Key Takeaways from Penguins 5-4 OT Win

Storylines from Penguins 5-4 OT Win

Taking Advantage of Bad Goaltending: Second time in four games the Penguins took advantage of some really, really bad goaltending. The Panthers despite carrying the play for about 55 of 60 minutes in regulation, outshooting the Penguins 41-16 and out-attempting Pittsburgh 80-46, could never get a save with Spencer Knight posting a .688 SV%. Pittsburgh scored three goals on their first Six Shots and after Marcus Pettersson’s Bobby Orr esque goal to put the Penguins ahead 4-1 in the third, the Penguins had four goals on 12 shots, 44 minutes into the game. It wasn’t long ago Knight was regarded in league circles as the next big thing.

1 Point Out? There’s something call Points Percentage (.481) that is the true story here but the Penguins enter Wednesday one point out of a wildcard berth in a year that might be bottled up with a lot of mediocre teams. This was a team 11 days completely dead in the water.

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Players Buzz

Tristan Jarry | 37 saves, .902 SV% | If you didn’t watch this one many would be looking at the box that it must have been another typical Tristan Jarry game with three, four goals allowed. The onslaught Pittsburgh took all night, this would have been another blowout home loss if the Panthers had any resemblance of NHL caliber goaltending. Has this been a career turnaround ’10 days’ for Jarry who for now has reestablished himself as the Penguins #1?………

2 Point Nights: Blake Lizotte (2 Assists) and Evgeni Malkin (Goal, Assist) each recorded multi-point games. First multi-point game for Malkin in 11 games, Lizotte with four points in his last two games, has posted back-to-back multi-point games for the first time since February 2023.

3rd Line Prowess: The biggest positive beyond getting two points they didn’t deserve was Pittsburgh’s third line of Michael Bunting – Blake Lizotte – Anthony Beauvillier continuing to look like a legitimate third line. On a night Pittsburgh’s top line of and best D-pair (Pettersson/Karlsson) were all below 30% in driving possession, the Lizotte line held up very well against a big boy team in the Florida Panthers that dominate the opposition along the wall and below the dots. The Penguins may have something here and a bigger story emerging is Michael Bunting starting to look like the Michael Bunting of last spring. He’s gotten back to the basics of his game.

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Tidbits: The early returns on Philip Tomasino through four games continues to exceed expectations. One team source has marveled at how well Tomasino can read and react next to a talent like Evgeni Malkin. A willingness to make a skilled play has created open space for Tomasino…………Best little run for Kris Letang this season by a mile. Some in the organization feel his three-game absence gave him a bit of a reset………Key storyline out of the Penguins win in a negative way: How long can they go with the Nieto-Acciari-Hayes fourth line. Acciari and Hayes have carried their weight for much of the season, especially Acciari but we’re starting see a trend here where the line needs a youth/speed option…….. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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