Penguins Thump CBJ, 6-3

The Penguins closed out a strong 4-1 home stand with a 6-3 thumping of the Blue Jackets last night at PPG Paints Arena.

Despite the final outcome, it was anything but a dominating performance for our boys. The other way around, in fact. The CBJ piled up a huge edge in shot attempts (94-55) and shots on goal (47-34).

However, the Pens received timely, not to mention, distributed scoring from six different players. Terrific goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic, too. Making his first start in two weeks, Ned literally stood on his head at times while turning aside 44 enemy shots. Oh, and the game-winning goal was scored by…drum roll please…Boko Imama!

Playing from in front for the fourth time in five games, the Pens once again snatched an early lead on a goal by Evgeni Malkin, his 14^th of the campaign.

Six minutes later the black-and-gold got a boost of a different sort when Imama challenged CBJ heavyweight Mathieu Olivier to a fight. A courageous act indeed, given that Olivier is the toughest fighter in the league.

An excellent technical fighter who throws bombs, Olivier has taken apart such notable heavies as the Rangers’ Matt Rempe and the Canadiens’ Arber Xhekaj, no easy feat. In a battle that was generally regarded as a passing of the belt, he engaged ex-Pen Ryan Reaves in a tremendous, toe-to-toe slugging match in January. But I digress.

Following a brief square-off at center ice, Imama latched on to his foe with his left hand and did a good job of keeping the Blue Jackets’ bomber at a distance. By my very unofficial count, Olivier attempted 11 rights to six for Boko, with neither combatant gaining a clear-cut advantage. Most important, it provided the Pens, as well as the 17,222 faithful in attendance, with a huge shot of adrenalin.

Two minutes later Noel Acciari struck on a backhander to stake the Pens to a 2-0 lead. On the ensuing shift, bruising Boone Jenner countered for the CBJ, touching off alarm bells. But the Pens got it right back as Rickard Rakell finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing sequence by our top line.

Up 3-1, our Pens sagged a bit to open the second period. The Blue Jackets pounced on a marker credited to Justin Danforth but actually scored by our own Conor Timmins, who misfired while trying to tuck the puck into Ned’s pads.

Cue Boko for an encore. Just past the eight-minute mark Kevin Hayes won a draw in the CBJ zone and nudged the biscuit to Danton Heinen. The blonde-haired winger wheeled around the left circle and slipped a beautiful feed to Imama stationed just inside the circle. Boko smoked CBJ goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a sizzling, blocker-side riser. Dare I say, a sniper’s goal. (FYI: the rugged winger scored 41 goals his final year in junior.)

Sidney Crosby made it 5-2 with a handsy deflection of a Matt Grzelcyk shot at 15:31.

Channeling Tuesday night’s third period cave-in against the Islanders, the visitors completely owned the final 20 minutes, launching 18 shots at Nedeljkovic. Fortunately, only one, a wrister by Kent Johnson, eluded the spunky netminder. Ned even picked up an assist on Bryan Rust’s empty-netter at 18:03 to help seal the deal.

Puckpourri

Thirteen Pens registered on the scoresheet, a most welcome change from our norm.

Almost quietly, Crosby collected a goal and a helper. He now has 76 points in 69 games.

His scoring play? Typical Sid. Anticipating Grzelcyk’s shot, No. 87 timed his approach to the net perfectly, arriving just as the puck did.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the generalship, on-ice awareness and details in Sid’s game are off the charts. If it hasn’t already been done, one day someone’s going to isolate on him for an entire game and use it as an instructional video for kids.

Rakell’s goal was his 32^nd, two shy of his career high. Great to see Geno score again (his 14^th). He’s got 45 points…pullin’ for the big guy to get 50. Newcomer Connor Dewar was placed on his wing to provide some jam, and didn’t look the least bit out of place.

Speaking of, what a difference adding a few guys with a high-motor and compete level can make. Suddenly, the Pens have a handful of players like Dewar, Blake Lizotte (and Imama when he’s one the ice) who bring it game-in and game-out.

Contrast that with Cody Glass. Great guy and solid citizen that he was and is, I could go a week at a time without noticing him. Not so with a gamer like Dewar, who’s constantly in the mix.

Loko for Boko

I’ll close by climbing on my hot-button soap box.

The effect a physical player like Imama had on last night’s game was obvious. In fact, he was even named first star. Reminiscent of the night back in 2017 when Reaves earned similar honors for scoring a goal and thumping Nashville heavies Austin Watson and Cody McLeod in a pair of tilts.

Boko’s admittedly no all-star. However, what the Montréal native lacks in talent he more than makes for with drive, energy and attitude, not to mention a willingness to roll up his sleeves and get muddy.

Watch opposing defensemen look over their shoulders and rush their plays when Boko’s on the ice. You can’t tell me there isn’t value in that.

While it isn’t my intent to demean him in any way, contrast that with Matt Nieto, one of the lowest-rated players in the NHL and certainly one of the most vanilla during the 31 games he skated for us. We were 12-17-2 in those games.

Again by contrast, Imama’s delivered 37 hits in 14 games despite averaging only 5:34 of ice time. He makes an impact…literally.

We’re 9-4-1 with him in the lineup and 0-6-1 in games he’s sat out. If that doesn’t testify to the value of having a player of Boko’s ilk in the lineup, I don’t know what does.

As an organization, the Pens have a long history of bypassing needed toughness and physicality in pursuit of a last shred or morsel of skill. (See Bemström, Emil.)

If we’re ever to be competitive again, that practice needs to stop.