The Penguins will leave the lone star state with a lone point. After going up 2-0 Pittsburgh saw Dallas score three unanswered goals to take the lead. Justin Schultz scored in the last minute of the game to force overtime.
These two teams have some similarities and it made for an entertaining game. They are the seventh and eighth ranked possession teams in the league and they both have some high end players that are fun to watch. Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel have a chance at acquiring some hardware after the season is over and so does Dallas Stars defender John Klingberg.
Klingberg's goal in the second period propeled him to 52 points on the year. It ties him with his teammate Jamie Benn and Evgeny Kuznetsov for 24th overall in the league. He is the top scoring defenseman with Brent Burns being the closest with 47 points. He also leads all defensemen at 5v5 points per 60 at 1.58. Only Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel have a higher points per 60 than Klingberg on the Penguins. Klingberg's season should garner him some support for the Norris Trophy, but considering how hard it has been in the past for people to appreciate Erik Karlsson I don't know how Klingberg will fare at the end of the year. Klingberg benefits from having some good forward talent to pass to, but those forwards also benefit from getting the puck from Klingberg to create clean exits and entries. Klingberg makes their job easier
Regardless of where he finished for the Norris he is a big part of Dallas' success and return to form this season after missing the playoffs last year.
Pittsburgh has been getting some contributions from their mid-season center acquisition. Riley Sheahan has six points in the Penguins last seven games and he has climbed all the way to third overall on the Penguins at 5v5 scoring. He's at 1.56 points per 60 only behind the aforementioned Malkin and Kessel. That's right at the level you need him to be and much better than where it was for a while this year. You'd like to see more impact in the goal scoring department and last night Sheahan did exactly that. He put a nice subtle fake on Kari Lehtonen to freeze him and then assertively made his deke to open up the five-hole.
Very nice goal. Also notable was Zach Aston-Reese picking up his first NHL point on the play.
Riley Sheahan will never be a high volume shooter so when constructing lines you will want to put somebody who has no problem doing just that. The good news for the Penguins is that they do have options to provide Sheahan with an option like that when healthy. The top three Penguins in individual shot attempts are all right wingers. They are Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, and Daniel Sprong. The issue here of course is that the team doesn't appear motivated to give Sprong a spot on the NHL roster. They seem content on playing Carter Rowney types with low ceilings. Rowney is not one of the Penguins 12 best forwards even with the injuries. He sure is getting a lot of miles out of that three point playoff game against Ottawa, which was a blow out.
Carl Hagelin's 2017-18 season has had more lows than highs. The last month has been a step in the right direction. He scored again last night. In his last 13 games he has 12 points. That accounts for 66% of his total offense this season. Signs of life as they say. His goal last night was shorthanded and something that Hagelin has been excellent at all year long has been penalty killing. He's among the best forwards in the league at shot suppression on the power play. No doubt his speed is the driving factor.
No goal for Sidney Crosby last night. His journey to 400 NHL goals will go through St. Louis on Sunday. His last goal scored was on an assist from Alex Ovechkin in a game that didn't count. His last real goal came about a month ago against the Rangers on January 14th. This would be more concerning if he didn't have 15 points in his last 11 games during this goalless drought. He's still producing and playing well.
It was Bill Guerin night in Dallas.
The Olympics are here. The NHL'ers are not. It's hard to have as much interest in these games knowing that these aren't the best players. I don't hold that against the players attending and competing for their country. It's just disappointing as a fan of the sport. For those interested here are some projections for the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament
Thanks for reading!
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