This past week had the makings of what could have been another step backwards after a few steps forward. The Penguins found themselves down to both the Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes after sluggish starts. The kinds of teams that haven’t been easy to come back on this year whether it is the Hurricanes stifling style of play or Vancouver’s firepower to keep pumping the net full of goals. Much like Thursday against Vancouver the Penguins stole a point late in the game against Carolina and the end result was earning four points out of six in what was a week with two tough matchups.
Last night the late heroics came courtesy of a last-minute Bryan Rust goal.
The goal that secured one point for the Penguins. pic.twitter.com/tXF5i5Hsl7
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 14, 2024
I think there’s more to Erik Karlsson’s game than we’ve seen the past few games, but in these late game situations he is getting the puck to the net and good things have happened. I just wish that translated more on the power play and other offensive situations where he leans heavy into the shot pass more so than shooting.
Karlsson had his own thoughts after the game
On some interesting Erik Karlsson comments, Jordan Staal’s dominance of Geno Malkin, Tristan Jarry telling me he needs to watch the video before he can determine if he had a good look on the game-winning goal and other tidbits from a wild one in Raleigh: https://t.co/QXF66aTiXQ
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) January 14, 2024
These Penguins not only have struggled to win games in overtime but have often looked inexplicably bad in the process.
“I’m surprised by it, too,… Karlsson said. “I don’t know why. Tonight, we didn’t control the puck off the faceoffs. It’s tough when you don’t control the puck in overtime.…Then, unprompted, Karlsson added this.
“I have my theories,… he said. “But I’ll keep it to myself.…
This was certainly not an accidental slip of the tongue. Karlsson is very media savvy. He might not be tipping his full hand to the public, but I sure hope he is vocalizing this with the team. Coming into this Penguins team as a new member with 17 years of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang as part of the core leadership group isn’t a super easy thing to do. I think Karlsson is one of the few players in the league that can actually come in and assert themselves in a leadership role. I hope he is. That’s baked into his 10M cap hit, at least it should be.
He had more to add:
Still, he’s not playing well and needs to be way, way better. I asked him to assess his performance.
This guy’s answers are never boring.
“I think it’s been OK,… he said. “I think there’s more, obviously. That’s for the group as a whole, as well. But it hasn’t been negative. It’s been hard at times to find (a) rhythm for me for the course of 60 minutes. Why that is, you’d have to ask someone else. Overall, I feel really good about myself. I think I’m in a good spot. Obviously, I’d like to accomplish a little more sometimes and create a little more out of nothing. Hopefully that will come.…
If I’m reading through the tea leaves here, and this is just my own take, I think this sounds like a player who would like to open things up a little more offensively. I think this year’s version of Karlsson has been more structured than that of the Sharks. I think when you push all your chips into the middle for Karlsson you’d want the free form painter version of Karlsson than the paint by numbers version. It reminds me of when Rasmus Dahlin played for Ralph Krueger and he neutered Dahlin’s special traits to play a more structured game. Last year they let Dahlin get back to a more free flowing game and he was terrific. Just lean into Karlsson’s strengths and take the speed bumps when they come. You’ll be on the right side of things overall. That’s why you got him.
Up next are the two most recent expansion teams. The Penguins will face off with the Seattle Kraken at home at 1PM tomorrow. A time change to accomodate the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers playoff game scheduled for 4:30PM after postponement due to severe winter conditions. After that the Penguins won’t play until Saturday when they visit Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights.
Thanks for reading!