The Pittsburgh Penguins remain unbeaten since June. They were able to defeat the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 3-2 on home ice Saturday night.
It was similar to opening night in the sense that their best players were the ones who contributed to the win. Evgeni Malkin registered his third point of the year on the Penguins opening goal. He was active all night creating time and space for others. Phil Kessel had the game winning shootout goal on Thursday. Last night he had the game winning goal. Marc-Andre Fleury gave the team another quality start in net and the Penguins picked up another two points.
Phil Kessel's goal is the kind of the thing the other team talks about not doing before the game. Anytime you let Kessel come off of the left side unabated like that it is likelier than not a goal is going to be scored.
Kessel goal pic.twitter.com/Yup3W6IKKU
— Stephanie (@myregularface) October 16, 2016
What is missing from the clip is the excellent turnover forced by Patric Hornqvist. He flew into the corner and separated his man from the puck. He was able to not only take out the man, but also got the puck to pop out right to Kessel. The reason Kessel had so much space was Hornqvist's effort on the play.
Pittsburgh's second goal of the night was a terrible effort by the Ducks. Jonathan Bernier exchanged his goalie gloves for oven mitts and completely botched handling the puck. Conor Sheary was the beneficiary of that mess. Conor Sheary had a ton of chances in last night's game. He only scored on that bizarre play. I think the important thing to take away from Sheary's performance isn't the fact he botched a lot of chances it is the fact he had those chances in the first place. The hard part is generation and he seemed to be getting that right. There are still question marks on whether or not Sheary can remain in that top six role. He will start to remove them if he can consistently generate chances.
I'm certainly not concerned about Kris Letang or Brian Dumoulin but the puck has been in the Penguins zone more than the opposition's when they've been on the ice so far this year. Letang has been on the ice for 33 shot attempts for and 48 against (40.74%) and Dumoulin is 32 for and 46 against (42.89%).
Tom Sestito only played 5:55 last night. It is the beginning of the season and the players are fresh but that shouldn't be something the Penguins are willing to do on a regular basis. You need to get more minutes out of a player these days. Especially a team predicated on speed and relentless energy. In the first two games of the season the Penguins were out attempted in the third period 18 to 44. Bryan Rust is close to a return so this will be a moot point in the near future.
Jake Guentzel was sent down so he could receive big minutes for the Baby Penguins. He made his season debut for them last night. He finished with one goal and three assists. He is picking up right where he left off when he lit up the AHL playoffs. Here was his highlight goal from last night
It is safe to say the Penguins are going to get great value out of their third round pick from the 2013 NHL draft.
Oskar Sundqvist had a scary moment in last night's Baby Penguins game. He was the recipient of a dirty hit from Tanner Glass and had to leave the game momentarily. He did eventually return. Here is the knee on knee hit
VIDEO: Slow motion replay of the Tanner Glass hit on Oskar Sundqvist 10-15 vs. Hartford. pic.twitter.com/u4f7HkyYNi
— Jason Iacona (@nafsnep) October 16, 2016
It is a great thing that the Ducks are in the Western Conference because if the Penguins had to play Corey Perry more frequently it wouldn't end well for them. Corey Perry scored off of a faceoff play last night and that is the 13th time he has scored against the Penguins in 14 career games.
The Penguins are back in action on Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. We'll see if Sidney Crosby joins the team for contact at practice. Could he be making his season debut? Time will tell.
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