The Penguins have done the impossible. They won in Canada. On a night where they honored the freshly inducted members of the Hall of Fame the Penguins found their way to a 4-2 victory. Personally, I think it is pretty cool the Penguins have been the road team for a chunk of these Hall of Fame games. It’s a special night in an apex hockey city. Moment of the night was when the crowd was able to show their appreciation for Borje Salming
Börje 💙 pic.twitter.com/XNG34beQXb
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) November 12, 2022
Salming is currently battling ALS. This is a great moment.
As for the game, Evgeni Malkin had himself a night. He kicked off the scoring in this contest and followed things up with a spectacular feed to Jason Zucker, who absolutely hammered it home. Anyone reasonable couldn’t have asked for more than what Malkin has done since coming back from major knee surgery last year. Since returning he has played in 62 games, including the playoffs, and has put up 29 goals and 63 points. He’s a special player to come back from such a serious injury and do the things he is doing at his age.
When Geno is happy, we're happy. pic.twitter.com/KalLqBvcId
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 12, 2022
Fun fact: In 41 games against the Maple Leafs, Evgeni Malkin has 24 goals and 42 assists. pic.twitter.com/7DAIR1GNqf
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 12, 2022
Malkin gave a mocking tripping motion on his first goal in response to a perceived slight from the ref. We all know how Malkin can flip a switch and do brilliant things when his play is being fueled by emotion. It doesn’t bat 1.000, but it works a lot more times than it doesn’t. Tonight was a night where it was noticeably positive. He was everywhere. It was a classic complete game from the big guy.
His entire line played well, in fact they dominated. They held the shot attempt advantage 19-5 and dominated xGF% 78.21. Every other Penguins line was below 50% xGF% with the bottom six lines in the 30’s.
IMalkin’s brilliant assist resulted in Jason Zucker hammering the puck into the top glove corner. I can’t help but wonder what Jaromir Jagr thinks of this shot
Truly a thing of beauty. pic.twitter.com/81JeBkCe8U
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 12, 2022
Should point out that Evgeni Malkin thinks of Toronto as his favorite road city. He just put on a show with that whirling behind-the-back feed to set up Jason Zucker's one-timer. Penguins lead Maple Leaf, 2-1.
— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) November 12, 2022
Heading into the game the Penguins had to navigate some defense injuries. Here are how things shook out. Pierre-Olivier Joseph skated in the morning. It wasn’t enough to get him in the lineup. As a result, Chad Ruhwedel found himself back in the lineup. Jan Rutta, who left the last game, returned. The Penguins went back to the Pettersson-Letang top pairing. Without Joseph Brian Dumoulin drew in on the middle pairing with Jeff Petry.
Chad Ruhwedel deserves a shout out. He’s a guy who has given the Penguins very competent bottom pairing minutes no matter when he is called upon. For most of his Penguins career he is coming in as the 7th defenseman and contributing despite the spotty deployment. I don’t think it is very easy to do. He finished with a CF% of 56.00 and an xGF% of 53.38.
I was willing to overlook some less than stellar Pettersson-Letang numbers last game because they were so shortanded with the injuries. Tonight the pairing didn’t do much better. They had a CF% of 41.94. Pettersson has been solid this year. I do think Dumoulin negatively impacted Letang’s early season play. I also think it is on Letang to make the Pettersson pairing work. Pettersson is plenty good enough to find success with.
Brock McGinn scored for the second time in as many games. Tonight’s goal was the game winner. You need depth scoring and to McGinn’s credit he has done his part in two victories. Certainly not hurting any potential trade value.
Mike Sullivan and by proxy, Casey DeSmith, has put Tristan Jarry on notice. DeSmith got the surprise start against Washington where he gave up one goal and earned the victory with a .960 save percentage. He followed it up tonight stopping 28 out of 30 shots for a .933 save percentage. This doesn’t mean DeSmith is threatening Jarry for the #1 spot. It means the coach isn’t satisfied with Jarry’s level of play and he’s expecting this to motivate him.
One thing I didn’t understand was how Toronto deployed Auston Matthews on the power play. They had him in the bumper spot and screening. He barely got puck touches, let alone shooting lanes. It seems like a case of overthinking things. Matthews has the best wrist shot in the entire sport. Alex Ovechkin has made a career out of scoring from the same spot on the power play and people can’t stop it. Matthews has the similar shooting talent. Just get him the puck to shoot it.
The Penguins will be in primetime tomorrow during HNIC when they visit the Montreal Canadiens. Can they make it two in a row in Canada?
Thanks for reading!