Business as usual: Win
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Craig Adams battles for a loose puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs early in Tuesday night's come-from-behind victory against the Maple Leafs at Consol Energy Center - the Penguins' eighth win in a row.
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In a conference room Tuesday night high above the Consol Energy Center ice, Penguins general manager Ray Shero and upbeat superstar Sidney Crosby spoke hopefully about the future but stopped well short of predicting when it might arrive. At the same time, the other Penguins players prepared to play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the here and now. It was business as usual for them. It's always business as usual for those guys, isn't it?
I want to focus on that group of players. They deserve our attention and respect. They command it, actually.
The Penguins started the unofficial second half of the NHL season by stealing a 5-4 shootout win. For much of the game, they played horribly, allowing one odd-man Toronto rush after another and torturing goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury as they fell into a deep, dark 4-1 hole that easily could have been 6-1 or even 8-1 if not for Fleury's brilliance. But in the final 11 1/2 minutes, against a team that had been 18-0 when leading after two periods, the Penguins got goals from Steve Sullivan, Joe Vitale and -- who else -- Evgeni Malkin with 6.6 seconds left to force a 4-4 tie. They then won in the shootout when Malkin scored a goal and Fleury made three more saves. It was their eighth consecutive win.
"I'm not sure we deserved the fate we got [Tuesday night]," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "That wasn't a lot of what we want to see on the ice."
OK, so maybe the Penguins failed technically. Maybe they didn't play Bylsma's system to anything close to perfection. Certainly, they were lucky to win. Certainly, they will have to play much better tonight in the second half of the home-and-home against the Maple Leafs in Toronto.
But I can't help but think this game was symbolic of what the Penguins have been able to accomplish without Crosby, not just this season but last. Against tough odds, they find a way a lot more often than not. They are 24-15-3 without Crosby this season, 47-28-8 in the 83 regular-season games he has missed in the past 13 months because of his concussion-like symptoms.
I don't know about you, those numbers amaze me.
First Published February 1, 2012 12:00 am
