Make it 11 straight on home ice for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 in an entertaining contest. Evgeni Malkin had a hand in the Penguins first goal and by earning an assist on the play he bumped up to 899 in his NHL career
Really nice passing play and Carl Hagelin has scored another goal. Three more and he'll hit the elusive double digits. His offense is starting to come around. You can't go back and change his lack of production, just what you can do moving forward. He has improved as the year has gone on. It does help playing with Evgeni Malkin who is the best generator of offense this year at 5v5 for the Penguins.
Geno wasn't done. He was going to get 900 in front of the home crowd. He did it through brute force
Malkin is the fourth Penguin to register 900 points with the team. You know the other three. Not too shabby Mr. 101. Later in the contest Malkin earned another assist to finish the night with three points. He trails Nikita Kucherov by eight points and now only trails Alexander Ovechkin by one goal. Geno has had a terrific year and he should be up for consideration for the Hart at least as a finalist.
Zach Aston-Reese has made the most of his time with the Penguins so far. He made a nice play that led to a goal, but it was called back. He followed that up right away by scoring one of his own.
That's three goals in three games for Aston-Reese. His early returns in the 77 minutes he's played at even-strength have been encouraging. He owns a 53.9% advantage in shot attempts when he's on the ice. Relative to other Penguins he's +4.66% and his points per 60 is 2.32 only trailing Evgeni Malkin (sample size alert). The more options the better for the Penguins and that isn't limited to in-season. If Aston-Reese can be a competent winger for this team it has the potential to give the Penguins some leverage in the pending Patric Hornqvist negotiations.
Matt Murray hasn't lost in regulation since January 4th. He is 7-0-1 since returning from his leave of absence. His overall save percentage has been .922. Pittsburgh was staying afloat earlier in the year with bad goaltending and bad shooting. They are now winning a ton with both of those areas on the rise. Bad news for the Eastern Conference.
The Penguins are only one point behind the Washington Capitals for the division lead. Washington has two games in hand, but what was once a laughable proposition is now something that isn't outside of the realm of possibility. Pittsburgh Penguins division champs? They now own the best goal differential in the division.
The team will be back in action tonight when they take on the free falling Columbus Blue Jackets.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»