The Penguins have struggled over the course of the season to score goals. They’ve been better in recent times and last night they were at their best. In what was probably the most fun game to watch of the year the Penguins defeated the Capitals by a score of 7-4. It had star players on both sides doing star caliber things.
I wrote about how Evgeni Malkin had an outside chance to win the Rocket Richard Trophy this year and last night confirmed why it is an outside chance. Malkin had a great game and finished with two goals. He didn’t make up any ground on the leader. Alexander Ovechkin also scored twice. It’s what he does. On Ovechkin’s first goal he executed a power move to the net and got a fortunate bounce off Brian Dumoulin’s skate. Sure, it’s a fortunate bounce, but you get those when you can get to the goal with force like he did. The second goal from Ovechkin highlights why he’s second to none at shooting the puck. Over the years we have so many examples of Ovechkin getting a skipping saucer pass from the opposite side of the ice and hitting the puck pure. That’s an incredibly hard thing to do and he does it so well everybody just takes it for granted now. Nobody hammers the puck purer and more frequently than Ovechkin.
On the Penguins side of things the big three are getting it done. Evgeni Malkin had the two goals I referenced while adding two assists. Sidney Crosby added two helpers. Phil Kessel had two goals and an assist and is now on pace for 96(!) points. Here’s a Phil goal if I’ve ever seen one
Hagelin → Malkin → Kessel → 🚨 pic.twitter.com/pLJLmzSAuC
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 3, 2018
That Hagelin guy is getting in on the action lately as well. He has had a pathetic season up until recently. He now has ten points in his last ten games. For the 4M price tag to work he needs to produce some offense. He has recently. He will need to continue to do so. Possession and penalty killing have remained a strength through the offensive drought and should continue to be.
Patric Hornqvist scored one of the nicest goals of the night. It was power play perfection
This setup cannot be topped. Every player is located in a spot that demands attention and enhances their potential for success. The puck progression that the Penguins used exposed the penalty killers perfectly. It really was perfect. You have Kessel and Malkin opposite of one another and they both merit great attention. Crosby down low opens up so many possibilities and this time it was his ability to feed the soft spot to Hornqvist. They have a balance of left handed and right handed players. Nothing was fancy, but it didn’t make it less deadly.
That was the good for Hornqvist. The bad is that he will be missing some time due to a big Brooks Orpik hit that happened later in the game. As of right now all we know is that Hornqvist will be missing tonight’s game. We already know that Conor Sheary is week to week with an injury. It’s that time again when the players promoted from WB/S will have their opportunity to show their worth at the NHL level. This time it will be Zach Aston-Reese getting his first ever look at the NHL level. If my memory serves correct he had a pretty bad start to the AHL year because of a dental issue. That seems to be in the rearview mirror. He has 20 points in his last 20 games. The point per game ratio is a positive sign of a player ready to make the jump.
So Patric Hornqvist got blown up at the blue line and is out. Ian Cole had to leave the game because Tom Wilson did what he does. Kris Letang got crosschecked in the neck by TJ Oshie. Yes, the neck that caused him to miss the entire postseason last year. Guess who was literally on the ice for that? I bet you can’t guess. Oh, of course you can. It was enforcer extraordinaire, Ryan Reaves. Although, I don’t see a Ryan Reaves fighting major on the scoresheet. We’ve clearly established he’s not a deterrent, but for those that still have a violence erection why is there no retribution? Where is it? He can’t even do that part “right…. He sucks at a role that has no purpose. His defenders at this point are a great source of comedy.
The league is just as much of a deterrent as Reaves
Washington’s T. J. Oshie fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for cross-checking Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) February 3, 2018
That’ll show him.
Pittsburgh’s broadcast summed everything up perfectly
I'm dying over here. This is epic camera work by the Penguins home feed. pic.twitter.com/q8LMM53NnZ
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) February 3, 2018
In some non-Penguins news Team USA’s captain had a special night playing in front of his hometown crowd for the first time ever in his professional career.
Brian Gionta goal! Blew the roof off the place #Amerks @DandC pic.twitter.com/a9nU7J66TA
— Andy Lipari (@alipari27) February 3, 2018
Brian Gionta just scored a breakaway goal.
— Matt Johnson (@twoeightnine) February 3, 2018
In his first and only game as an Rochester American.
In his hometown.
On hometown heros night.
Right before he leaves for the Olympics.
Where he will captain the American team.
Sports are good sometimes.
Brian Gionta signed a one day contract with the Amerks so that he could get some game action in before the Olympics. He had been practicing with the team for a good stretch of time. He turned down multiple NHL offers for a chance to play in the Olympics.
Nobody has played more games than the Penguins so far this year, but at least they are second place in the division. The much needed stretch of quality play has arrived. They are in much better shape than they were a month ago. Tonight they can continue to solidify their spot in the standings with a victory of the New Jersey Devils
Thanks for reading!