The Penguins continued to dig out from a dreadful start to the season last night at Crypto.com Arena. Our boys prevailed, 4-3, over a fast, aggressive Kings squad in a highly entertaining contest that featured three lead changes, thanks to Bryan Rust’s second overtime goal. (I’ll explain later.)
I’ll get right to describing the action. Just past the seven-minute mark of the opening frame Kris Letang tried to feed Jake Guentzel in front of the Kings’ net following a give-and-go with Sidney Crosby. Drew Doughty broke up the play and stole Jake’s lunch money (depositing him on his wallet in the process), but Sid swooped in to scoop up the loose change and scored on a wraparound to stake us to an early lead.
Our hosts knotted the score at 14:14 courtesy of a botched line change following a failed black-and-gold power play. Anže Kopitar beat Erik Karlsson to a loose puck in the corner and set the disk on a platter for Carl Grundström, who beat Magnus Hellberg from close range.
When the Kings grabbed the lead midway through the contest on a short-side snap shot by Adrian Kempe? I thought we were toast. After all, our foes were in the process of piling up a 14-5 edge in second-period shots on goal while dominating the action.
However, the new-look Kyle Dubas Pens have a bend-but-not-break quality about them. We somehow weathered the storm.
While killing off a late-period hooking penalty to Letang, Lars Eller stole the puck in the neutral zone and set sail along the right wall. After cutting sharply to his left, the great Dane beat Phoenix Copley with a sizzling snapper from the high slot to tie the score at 2-2 heading into the second intermission.
The Pens retook the lead just 37 seconds into the third period off a slick tic-tac-toe passing play by Karlsson and Crosby, culminating in a nifty redirect goal by Guentzel. LA drew even again on a follow-up goal by Kevin Fiala at 6:40 after Hellberg made two big saves to thwart the initial rush.
On to overtime. With a buck-thirty-seven to play in the extra stanza, Rust beat Copley from the right circle for the apparent game winner.
But hold the phone. Following a quick review, the mustachioed winger was deemed to be offside on the play.
No goal.
No worries.
On the ensuing rush, the Rusty Razor gathered in a drop pass from Evgeni Malkin, feinted, and steamed behind the net before stuffing the puck past Copley at the far post.
“Are you kidding me?” bellowed play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff. “Take that one to the bank!”
To quote Josh’s former radio tag-team-partner, Mike Lange, “You’d have to be here to believe it!”
Puckpourri
The Kings dominated, stats-wise, piling up lopsided advantages in shot attempts (69-49), shots on goal (36-20) and scoring chances (37-23) according to Natural Stat Trick. Oddly, we had a slight edge in high-danger chances (12-11).
Yes, I’m gonna harp on it again. We’re 6-0 when we attempt less than 70 shots, 0-6 when we attempt 70 or more.
Making his first start in the black and gold, Hellberg came up huge, literally, stopping 33 of 36 shots for a solid .917 save percentage. My nickname for the hulking Swede? Man Mountain Magnus.
Crosby (1+1) and Karlsson (two helpers) paced our attack with two points apiece.
It was a physical affair as the clubs combined for 44 hits, with the home team generally getting the better of the physical play. Andreas Englund made like ex-Pen Deryk Engelland and crushed Radim Zohorna with a bristling check in the first period. Later in the frame, Kempe battled Letang and decked Malkin with a sucker punch.
Like a Timex watch, our guys took a lickin’ and kept on tickin.’
Jeff Carter dressed against his old team. He was a minus-1 with no shots on goal in 7:28 of ice time. No offense to the big guy, but I hope Vinnie Hinostroza…assigned to the Baby Pens to balance the books in the wake of Joel Blomqvist’s call-up…will be back soon.
The name Crypto.com makes me think of “Tales From the Crypt.”
Around the League
Making his first start of the season, old friend Louis Domingue (aka Mr. Spicy Pork) stopped 25 of 26 shots to backstop the division-leading Rangers to a 4-1 win over the Wild.
And…drum roll please…the Sharks won their second game in a row, besting Connor McDavid and the skidding Oilers, 3-2! The Oil are now 2-9-1. Wouldn’t want to be their coach, Jay Woodcroft, right about now.
On Deck
The Pens (6-6) return home to face the Sabres (6-6-1) Saturday night. Thanks to our 3-0 road trip, we’ve leapfrogged Philly and the CBJ in the Metro standings and are currently tied for fifth place with the Caps.
Rick
If it means Hinostroza or Carter then bring Vinnie back up, but for me I would like to see them
give Poulin a shot on the 4th line.
Also, how long will they stay with O’Connor? I like his work ethic but as a 3rd line player you
have to provide some level of production. He’s not a rookie at 25yrs of age and for his size
he doesn’t move the needle from a physical perspective. Fans wanted to run Carter out of
town and he had 13 goals and 16 assist – If you total O’Conners last 4yrs with the Pen’s he’s
scored 8 goals and added 11 assists. This is not a rant to get Carter back on the ice – I agree
100% that they move on from him – I just think its odd how fans pick and choose who
they attack!! Jack Johnson is still playing 3rd pairing minutes with one of the better teams in
the league “just saying”. He turns 38 in January. I know immediately everyone will say it was
his salary and length of contract – again, I don’t disagree but it doesn’t matter if you make
3mil or 1mil if you can’t play!!
One last observation – Dubas, at some point needs to address our 3rd pairing of Shea and
Ruhwedel. Shea’s been okay but how much can he improve at the age of 26 and soon to be
27 (Feb – 2024). Ruhwedel has exceeded expectations but this year more than ever he’s
being exposed. Joseph IMO isn’t the answer.
I look forward to your feedback.
Hello Mike,
Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you.
As always, you make a lot of good points and raise a few nagging issues. I hear ya about Carter’s production vs O’Connor’s. I truly thought DOC was poised for a breakout. I don’t know if it’s a matter of confidence, or if he just doesn’t have the offensive chops at this level. But he does provide some youth, speed and size (although not necessarily aggression as you pointed out). I guess at this stage, I’ll settle for that…at least until we come up with a better option.
Re: Hinostroza vs Poulin, I confess I really like the former’s speed and hustle. On a team that sometimes needs a spark, I think he’s a valuable commodity. I like Poulin, too, and his ability to play in traffic. At some point would like to see us work him into the mix as well. Unfortunately, right now he’s injured.
Re: third pairing ‘d,’ I started out not liking Shea but confess he’s grown on me. Solid and safe in all aspects of his game, and he seems to have stabilized Ruhwedel for now. Agree POJ is not the answer…dear Lord is he shaky defensively. I noticed Mark Pysyk has played a couple of games for the Baby Pens. Short term, if all goes well with him I think the Pens might look for him to supplant Ruhwedel.
Perhaps Shea serves as a bridge until Owen Pickering’s ready. Although based solely on the kid’s +/- numbers, he may not be any better at actual defending than POJ… 🙁
In a loosely related matter, I noticed Nikita Zadorov is posturing for a trade out of Calgary. Would love to get this guy for a number of reasons, but I just don’t know how we’d begin to fit him in unless we part with significant $$$ (Rakell?).
Rick