Final Score: Penguins 5 – Blue Jackets 2
Game Summary
No Sidney Crosby, no problem for the Penguins. Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel each scored twice as Pittsburgh rolled to a 5-2 victory.
Joonas Korpisalo got the start in net, fresh off his first NHL win Saturday against Philadelphia. He didn’t play great but this was a very tough game for the rookie. This is not a situation like Dallas where he shouldn’t of started. These are the games you want him starting. It’s a great game for development because it was such a tough test. He can learn from this and keep growing. He should continue to get the bulk of the starts while Sergei Bobrovsky is out.
Even with Crosby out, Brandon Dubinsky still got into it with the Pittsburgh players. He and Eric Fehr fought in the second period. Other than the fight Dubinsky didn’t do much of anything. He failed to record a shot and only had one hit. He spent the most of the game in his own zone. He got his teeth kicked in with a 29.17% Corsi at even strength.
It wouldn’t be a Pittsburgh Columbus game without a controversial hit. This time the hit was a knee on knee hit between Boone Jenner and Malkin. It was a big collision but it was more incidental than anything. Boone didn’t lean out with his knee he was simply skating forward. He received two minutes for the knee and that was more than fair.
Jenner hit on Malkin, who appears to have hurt his knee pic.twitter.com/AaBQibRk3s
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 22, 2015The bigger play is Dalton Prout going after Sergei Plotnikov late in the third. The two collided in the corner in what looked like a simple body check. Prout thought differently and attacked Plotnikov with three or four malicious and unnecessary cross-checks to the back and neck area. Prout received a double minor for the play. These are the kind of plays you don’t want to see in the game. The fact that it was late in the third and the game was over make it worse. Simply no reason for Prout to do that. He should be looking at some supplemental discipline.
Cross checking or attempted murder? 😮
https://t.co/XML9CfH6BP
— Hockey Tweets (@HKY_Tweets) December 22, 2015Alexander Wennberg’s hot play continued. He scored the game’s opening goal. Fedur Tytin’s shot was deliberately wide and it bounced off the boards, right to Wennberg in the slot. Huge assist goes to Scott Hartnell on the play as he completely let the puck go by him knowing Wennberg was in a better position.
Stat of the Night
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