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The Pittsburgh Penguins bounced back in a major way against their former coach Michael Therrien and the Montreal Canadiens. After losing to the Panthers 5-1 in one of the worst efforts of the season the Penguins rebounded and flipped the score to a 5-1 victory over Montreal.
The Penguins followed the script that they have needed for success in the past month. Pittsburgh followed the lead of their star players who provided all the offense and set the tone for the team’s battle level. When the stars lead the way, the Penguins win, when they don’t…
Game highlights:
It was evident 5 minutes into the contest that Evgeni Malkin was going to be Geno Machino for the entire night. Malkin had an extremely high compete level and never gave up on a puck. You know Malkin is on his game when he is stripping the puck from opponents from behind and immediately turning the puck back up ice in transition.
Malkin’s speed and strength consistently put the Montreal defense on its heels and resulted directly in two goals. Malkin had a splendid dish over to Jokinen to score the game’s first goal.
Malkin also burned Markov at the Montreal blue line and soared in on Carey Price to score a highlight reel goal. That goal ended Carey Price’s night.
Sidney Crosby also found his way on the scoresheet with a terrific tip on the power play courtesy of Kris Letang. That goal/sequence is a big reason why I advocate having Sidney Crosby down low on the goal line for the power play. His ability to win puck battles and control the puck down low is a huge asset in keeping the play going and his natural ability of tipping pucks is second to none in the league.
When Malkin and Crosby both score in a game, Pens 43-4-1 all-time, including 27-2-0 at home.
— Pens Radio Network (@PensRadioNet) January 23, 2014Crosby on the power play is one thing; Crosby at even strength is another thing all together lately. Crosby only has 2 even strength points in his last 5 games. A lot of that has to do with the fact it has been musical chairs at the right wing position on his line. Chuck Kobasew, Taylor Pyatt, and Jayson Megna all saw time on the Crosby line last night.
Not to beat a dead horse but the Kobasew experiment has yielded the results that it is going to bring. There is not going to be a light bulb that goes off for Kobasew where he turns into a different player. Megna’s skill set provides a better fit for the responsibilities that come with a top 6 winger. He is not the long term solution but given the current situation he should be given a longer look than a few shifts a game with Crosby.
Olli Maatta keeps flashing his top notch decision making and physical execution. It has gotten to the point where they cannot be considered flashes, it is common place.
Matt Niskanen continues to play at a high level. His decision making on the ice is great to watch. Simple choices, assertively made, followed up with physical execution. His year isn’t a fluke, it’s a player who has blossomed into a solid top 4 defender.
Rob Scuderi still has moments of rust but we saw some flashes of his surgical poke checks that have been missing. Scuderi is one of the best in the league in using his stick to get in passing and shooting lanes and it looks like he is getting back into his rhythm which puts him in a position to utilize that skill set.
With the game out of hand there was an incident in front of the Penguins net that involved Brandon Prust and Brooks Orpik. A scrum evolved and eventually led to idle goaltenders staring each other down.
After a brief stare down Marc Andre Fleury made his move to challenge Budaj to a fight. Fleury began to take his helmet and gloves off and made his way to center ice. The goalie fight wasn’t to be as the officials restrained both players from meeting up to exchange fists.
Fleury: "The ref didn’t want nothing to do with it. I asked him very polite to let me go. But he didn’t want."
— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) January 23, 2014The reason that the official did not let Fleury go is because it was the same official that did the Vancouver/Calgary game which resulted in a huge brawl and negative publicity for hockey.
I personally think the referees did a very nice job by preventing the Fleury Budaj fight. Selfishly from a Penguins perspective I am grateful that the referee stepped in because of how important Fleury is to the team. I don’t think anybody would feel comfortable with Zatkoff starting the majority of the remaining games this season. Fleury was also saved from a potential beat down.
Was 29 aware of Budaj’s martial arts training? “No I wasn’t. I’d have kept my helmet(laughs)…does he really? Maybe that’s a good thing then…
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2014Ultimately the situation was pretty humorous and nobody was hurt.
Nothing speaks to Marc Andre Fleury’s easy going jovial personality than him skating down the ice trying to avoid the ref trying to get in a fight, all the while with a huge smile on his face.
I mean look at the moves he tries to put on the ref to get down to Budaj:
The Penguins will take on the red hot Islanders this evening. There will be no morning skate for the Penguins and any updates will be courtesy of Dan Bylsma later in the day. The Islanders are currently 5 points back of a playoff spot but the team they are chasing (Columbus) has 3 games in hand.
The Islanders are going to bring it. The Penguins will have match the intensity the played with against Montreal. If the Florida effort rears its ugly head the Penguins will be defeated.
Thanks for reading!
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