The Pittsburgh Penguins have now won five games in a row and are undefeated in the month of December. The team once again fell behind and climbed back to a lead to secure victory. Last night the big money players did their thing.
Sidney Crosby scored twice and has retaken the NHL lead with 20 goals. He scored his sixth power play goal of the year and is at 60% of his total from last year in only 22 games. His season high is 16 and that might be within reach the way he is playing. His even-strength goal was very impressive. It was another one from the blue paint.
Crosby's second goal of the night was scored from the low slot which is an obvious high danger area to try and get scoring chances from but how he managed to get his shot off was very clever
Crosby's second of the night. Whacks Boyle's stick out of the way and then snipes pic.twitter.com/dHHxskR78C
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 11, 2016
Boyle was there, but just being there isn't good enough when you go up against the best.
Evgeni Malkin used to be one of the more prolific goal scorers in the league on the power play, but he has been in quite a drought. Prior to last night Geno only had one power play goal in 27 games played this year. He scored twice on the power play last night. It had been a really long time since he had multiple power play goals in a game
Tonight just the fourth time Malkin had multiple PPG in one game. Last: Dec. 14, 2010 @ Phil. That was also the only previous time on road.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) December 11, 2016
His second goal was the game winner.
Phil Kessel felt if he has a beard he might as well play the role of Santa Clause. He was very giving and had assists on the last three Penguins goals last night.
After you add up all the points last night by Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel it leaves them all in an impressive spot on the league leaders list. Sidney Crosby's 31 points are only seven behind league leader Connor McDavid and puts him in third overall. Evgeni Malkin's 30 points has him sixth overall, and Phil Kessel is tied with Malkin and ranked seventh because Malkin has more goals than him.
Don't forget about Kris Letang. He added three assists and was a team best on the possession front. He was on the ice for 20 shot attempts for and only six against. Making the possession stats more impressive is the fact he played the most against the triplet line. Letang has the fifth best all situations points per 60 among defensemen this year at 1.90. Only Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Andrei Markov have been better so far.
The Penguins will have a chance to continue their offensive explosion when they take on the league's worst team on Tuesday night. The Arizona Coyotes are coming to town.
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The Baby Penguins are getting in on the offensive explosion as well. Last night they defeated Hershey 6-2. Oskar Sundqvist scored four times to tie a franchise single game record.
Jake Guentzel has scored a goal and an assist in back to back games. He's an NHL player and it is only a matter of time until he receives his permanent promotion.
Thanks for reading!