NEWARK, N.J. — The Penguins are at their best when their stars are playing well.
That’s true for just about every team, but when Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (and, jeez, Justin Schultz?) are scoring the way they are right now, it can help get the Penguins out of a lot of tricky situations.
That was certainly the case tonight, as they were able to pull away from what was once a tight-checking, hard-fought game against a “very structured” Devils team, according to Mike Sullivan.
If you look at the possession chart, Crosby’s second-period goal really sparked the Penguins offensively, and they didn’t look back from that point.
“I’ve said it all along here, those guys drive this team,” Sullivan said of Malkin and Crosby. “When they’re playing the type of hockey that they’re playing right now, they’re inspiring. That’s the word that comes to mind. Our top players right now are playing inspiring hockey.”
Here’s a link to the game story, and a few other thoughts on the night…
Three random thoughts
1. A good enough game for the makeshift defense
I don’t think Olli Maatta, Trevor Daley or Kris Letang are in any danger of getting Wally Pipp-ed out of their jobs, but Chad Ruhwedel, Steve Oleksy and Derrick Pouliot filled in admirably tonight. Ruhwedel didn’t look great against Taylor Hall on the Devils opening goal, but made up for it by springing Carl Hagelin with an inch-perfect outlet pass for the insurance goal in the third period. Even Pouliot, who really struggled in his last outing against Columbus played a pretty unremarkable 12:20 (including 1:36) shorthand. For him, not being particularly noticeable feels like a step in the right direction. He still feels like the odd man out when Maatta comes back, but it was a solid enough bounce back after last week.
2. Conor Sheary just makes plays
I should probably amend the lead paragraph to this post. When these two teams were grinding away at each other in the second period, with few chances either way, it wasn’t Crosby or Malkin that made the play to jump-start the Penguins, it was the 5-foot-8, undrafted second-year winger. Sheary’s move past Adam Henrique was an impressive combination of speed, skill and strength. It was that play that led to Crosby’s goal, and, ultimately, set the Penguins on their way to a win.
3. Solid, if not spectacular, out from Marc-Andre Fleury
It’s hard to blame Fleury much for either of the Devils’ goals. He was essentially in a 2-on-0 after Hall beat Ruhwedel on the opener, and the second one took a pretty flukey bounce before landing on Henrique’s stick with a wide-open net. Fleury probably could have stayed a little bit tighter in his net, but he made up for it with a ridiculous mid-air stick save later on in the night.
Respect 👏 pic.twitter.com/Eqp5fuBhkC
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 28, 2016
Granted, the Devils don’t pose the greatest offensive threat in the league, but still Fleury made the saves he had to down the stretch to hold on to the win. Murray will get the start tomorrow, and probably against Montreal before the break, but it’s a promising sign for the Penguins — and the long-term potential of this goalie tandem — to have Fleury playing a bit better over his last three games.
First Published: December 28, 2016, 4:21 a.m.
