After pulling a vanishing act for the better part of two weeks that would’ve done famed illusionist David Copperfield proud, the Penguins reversed their course last night at PPG Paints Arena against Florida. Dramatically so.
The result?
A remarkably crisp, buttoned down, 4-0 whitewashing of the Panthers.
Frankly, I was stunned by how well the Pens played. They were fast. Opportunistic. For the most part, defensive assignments were executed with aplomb. Best of all, we seemed to rediscover the connectivity that to a great degree fueled our success last season.
In short, we bore scant resemblance to the sloppy, out-matched, disorganized bunch that lost four in a row.
It should be noted that the Panthers played an emotional game the night before in Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa, while the Pens were well-rested. But it doesn’t detract from our performance one iota.
TO THE SCORING
The reconstructed fourth line got us off and running at 15:19 of the opening frame. Connor Dewar glided into the Panthers’ zone and fed Nick Robertson coming late on the play. Robo cut to his right with a toe-draggish move to improve his look, then fired a tracer bullet past Panthers netminder Cooper Black glove side.
Down 1-zip, the visitors began a concerted push-back in the second period, aided by a penalty to Evgeni Malkin. However, the Pens refused to allow the Panthers to take over. Midway through the period, Arturs Silovs bumped the puck to Malkin to initiate a scoring play. Geno fed Ville Koivunen at the Florida line, who in turn slipped a pretty saucer pass to Hendrix Lapierre on the opposite wing. The former Cap went backhand to forehand to put the Pens up 2-0.
Adversity reared its ugly head late in the period when Silovs accidentally clipped Sam Bennett with his stick and drew blood, not to mention a double-minor. With practically the entire four minutes to work with before the horn, the Panthers had a golden opportunity to pounce. However, our determined penalty killers blocked three shots while allowing nary a shot to reach Silovs.
Suitably inspired, the Pens killed off the remaining fraction of the penalty to open the third period and promptly went on the attack. Spencer Stastney fed an outlet pass to Lapierre, who in turn sprang Malkin down the left side. “Geno Machino” rambled toward the net, somehow slipped the biscuit beneath a sprawling Gustav Forsling with a filthy toe-drag, then beat Black like Mike Lange’s rented mule.
Pure Malkin magic and a 3-0 lead.
When Koivunen was whistled for holding at the 14 minute-mark to open the door for the Panthers, our PK once again rose to the occasion. Robertson struck for an empty-netter at 17:34 to provide the final margin of victory.
A delicious and well-earned one at that.
PUCKPOURRI
Although the Pens appeared to dictate play, the Panthers actually held an edge in shot attempts (52-43) and shots on goal (26-21). The locals held sway in scoring chances (24-23) and high-danger chances (12-9), according to Natural Stat Trick.
With Ben Kindel and Bryan Rust on IR and Egor Chinakhov sitting out as well, coach Dan Muse pressed Lapierre, Elmer Soderblom and freshly promoted Rutger McGroarty into service.
A healthy scratch the previous four games, Lapierre tallied a goal and an assist to earn-second star honors. Soderblom paced the Pens with three hits, including a booming check on Niko Mikkola. The big guy was a force in the dirty areas as well. McGroarty registered a shot on goal and some solid metrics (57.14 Corsi, 67.85 xGF%).
Muse tossed his forwards into a blender and, remarkably, hit on several winning combinations. The Malkin-Lapierre-Koivunen trio was especially good and displayed great chemistry. Blake Lizotte centered for McGroarty and Andrei Kuzmenko, who enjoyed arguably his best game of the season. Dewar shifted to center on the fourth line between the Mutt and Jeff pair of Robertson and Soderblom and collected two assists.
The only unit to struggle? The Sidney Crosby–Tommy Novak–Rickard Rakell trio, which was outshot 10-4 in 5v5 play. To my eye, Sid was one of the few Pens who didn’t play particularly well.
Silovs earned top-star honors with a 26-save performance. His rebound control, a bugaboo, seems to be improving.
Geno earned third-star honors. He’s tied with Robertson for the team in goals with six and sits second in points with nine, two behind Erik Karlsson. Not too shabby for a 40-year-old!
Stastney is proving me dead-wrong. He’s very quietly done a really nice job since his arrival. He skates well, makes a good outlet pass and more often than not seems to make the responsible play. He’s been a solid partner for Karlsson.
UP NEXT
The Pens (4-6-1) host the Predators (3-3-3) on Saturday night. If we can just lather, rinse, repeat…
I enjoyed the shit outta last night’s game. Coupled with my best bowling outing in a month (shot 661), it was a great night all around.
I think rakell needs to change lines. I propose trying mcgroarty with Sid, followed by kuzmenko if it fails. Out rakell on third line. He’s trying hard, but is just snake bitten. Maybe teaching him center duties broke his scoring touch lol
Love Elmer. He was trying to screen the goalie all night, which…he’s the only penguin tall enough to do it! I think he needs consistent playing time and will improve even more.
Did you know Elmer’s straight line speed is like 21 mph? Very fast.