The New York Rangers may have left the PPG Paints Arena with a regulation win, but Pittsburgh should feel pretty good about the way they played. Hockey has a way of not rewarding you sometimes. Pittsburgh played one of their stronger games of the season and it culminated with a very aggressive push at the end of the game. They did pretty much everything you’d want from a hockey team besides getting that last elusive goal. It’s a game for the team to build from even if they didn’t get any points in the standings.
Most of the Penguins players were either positive or at the very least playing a high event game which will usually favor the Penguins given their top end talent.
One standout in the game was Patric Hornqvist. He had a goal and an assist and he did some really good things to earn each of his points. To get his assist he was doing the kinds of things that everybody already knows him for, being scrappy near the front of the net. It was what led to that which made me more impressed.
Did my eyes deceive me or did Patric Hornqvist skate through the neutral zone on a controlled entry and then leave an area pass for Sidney Crosby? It’s no secret that Patric Hornqvist isn’t the best in transition, but when he contributes in this area he deserves his accolades.
Hornqvist also had a breakaway goal. Yeah, it was that kind of night for him.
The Rangers fell asleep and Evgeni Malkin made them pay with his outlet all the way through the neutral zone.
Another bright spot in the game was the Guentzel-Malkin-Kessel line. They were great the entire evening. I would definitely keep this line together for the foreseeable future. They absolutely went to work in the offensive zone. They were clever with their cycling and attacked the soft spots in the offensive zone like alpha predators. A great example was on Kessel’s goal
You can see at the beginning of the play that Phil moves way up to the blue line because he was covering for Olli Maatta’s pinch at the blue line. Pittsburgh got a lucky bounce for the puck to get to Guentzel, but once it did Kessel wasted absolutely no time going from a defensively responsible F3 to the biggest threat on the ice in a high danger area. It was great awareness and the kind of stuff coaches love.
Another example of this line doing great work was late in the game on an Ian Cole pinch. Cole jammed up the right wing wall and when the Rangers tried to reverse the puck Malkin swooped in with perfect timing to cut the Ranger off at the pass extending Pittsburgh’s zone time near the end of the third period. The play wasn’t without risk, but Malkin’s awareness and execution limited the risk on the play. It was a great example of how a team that needs a goal at the end of the game can put the pressure on by doing simple things.
Malkin looked great throughout the night.
Tristan Jarry reminds me of a younger Fleury with puck skills. His athleticism is very noticeable and it allows him to make saves that other “positional… goaltenders won’t make. He also has moments where pucks squeak by him like on the third goal. Certainly some bright moments, but also an .862 save percentage at the end of the night. He has started six games so far this year and played in relief in one. He has an overall save percentage of .926 which has been very good. If he continues to have more good games than not it will remove the need for the Penguins to chase down a veteran goaltender to backup Matt Murray. There’s certainly some raw talent with Jarry. In a way this Murray injury could end up saving the Penguins some assets in a trade they might not need.
There was a negative (other than losing). Justin Schultz suffered a lower body injury (probably ankle) during a sequence with Rick Nash. It was one of those hockey plays where nobody did anything wrong, but had a bad result for somebody. Schultz struggled to put weight down immediately after it happened. He attempted to return in the second period and then shut it down for the rest of the night when things didn’t respond like he wanted to. With Kris Letang not playing up to his potential so far this year losing Schultz really hurts the team because Letang has to eat up more responsibility. Hopefully it’s a short term thing for Schultz.
Pittsburgh plays host to the other New York team on Thursday.
Thanks for reading!