Penguins/NHL
Stunning, Fascinating, chalk it up however you want in what’s playing out with the Pittsburgh Penguins over the last week or so. After last Saturday’s shootout loss vs the Columbus Blue Jackets, there was still a gloom and doom feeling around this team. They had a massive challenge ahead with a daunting five game stretch in seven days and still needing a ton of luck with everything bouncing their way to be in the discussion for a playoff spot.
A week later almost everything has bounced their way and it pretty much continued Saturday night, minus the New York Islanders winning.
On a 6-0-2 run, Pittsburgh has stormed off four straight wins and enter Sunday in the final wild card spot.
Pittsburgh’s thrilling 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning was a story of two halves.
The first 30 minutes or so of the game you could see the body language of this hockey team of how they’ve taken everything in their game to another level. They can taste the playoffs. None other than Sidney Crosby setting the tone with the opening Goal, 4:20 in, and the Penguins were swarming Tampa Bay in all three zones of the rink where we again saw significant stretches of near elite level play away from the puck. That was another great sign in how what played out vs the Capitals played out again that propelled the Penguins to jump out to a 4-1 lead after two periods.
In the third everything came crashing down where the clear superior team started to find their A-Game and the ice started tilting more and more in Tampa Bay’s favor even in the second despite the Penguins scoring three goals in the second frame. Yet, the Penguins found a way in a game they’ve lost nine out of 10 times this season. Michael Bunting delivered the heroics with the go-ahead goal at 14:32 of the third period and despite the Lightning cracking the Alex Nedjelkovic code in the third period where the Penguins netminder was slow with seeing pucks well, the Penguins miraculously survived an end of the game onslaught from the Lightning that included a 6-on-4 advantage.
Start believing Penguins fans, this team has something cooking and it’s going to be more surprising if they don’t get in and who would have thought that even a week ago
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Players Buzz
- Sidney Crosby hit the 40th goal plateau for just the third time of his career and in his age 36 season. 16 of 24 on faceoffs, the Penguins drove possession at 60% with Crosby on the ice and he was just a menace on the forecheck. One of the most physical games he’s played where playoff mode Crosby was activated. This team is just fueling off Crosby.
2. All this talk before Jake Guentzel was traded of where he ranked on the Penguins list of best wingers ever? Where is Bryan Rust going to end up on that list? Rust has a chance with another season or two like this to be on Chris Kunitz territory. What a 200-ft player Rust is.
3. The Michael Bunting effect, whatever it might be, even the biggest Evgeni Malkin supporters didn’t think he still had this left in him. 2 Goals and Assist in the win, including the primary assist on the Bunting game winner, Malkin is making magic happen inside 35 ft and the last couple games great committment away from the puck.
4. Erik Karlsson was an absolute monster in the win. He was the best player on the ice and it wasn’t even close. His most dominating performance in a Penguins uniform since the Red Wings game early in the season. If the Penguins can get this player the rest of the way look out. Karlsson in the win had 3 assists, a 72 CF% 5 vs 5 as he was on the ice for 31 shot attempts to 12 against and he posted an 84 xGF%. And his performance was one of those where the metrics met the eye test. He looked like peak Ottawa Karlsson in the win.
5. Ron Hextall left a parting gift in Jack St. Ivany. In the final minute of play, St. Ivany had 3 Blocked Shots in an 11 second span (19:05 – 19:16).
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MORE BUZZ
— A great trend that continues for the Penguins in creating offense in the tough areas from the second line of Bunting-Malkin-Rakell as they had a game high 3 rebound attempts.
— Pittsburgh entered the weekend where realistically they probably needed to at worst split the next two games vs Tampa Bay and Toronto. They now have some room for error Monday night. If you’re going to lose one, it needs to be that one, not Thursday vs the Red Wings. 89 points is still setting up as a sweet spot.
— A significance of the Penguins winning in regulation Saturday afternoon, they are now up to 31 regulation wins. Pittsburgh is +5 over the Islanders in Regulation Wins.
— One thing the Penguins deserve no credit for is talk they made a decision to get younger. Younger bodies in the lineup were by default due to injuries. Noel Acciari brings a heart and soul game coaches and management love but let’s not sugar coat things. He should have always been playing wing from the start and was a disaster in driving offense at center position and his passing metrics drive home that point. Jansen Harkins, that one still isn’t making sense and who is surprised the Penguins are not losing as many one-on-one battles with an anchor in Ryan Graves not in the lineup.
— How close do the Penguins feel they were to signing Collin Graff? Pittsburgh feels they ended up a close To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
