Our Penguins entered last night’s do-or-die matchup with Montréal with a crystal clear mandate. A win was an absolute must in order to keep our flickering playoff hopes alive.
I’m happy to report…mission accomplished.
After rallying to tie the score at 2-2 midway through the third period on a goal by Jake Guentzel, the Pens completed their comeback on a snipe at 2:43 of overtime by, of all players, Marcus Pettersson. In the process, nipping an 0-2-1 slide in the bud and propelling the team into the All-Star break with a little positive mojo.
Looking remarkably fresh considering they’d been embroiled in a physical, emotional contest with the Panthers the night before, our guys displayed plenty of hop from the get-go. However, the Canadiens grabbed the lead on a backdoor goal by second-year defenseman Kaiden Guhle, thanks to a pretty setup from former Pen Mike Matheson.
However, the one thing this black-and-gold bunch has done well all year is hang tough, particularly when trailing. Once again, they stuck to their guns and embraced an uphill battle, even with Habs netminder Jake Allen doing a pretty fair imitation of Georges Vezina between the pipes.
We rallied to knot the score just past the four-minute mark of the second period on a goal by our newly constructed third (second?) line. Rickard Rakell swung around Joel Armia in the corner and fed rookie Valtteri Puustinen in the right circle. Puusti hammered off a hard shot that popped off Allen and onto the waiting stick of Lars Eller in the slot. Playing in his 1000th NHL game, the big center drove the puck home for his ninth goal of the season.
The Canadiens retook the lead at 12:23 of the period with Kris Letang in the box for interference. Putting on a clinic in power-play puck movement, the Habs crushed the black-and-gold pk box like an empty beer can with a series of purposeful passes, leading to an easy back-door goal by Slovakian man-mountain Juraj Slafkovsky.
When the Pens showed signs of a let-down to begin the third period, coach Mike Sullivan pulled out all the stops. He shortened his bench and replaced Puustinen, who’d played well, with Malkin on the Eller line. Although it didn’t score, the unit was dominant, recording a 5v5 Corsi of 81.82 and a stunning expected goals for percentage of 98.87.
With the ice tilting in our favor, we knotted the score a second time midway through the frame on an absolutely brilliant play by Sidney Crosby. After receiving a perfectly paced pass from Pettersson, Sid sent a spinning backhand feed from the right faceoff dot to Guentzel sneaking in the backdoor for an easy tap-in.
How he spotted Jake, much less threaded a pass to him, I’ll never know.
Sid-sensational.
I confess, with the Pens dragging a 1-5 record in games decided in overtime into the extra stanza, let’s just say I was less-than-confident in our ability to prevail. On cue, the visitors dominated the first couple minutes. But Tristan Jarry, often iffy in OT, made a big save on Slafkovsky at the 2:15 mark.
Moments later Geno (yes, Geno!) blocked a shot by Matheson to spring Rakell and Pettersson on a 2-on-1. Matheson elected to cover Rakell, leaving Allen to face Pettersson. Thor must’ve wielded his hammer on the Dragon’s behalf, because the light-scoring defenseman swept the puck past Allen from the right circle for the OT winner.
Puckpourri
For the most part the Pens skated circles around the Habs, piling up a sizeable edge in shot attempts (86-48), scoring chances (43-27) and high-danger chances (21-11) according to Natural Stat Trick. Shots on goal (33-27) favored the Pens as well.
With the OT winner and a helper, Pettersson earned top-star honors. Eller, a long-time Canadien, was named second star.
Jarry made 25 saves in a solid, bend-but-don’t-break effort. We continue to receive excellent goaltending from our Jarry-Alex Nedeljkovic tandem. However, if we’re going to seriously compete for a playoff spot, we must add some scoring punch.
Along those lines, it’s time for Sullivan to end his love affair with Jansen Harkins, in many ways the new Dominik Simon. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jansen’s speed and grit and willingness to get dirty, and apparently he’s a great teammate. But he has about as much a chance of scoring a goal as I do. And on a team that’s offensively challenged (last in finishing, 25th in goal production)…
…it’s time to promote Sam Poulin. With 11 goals in 23 games, including a two-goal effort Friday night to lead a comeback victory over Lehigh Valley, he’s been on fire for the Baby Pens. During the game, he rushed to the aid of Radim Zohorna, who was leveled by ex-Pen Garrett Wilson, and held his own against a frequent fighter.
It’s a bit of a mystery as to why Sam wasn’t promoted over Colin White. Well, maybe not. Sam possesses a lot of great qualities, but blazing speed isn’t one of ‘em. However, it’s time for the Pens (or more to the point, Sullivan) to get over his aversion to a player who may not win many track meets, but one who could help in the trenches.
In addition, with four goals and eight points in 11 games, Jesse Puljujarvi is also heating up. Although the big guy’s still playing his way back into condition, another internal possibility for down the road.
If the Pens do promote Poulin? Let’s hope he doesn’t receive the typical Sully kid treatment.
It goes without saying our power play, ranked next-to-last, is another enormous concern. If it was producing at the league-average rate of 20.56 percent instead of barely 13 percent we’d have around a dozen more goals and, likely, a handful more wins.
Sullivan stuck with Letang and Puustinen on the top power-play configuration and the difference was eye-catching. Although the unit didn’t score, it shot the puck first and asked questions later. A welcome change from the pass, pass, pass the puck around the perimeter approach of our Hall-of-Fame unit.
Watching the Habs’ power play dissect our penalty kill, it was clear their purpose to was to find the open man as quickly and as efficiently as possible, not to make sure everyone got their share of touches.
How bad in hindsight was the Matheson trade? He and Karlsson each have seven goals and 34 points in roughly the same number of games. We’re paying a cool $10 million/season for EK65…the Habs $4.875 million per for Matheson.
Ouch.
On Tap
Well…nothing…at least not for the immediate future. The Pens (22-17-7, 51 points) have off till February 6, when they host the high flying Jets (30-12-5, 65 points).
We enter the All-Star break five points behind the third-place Flyers in the Metro standings, but six points out of the second wild-card spot.
Games in hand or not, we’re going to have to make hay following the break. To reach 95 points, which The Athletic established as the cutoff for making the playoffs, we’ll have to go something like 20-12-4 the rest of the way…a points percentage of .611. Well above our present .554 clip.
The silver lining? Since our woeful 3-6 start, we’ve gone 19-11-7, good for a .608 points percentage. So it’s doable.
