The Penguins did not ruin Mario Lemieux’s birthday. In fact, they tried their best to get a goal for every candle on the cake. They didn’t get to 54, but they tried their best. Pittsburgh defeated Columbus by the score of 7-2. This was a strong performance from beginning to end against a team they should look strong against.
The nice part about this is the information is score-adjusted so even after taking the blow out into consideration the Penguins were dominant through and through. With a 5-1 lead heading into the third period the Penguins still out attempted Columbus in the third 21-8.
Some positives from the game include the top line playing like the top line after having a rough go of things on Thursday night. Dominik Simon stayed true to script. He finished without any points, but contributed by helping in transition and keeping plays alive. The more plays you keep alive for Crosby and Guentzel the more chances they get to do good things. His zone entry on goal two is a small example of the things he does to help. Here’s the deal. People bend over backwards to praise Brian Dumoulin’s role on the team. For years Dumoulin has gotten some of the best quality of teammate the Penguins have to offer. Yet, he doesn’t even stumble upon secondary assists despite living on the ice with Crosby, Guentzel, and Letang. The Penguins three best players at their respective positions. Dominik Simon is playing the forward version of this role right now. If you have no problem with Dumoulin then you probably shouldn’t be up in arms about Simon getting top line minutes.
Patric Hornqvist scored twice. He’s been screening in front for others and on this night was able to get a couple for himself. The Penguins are nowhere paying him 5.3M if he can’t be productive. This was a good night for Hornqvist. This was his first multi-goal game since he scored a hat trick against Colorado on December 4th of last year. It’s been a while.
Jared McCann also scored twice for the Penguins. Another depth player who is going to have to chip in over the course of the year for this team to be successful. This was McCann’s first multi-goal game since… well he already had three of those since coming over to the Penguins in February of last year. This was his fourth.
Alex Galchenyuk, Brandon Tanev, and Dominik Kahun all registered their first points with the Penguins via assists.
Jack Johnson got an assist.
Even in a blowout Matt Murray still had to face a decent amount of shots. He stopped 28 out of the 30 he faced and is off to a nice start this season. He has a .930 save percentage through two games. $$$
Not everything about the game was positive. Evgeni Malkin left in the first period after tripping over a Penguins and falling awkwardly into the boards. He did not return and we are still waiting on an update about his status. The hope is that because the game was a blowout they didn’t feel the need to push him back onto the ice. Malkin went right down the tunnel after the collision so the optics weren’t good from the start. Losing Malkin is not something the penguins are well equipped to handle this season. It will be problematic if he misses a chunk of time. The schedule at the moment is fairly navigable as they will have Winnipeg twice with Anaheim and Minnesota sandwiched in the middle. It is a very reasonable schedule to start the year and one where the Penguins need to bank as many points as possible.
Sidney Crosby “fought… Pierre Luc-Dubois. Maybe don’t do that after Evgeni Malkin was already injured and out for the game. No message is good enough for the Penguins to lose Sidney Crosby to injury because of a lame fight. Hopefully, this incident doesn’t cause Rutherford to unload his 2020 first round pick for an enforcer.
There was a five minute stretch where Nick Bjugstad was the Penguins #1 center with Malkin injured and Crosby in the box for fighting. Unfortunately, Bjugstad did not finish the game. He joined Malkin on the list of injured centers at the moment. As with Malkin there is no update at the moment.
To quote the great Mike Lange “Elvis should have left the building…. It isn’t an exact quote, but it would have been good advice for the Blue Jackets. Elvis Merzļikins was terrible in net. He stopped 33 out of the 40 shots he faced and for the Blue Jackets to compete this year they are going to need above average goaltending. Last night was way below average.
Thanks for reading!