Bryan Rust on his OT winner beat Jusso Saros with his eyes before the puck even left his stick. He’s really sent a message to Team USA these last couple weeks.

We will see where this all goes but the mood in the Penguins room is just so drastically different than three to four weeks ago. There’s a belief starting to emerge. Thursday’s 5-4 come from behind win was against a Nashville team that is better than their record. Talent wise, up and down the lineup, Nashville has a much better roster than Pittsburgh and especially in goal. And the Penguins didn’t do themselves many favors. You had the lazy stick, tripping penalties; there were a lot of cracks defensively in the neutral zone and Tristan Jarry struggled with his rebound control and was off his angles for much of the night.

Pittsburgh’s Four Best Players; Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson won them two points. The biggest difference between Karlsson’s last season in San Jose to now has been his inability to blow shots past goaltenders for the last year in a half. His third period blast showed that ability is still there. If he can get his shot to come back to life the Penguins are going to be in good position.

Rumblings

What might be most impressive with the Penguins turnaround is good arguments can be made the club is not even dressing their best lineup. Matt Nieto really one of their Top-12 forwards? Also have to factor in there’s been some slippage in Evgeni Malkin’s game, especially 5 vs 5. Pittsburgh’s second line is just not good enough.

An intriguing development emerging is whether there’s a way for Kyle Dubas to toe the status quo future/present line between now and the deadline in maybe losing ground in one area of the club and gaining in another area?

There’s a belief in the Penguins organization in the last couple weeks due to the d-man market, they may nab a better return for To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! But, is it time to look more seriously at being in the buying mode for immediate and not the typical buy-low type moves they’ve been doing for the last year?

NHL GM’s are like vultures right now peeking the Sabres interest in trying to build offers for youngsters Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson. The futures considerations here is too risky for the Penguins…….

A name to watch, though, is To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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