Heaven eleven (Penguins)

The Penguins are back in the victory column after a CRUSHING the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 11-2(!)

They scored at even-strength, on the power play, and shorthanded. After two lackluster performances Pittsburgh did what you do against lesser competition and that is take care of business and take care of business they did.

The game had a little bit of everything and was a true team effort. You had an Evgeni Malkin doing Evgeni Malkin things leading to a hat trick. Rickard Rakell got his first three points as a Penguins including his first goal. Multiple depth players chipped in with some offense. The power play was on point. Sidney Crosby scored, too. It makes for a fun watch when everybody is feeling it on a given night. Well, we’ve got a lot to get through so let’s go

Kasperi Kapanen got the scoring kicked off on a very nice adjustment to what was a fortuitous bounce. It isn’t as easy as Kapanen made it look. It can be difficult to track those pucks and then corral things in for a scoring chance.

Kapanen is a difficult player because you’ll get teased with the talent and have to sit through some real bad games. You just don’t know what you are going to get from him before a given game. He’s been a little better lately than he was, but he was really really bad. If he can really cut back on the bad games and be functional it would really help the depth heading in to the playoffs.

Teddy Blueger figured in on three goals. He was the goal scorer on the Penguins second goal of the game.

Kris Letang starts the entire play with a strong defensive play behind the net. Boyle wins his battle and gets the puck to space where Radim Zohorna makes a perfect pass to Blueger’s forehand which gave him a chance to shoot the perfect shot he did. Blueger wasn’t done. He helped facilitate the Penguins shorthanded goal

Big shout out to John Marino for his tape to tape pass to Blueger to start the rush up the ice. It would be incredibly easy for a guy on his off-side on his backhand to just rim it up the wall/glass, but he made a controlled play and beat the pressure. Blueger and Carter made sure his efforts weren’t wasted.

The power play scored multiple times. They did so with strength and finesse. The first goal was a Malkin one-timer from the point.

I feel like we are seeing more Malkin slappers on the power play and that is never a bad thing. Malkin wasn’t done scoring. He scored on a vintage slapper and he decided to score on a vintage deke. Geno Machino mode has definitely been activated

With this goal came Rickard Rakell’s first point as a member of the Penguins.

Geno’s assist on Bryan Rust’s power play goal was a pretty big milestone for the Russian center. He tied an absolute legend in all-time assists

Here was the beautiful passing sequence which led to the assist

Congratulations to Geno.

Sidney Crosby joined the goal scoring party with a goal late in the 2nd period, yes we are at 7 goals already and we haven’t even gotten to the third, yet.

It was good to see Evan Rodrigues looking like the player he was earlier in the year. Lately, you could make the argument he was itching for a demotion. There have been a few plays where he’s lost possession of the puck or misplayed something in the offensive zone. Those are the kinds of things I’m guessing that annoy Sid the most and could lead to a change. Whatever you do keep the play alive because anything can happen with Sid. Here’s to Rodrigues settling back in offensively. If he is able to stay on the top line it really helps spread the wealth in the lineup everywhere else.

The goal also gets #87 closer to another point per game season. He’s closing in on The Great One

This is really impressive considering the era differences. If Sid didn’t miss the time he did and had a proper training camp there would have been a greater than zero chance he could have made a run for the Hart the way he’s been playing.

Since saving the puck is optional for the Red Wings in this game the Penguins opened the third period with a power play goal only two minutes into the period. This time it was Danton Heinen. Rakell earned his second point as a Penguin on this goal.

Here is Evgeni Malkin’s third goal of the contest, another slap shot.

I’m pretty sure Malkin had an elbow injury a few years back and we didn’t get goals like this for a while. Whatever the issue was it appears we are full steam ahead would Malkin slapshots and I’m here for it.

Because the Penguins don’t ever want this blog to end Brian Boyle decided to make it a ten-spot for the home team. The Penguins are the second team this weekend (Calgary the first) to score a whopping ten goals.

You didn’t think you were going to get through this without a Rickard Rakell goal did you? Rakell got his first as a Penguin and the 11th(!) goal of the day.

He has been playing pretty well since coming over. It’s nice to see him get his first goal out of the way because you know the longer it goes the players grip their sticks a little harder. A player in Rakell’s situation wants nothing more than to contribute and produce to justify coming onto the team. He doesn’t have to worry about it anymore. There are likely going to be many to follow. His goal is exactly why they acquired him. Catch, release, goal.

Alright, that’s way more than I thought I was going to have to say about this game. The Penguins will get a redo against the Rangers on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading!

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