
Intent on Hyde-ish self destruction, Petry was whistled for high-sticking at 6:48, followed in short order by a holding call to Bryan Rust to dig us a 5-on-3 hole for 1:27. It took ex-Capital Marcus Johansson all of 17 seconds to bang the biscuit in off Dumoulin’s left skate. Cutting our lead to two goals.
Just as I was about to blow a gasket, duty called and my attention was diverted by a needed repair at the gym. By the time I returned to my post at the front desk the score was 4-1. During my absence, Dumoulin made a beautiful rush before dishing to Drew O’Connor, who sent a diagonal pass to a breaking Jeff Carter. The big guy scored on a backhand redirect.
Fortunately, Foligno must’ve drank some of the serum, too. He took a penalty at 15:32 for high-sticking Mark Friedman, effectively killing any chance for a Wild comeback.
Puckpourri
The Wild held the edge in shot attempts (67-46), scoring chances (23-22) and high-danger chances (11-6). Thanks to our scorching first period, the Pens prevailed in shots on goal (31-28).
Speaking of Mr. Hyde, Rust had a chance to stake us to an early lead, only to misfire and shoot the puck over a wide-open net. It’s been that kind of season for Rusty.
While we’re on the subject of transformations, I don’t know what’s gotten into Dumoulin of late, but he’s flashing some truly impressive (and latent) offensive skills. With two assists last night, Dumo now has seven helpers in his last nine games. His been playing a lot better, too, perhaps a sign that his surgically repaired knee is fully healed. It begs the question…should the Pens consider re-signing him this summer?
His partner, Letang, was superb, firing five shots on goal while tallying a goal and a helper against his old pal Fleury.
Jan Rutta returned after missing 10 games. Paired with Friedman, he delivered three hits, blocked two shots and helped solidify our back end. But the Pierre-Olivier Joseph-Petry pairing? Woof. One of the leading practitioners of Mr. Hyde hockey.
Having written a complimentary article about him earlier in the day, I was both happy and relieved to watch Rakell tally a goal and an assist. Apparently the PenguinPoop Curse took the night off.
Jarry made 27 saves, including a couple of Fleury-esque stops on goal-mouth scrambles early in the second period.
There Must Be Some Mistake
The Baby Pens have signed forward Jagger Joshua, the kid brother of Canucks forward Dakota Joshua. He’s 6’3” and weighs 196 pounds.
Power forward. Tough guy. In addition to scoring 13 goals for in 37 games for Michigan State, he collected 92 penalty minutes. (Gasp!)
Somehow, this must’ve slipped past Ron Hextall and Mike Sullivan.
Speaking of tough guys, old friend Ryan Reaves has scored four goals in his past 11 games.
On Tap
The Pens (39-30-10, 88 points) trek to the Motor City for a Saturday matinee matchup (ugh) with the Red Wings (35-33-10, 80 points). Then we close out our season at home against Chicago (Tuesday) and at Columbus (Thursday).
Three comparative cupcakes who we should beat. We know how that works.
With the victory, we kept pace with the Islanders and Panthers, who routed their respective foes last night. We remain a point behind both in the chase for a wild-card spot.
