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Sidney Crosby continues to carry hobbled Penguins |
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The Penguins were going to be hard pressed to earn a point against the Colorado Avalanche last night. You had a very good team coming into town with all hands on deck against a team obliterated by injury. The Penguins not only earned a point, but they got the second one as well courtesy of Brandon Tanev and Gabriel Landeskog.
You couldn’t have a better script as far as standings points have gone the past week for the Penguins. They are banking points and providing themselves more and more wiggle room in the standings. The points count now the same as they do in March. This puts less stress on the end of the year and it puts less stress on people managing the team to do desperate things.
Nobody in the NHL is doing more to help their team’s current situation than Sidney Crosby. He scored a highlight reel goal and then had the primary assist on Jake Guentzel’s highlight reel goal.
Crosby has a point in every single game this year. It is the fourth multi-point game in a row for him. He has a multi-point game in five out of the seven contests. His team is decimated by injuries to key players and he is the driving force for the team staying afloat. I said this month hinged on Sidney Crosby being a freak and Matt Murray playing above average and right now they are getting both of those things. Sprinkle in some contributions here and there and the Penguins have a chance to win even with a broken roster.
Here was Guentzel’s goal
Poor Ryan Graves got Zetterberg’d hard on that one. There are some who think Jake Guentzel is solely a product of being Sidney Crosby’s linemate and I for one don’t know what player they are watching. Everybody, and I mean everybody, gets a bump playing with Crosby. He’s had many wingers since 2005. How many of them put up 40 goals? Guentzel didn’t even boost his 40 goal year with power play goals. He scored 33 at even-strength which was the same number as Alexander Ovechkin. He only trailed Patrick Kane (35) and John Tavares (37). Scoring at even-strength is the hardest thing to do on a regular basis in this league and Guentzel was pretty great at it last year. He’s off to another good start this year. One of Sidney Crosby’s best attributes is his ability to facilitate the puck and what good is it if the players on the other end can’t put it in the net? Jake Guentzel is a great fit for Crosby because he can beat goalies different ways (shots, dekes, tips) and he knows how to find dangerous soft spots on the attack.
Brandon Tanev scored his first ever goal for the Penguins and it came in overtime while shorthanded. He used his speed to take the open space given to him and intangible’d the puck into the net off of Gabriel Landeskog. It was a lucky bounce for sure, but his skating ability allowed him to press up the ice. Sam Lafferty deserves a shout out on this play for doing something incredibly simple, yet effective. His center drive is what made it possible for Tanev to use the open ice.
The center drive drew Landeskog away from Tanev and provided a 1v1 opportunity with a lot of open ice. Cale Makar was flat footed with no chance of properly closing the gap. Tanev leaned on his speed to create his space to push the puck towards the net. Landeskog did the rest.
Nate MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen showcased how dynamic they are when they took advantage of a Brian Dumoulin miscue at the blue line. A small mistake is all it takes to give up a goal to this duo.
Pittsburgh’ next opponent?
The Sabres lost 5-2 last night, but early in the game there was a play by Jack Eichel that reminded me a lot of a certain someone that used to play for the Penguins
Thanks for reading!
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