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No more half-measures

December 6, 2016, 10:28 AM ET [85 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins were graced with the presence of Heisenberg last night and perhaps they dove into a little bit of his Blue Sky because they exploded for eight goals on the Ottawa Senators last night.




Pittsburgh may have fallen behind in yet another game, but once again they displayed their ability to score goals in bunches. The game was a throwback to the early 90’s and had something for everyone (except for goaltenders). Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and Mark Stone had three points each. Erik Karlsson showed off why he is a world class player by registering four points on the night. Sidney Crosby’s drought wasn’t to the same extent as a 40-year-old virgin, but he was able to rebound after not scoring for one game (his longest goalless streak of the year) and snipe a beautiful goal at the beginning of the game.



It may not seem like much on first glance, but the pass from Sheary to Crosby was the rocket fuel for this goal. Sheary did what Chris Kunitz has done many many times throughout the year which is to leave the puck in space for Crosby to skate into. Getting Sid through the neutral zone at full speed is what defensemen nightmares look like. Once that happens the opposition is going to struggle mightily to defend it. The Senators player even tried to hook Crosby but the force of his skating velocity blew right through it like it wasn’t even there.

Conor Sheary has done a nice job playing with Crosby. He is starting to understand the ways that Crosby wants the puck and the amount of time he is able to deliver it has increased. Sure, he fumbles the puck from time to time and on the surface that is frustrating, but he’s around the puck all the time. Other options that have been tried with Crosby don’t always get to the spots to even have a chance to fumble the puck. The volume of chances that Sheary has been able to generate outweighs the fumbling of the puck right now.

Time to discuss the elephant in the room. The Penguins need to take a page out of Walter White's book and stop taking half measures. The Penguins need to end the 1a/1b goaltender setup they have going on. The job is Matt Murray’s. They need to ride him and give him the lion’s share of the starts. He is the present and the future. You can tell just how bad Fleury wants to leave Pittsburgh on a high note, but in the NHL you need to be cold blooded in player analysis and take the emotion out of it. Outside of injury or back to back scenarios it should be Murray’s net the rest of the way. Logic and facts dictate that decision. Jim Rutherford has been straight forward about many topics during his Penguins tenure and has recently said the goalie split is not working. There are only two options in play. The first is the one I mentioned above. The second is doing the inevitable which is trading Fleury.

Evgeni Malkin started the game with subtle beauty when he made his dish pass to Bryan Rust for the Penguins first goal of the game. He ended it by displaying grace while being a bull in a china shop. No player balances brute force and elegance quite the way Malkin does.




Evgeni Malkin continues to play disciplined hockey while pouring on the points. He has no penalty minutes in the last six games, but more importantly he has 11 points. The offensive explosion now places him in third overall in the scoring race. He is having a great season.

Don’t forget about Phil. His laser beam tied the game at four




I don’t have much to add here. You can use the visual evidence as the description. What a shot.

Justin Schultz was the player who head manned the puck up to Kessel on that play and moments later he scored the Penguins fifth goal. Schultz is riding quite the hot streak right now. He has six points in his last four games which is almost the entirety of the points he earned last year after being traded to Pittsburgh. He played in 18 regular season games and had eight points. Pittsburgh is very thin at the right defense position so Justin Schultz becomes an interesting player to track this year. He is certainly going to price himself out of a bottom pairing role, but can he show enough that he deserves a bigger role than in the bottom pairing? If Pittsburgh is thinking about keeping him around they need to elevate his role into the top four for a stretch of games to make an attempt at properly evaluating him. The Penguins are in a place in the standings where they can afford to try things out.

Let’s talk about Bryan Rust. He had himself a game on Monday night. The top six tweener scored three times and it included a marvelous penalty shot goal.




What is missing from that video clip is the awesome effort the created the penalty shot in the first place. Rust used anticipation and his speed to break up a pass near the Penguins blue line and then exploded through the neutral zone drawing the stick infraction. Rust may not be suited for a permanent top six winger position, but he is a prime example of what modern NHL depth should look like. Great skating mixed in with decent enough puck skills to make plays. He doesn’t necessarily go out of his way to be physical yet will not back away from it. Grit is not the main component the speed and skill are.

The goal Mark Stone scored on Fleury was tremendous. It took incredible patience for Stone to wait until the puck dropped below the crossbar before he expertly redirected it into the net.

One thing is for certain the Penguins play some entertaining hockey whether it is in a win or a loss. Last night’s game was incredibly fun to watch. Pittsburgh has been involved in the majority of the games this year that can be considered “high event” hockey.







Pittsburgh will be back in game action Thursday when they make their annual trek to the state of Florida. The first game of the trip will bring them to Miami to take on Jaromir Jagr and the Panthers and then to Tampa Bay on Saturday for a date with the Lightning.

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Brand new Hockey Hurts Podcast talks about the concussion protocol that removed Connor McDavid from game action the other night, Kris Russell, and answers many Penguins questions. You can find that here


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