Last night the Penguins continued their ascent from the bottom of the Eastern Conference as they defeated the New York Islanders by a score of 6-2. While the Penguins were never going to stay in dead last they were flirting with the potential of digging themselves too big of a hole to climb out of. They have won four of their last six games and five of their last eight which includes a loser point. They are now third in the Metropolitan Division for now. The next step for the team is going to be to find consistency in how they drive play in order to be competitive in the spring.

Pittsburgh got a great game from Patric Hornqvist the other night when he scored a hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche. After the Avalanche dialed up the Penguins 6-3 the Penguins returned the favor with an identical score.

Pittsburgh scored six more times against the islanders, leaning heavily on Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel. The bad news is that the aforementioned Hornqvist left the game in the first period and did not return. As of right now there has been no update on his status.

Jake Guentzel was given an opportunity on the first power play and while his net front style is different it is also very effective



Sidney Crosby got to enjoy some 5v5 Phil time which has been a rarity over Kessel’s tenure in Pittsburgh. Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby teamed up to keep the play alive along the half wall and Phil took advantage of the net by sneaking around it and to the other side as Sidney Crosby attacked with the puck



Sidney Crosby did his best Daniel Sprong impression.



Sidney Crosby had the primary assist on both of Kessel’s goals and Phil had the primary on Sid’s lone goal.

I didn’t forget about Kris Letang he scored his sixth and seventh goal of the season while co-leading the defense with Dumoulin with a CF% of 63.89. His 1.58 points per 60 is only surpassed by his 1.94 he had in 2012-13 when he deserved more consideration for the Norris Trophy.

The Penguins will look to atone for one of their other bad losses this year when they take on the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa on Saturday. The Senators put a six spot on the Penguins in their earlier matchup. We should also get an update on Patric Hornqvist that same day. Jean Sebastian Dea was recalled as Dominik Simon was put on IR.

Thanks for reading!

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