Penguins Starch Blue Jackets, 5-3, Thanks to Sid’s Hatty

Midway through the first period of the Penguins’ 5-3 triumph over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena last night, Sidney Crosby made a play deep in our zone to thwart a CBJ cycle and start us on the transition. As I watched him diligently perform his defensive chores, it occurred to me just how much we as Pens fans (or at least I personally) take him for granted.

Season after season, through all our ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, he’s remained marvelously and unerringly consistent. The on-ice equivalent of the Rock of Gibraltar.

Canucks coach and former black-and-gold assistant Rick Tocchet once likened a young Olli Määttä to a “video-game defenseman,” always making the correct play. Well, the same goes for our captain. He always seems to make the right read and the right play. No detail seems to escape his attention. No matter how unglamorous the task, he’s always willing to roll up his sleeves and do the dirty work. 

Suffice to say, the game belonged to Sid last night. With three goals and a helper, he dominated the action, not to mention the scoresheet, virtually from start to finish.

Just past the four-minute mark of the first period he snapped a short pass from Marcus Pettersson past Elvis Merzlikins from a sharp angle along the goal line. The tally typified what separates Sid from so many other superstars…his willingness to muck down low and in the dirty areas.

The most skilled grinder in the league, as former linemate and TV color man Colby Armstrong once described him.

Following Sid’s tally, our guys seemed to take their collective foot off the gas pedal. Perhaps they anticipated an easy night against a CBJ squad that had gone 1-5-4 in their previous 10 games. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth.

Gathering momentum, the Blue Jackets swarmed like Mike Lange’s bees around a hive before knotting the score on a brilliant individual effort by Kirill Marchenko, who sliced through our butter-soft defense before beating Tristan Jarry with a backhander.

Yegor Chinakhov made it 2-1 with 32 seconds to play in the period on a bullet from the right circle, courtesy of a nice set up from old friend Erik Gudbranson and a big boy screen by Boone Jenner (love the player and the name).

At this stage I feared it was destined to be one of those nights when we take a foe too lightly and get burned. Fortunately, my fears proved unfounded as we battled back to tie the score at 7:04 of the second frame. Sid alertly spotted Vinnie Hinostroza hopping over the boards and speeding toward the slot and fed him the puck. Hino couldn’t control the pass, but Jake Guentzel pounced on the loose rubber and swept it past Merzlikins.

Evgeni Malkin’s line got into the act, staking us to a 3-2 lead at 8:40 of the final period…with a little help from Erik Karlsson. Rickard Rakell made a nice play to bump the puck off the boards to Malkin. Using Pettersson as a decoy at center point, Geno slipped a cross-ice feed into Karlsson’s wheelhouse. EK65 did the rest, blasting the biscuit past Merzlikins stick side.

The Jackets countered again on a marker by Alexandre Texier three minutes later. However, the Pens…or more to the point…Sid, would not be denied. After threading a pass through an onrushing Bryan Rust to Karlsson, No. 87 circled behind the net and presented himself as a target along the goal line. EK65 fed him a perfect shot-pass and our captain did the rest, somehow chop-deflecting the puck past Merzlikins from a sharp angle.

My word, what an incredible display of hand-eye coordination. Breathtaking.

Sid capped the win…and his hatty…with an empty-netter. All in a night’s work for Super Sid.

Enjoy him while you can, folks. No. Make that treasure him while you can. He’s something special.

Puckpourri

The Pens held sway in shot attempts (71-62), shots on goal (41-30) and high-danger chances (13-10) according to Natural Stat Trick. The Blue Jackets had a 31-25 edge in scoring chances, which reinforced the eye test.

I thought this was our sloppiest game defensively in quite some time, forcing Jarry to make a number of big saves. Fortunately, he was up to the task.

The CBJ blocked 21 shots and packed the house defensively, which usually gives us fits. But we found a way.

All of our forward lines registered a plus-60 Corsi. Absolutely dominant at times, our third line had an expected goals for percentage of 76.98!

Sid extended his points streak to nine games. He leads the team with 10 goals and 19 points in 14 games, a striking 59-goal, 112-point pace over a full 82-game season.

Amazing!

Speaking of amazing, how about the chemistry he and Karlsson are beginning to display. You can tell they think the game the same way. I’m tellin’ ya, the sky’s virtually the limit for those two.

True confessions…I had some reservations about acquiring Karlsson. They’ve pretty much been blown away by his electric start (five goals, 15 points in 14 games). Goodness, what a weapon he is, able to take over games single-handed.

Kyle Dubas sure knew what he was doing. Ditto his acquisition of Reilly Smith. Actually, a number of his additions, including Lars Eller, Radim Zohorna and Ryan Shea, have neatly fallen into place. Although they aren’t scoring, Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto are doing the job defensively and on the pk.

Nice to see Rakell get a helper on EK65’s goal. His scoring woes aren’t for a lack of effort. Wish we’d put RikRak out there in empty-net situations to get him one.

I like Hinostroza’s zip. I think he could evolve into an Evan Rodrigues-type player if so utilized.

On Deck

The Pens (8-6) return home to face the Devils (7-6-1) on Thursday night. Then things get considerably tougher with back-to-backs against Carolina and Vegas this weekend.

Thanks to out five-game winning streak, we’re currently lodged in fourth place in the Metro and tied for the second Eastern Conference wild card slot.

Perhaps even Other Rick is smiling (poke).