For most of the first 40 minutes against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, the Pittsburgh Penguins looked like a team fighting itself.
The execution wasn't there. The power play wasn't clicking and had actually cost them a shorthanded goal against. They surrendered a goal with three seconds remaining in the middle frame to go down by two, and it looked like they didn't have much life.
But Bryan Rust and Sidney Crosby certainly had something to say about that.
Crosby scored twice, Rust scored once, and Kris Letang potted the game-winning goal in overtime as the Penguins completed a 4-3 comeback win over the Jackets to secure their first OT win of the season. They scored three unanswered goals, starting with Rust's goal just 13 seconds into the third period that set the tone for the rest of the game.
The third period largely belonged to the Penguins thanks to Rust, Crosby, and goaltender Tristan Jarry, who was forced to make some tough saves to keep the score tied at 3-3 for the back half of the third. He stopped 26 of 29 Columbus shots on goal throughout the evening.
But Rust's goal was the turning point, and it came after he went down the runway twice in the second period with apparent injuries.
"The third period was great," head coach Dan Muse said. "I mean, just the start of it, the way you come out there... just try to turn the momentum for us to start that period, especially after the way the second [period] ended. So, obviously, that was a huge shift, huge goal. Thought we had some good follow-up for it."
Crosby opened the game's scoring a little more than six minutes into the game, when the first line of Crosby, Rust, and Kevin Hayes was pressuring in the offensive zone. Letang found Crosby on the doorstep for a shot-pass, and Crosby once again went down to one knee to redirect it and give the Penguins the 1-0 lead.
From there, Columbus took over. Sean Monahan scored with just over six minutes remaining in the first after a lengthy period of sustained zone time for the Jackets, and Brendan Gaunce took advantage of an out-of-sorts Penguins' power play about four minutes into the middle frame to register his first goal of the season shorthanded off a two-on-one. And with time expiring in the second, star defenseman Zach Werenski - more than likely a lock for Team USA's Olympic roster - put Columbus up 3-1 with a rocket from the top of the left circle.
Penguins Defenseman Erik Karlsson Hits New Milestone On FridayPittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson hit a new milestone on Friday night.But that's when Rust came in and shifted the momentum. Erik Karlsson made a nice play on a pinch along the right wall to squirt the puck out to Rust, who wristed one from the top of the right circle and past Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves to bring the game to within one. Then - approaching the midway point of the third - Crosby scored a goal that will probably end up being one of his best of the season.
Tommy Novak got the puck near the left wall in the neutral zone on a feed from Parker Wotherspoon, and he quickly attempted a cross-ice pass to a breaking Crosby on the right side. Crosby, recognizing the pass was a bit behind him - allowed the pass to bank off the boards and ahead of him. He turned on the jets to get to the puck before Greaves could poke check and ahead of Jackets' defenseman Ivan Provorov, brought it in, and quickly went backhand-to-forehand to go top-shelf over Greaves and tie the game at 3-3.
The goal also put Crosby into a tie with Dale Hawyerchuk at 640 career goals for 15th all-time.
The rest of the period was played pretty evenly with chances at both ends, but Jarry and the Penguins held strong to force overtime. Then - just 59 seconds into the extra frame - Evgeni Malkin won a puck battle on the left wall in the offensive zone and got the puck to Letang, who broke toward the slot. He fed it to Novak, who gave it back to Letang for a nice give-and-go and shot from the low slot to improve Pittsburgh's OT/SO record to 1-5.
"I think the big takeaway here for tonight is there's going to be games you're playing well, and you're down, " Muse said. "The ability to there to just stay with it, to know that it's another time, it's another situation that we now own, knowing that you can go into a third period in a situation like started the period and come out with a win... great to get the overtime win."
Here are a few takeaways from this one:
- I thought this was the best game that the Penguins' first line has played in quite a while. Rust has been off his game lately, and he showed up in a big way Friday. Crosby has also not been producing at his customary rate over the last couple of weeks, but he came through - and he's also now scoring at a 53-goal pace this season, which would be a career-high for him.
Sidney Crosby Climbs NHL All-Time Goals List<a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a>' captain Sidney Crosby has been known throughout his career as one of the NHL's all-time great playmakers.
And as for Hayes? I thought he played a nice game and was a good complementary piece to the other two.
Hayes doesn't always get enough credit for the playmaker he is. He certainly isn't the fastest skater, but he's one of the smartest, and he consistently makes good decisions with the puck on his stick. I don't think he's a long-term solution for the Penguins on the top line, and there are going to be some nights where he doesn't quite look as good as he did Friday.
But, given how injury-depleted these Penguins are right now, they may be able to get away with him slotting in there for a few more games while they wait for guys to get healthy.
- On the contrary, I didn't think this was a particularly strong game from the second line. I liked Malkin's play in overtime, but they were hemmed in their own zone for most of the evening five-on-five. Malkin skated with Anthony Mantha and Novak, and Danton Heinen got a few shifts in place of Novak later on in the game.
This line is really, really missing Justin Brazeau. He, along with Noel Acciari, has been skating with the team in a non-contact capacity. And he can't come back soon enough.
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- I thought he was a bit better tonight, but Ben Kindel's game has fallen off a bit since about Game 15 or so. He's just not the puck hound we saw in that first stretch, he's turning the puck over more, and he isn't driving offense at the rate he was prior to his brief stint on the first line with Crosby and Rust.
But, hey, that's okay. Young players are going to go through stretches of down play, especially players as young as Kindel who have not experienced the grind of a full 82-game season.
With Tristan Broz in the fold for now, it wouldn't surprise me to see him and Kindel get some kind of rotation at third-line center, just to give Kindel some rest days that he was supposed to get earlier on but couldn't because of the injury situation.
- That said, I'm not sure I agreed with the decision to take Broz out of the lineup altogether on Friday.
Unlike Kindel, this is a player who is used to the grind of a full professional season and back-to-back tilts. Yes, Broz missed two months with mono last season in the AHL, but he proved capable of handling the AHL schedule prior to that, which is 72 games long.
I'd love to see Kindel, Broz, and Ville Koivunen play together Saturday in place of Heinen. Broz can play wing or center, so I don't think it will be a huge problem for him to make that shift when Kindel is in the lineup.
Give me the "kid line." Broz and Koivunen have real chemistry, and so do Koivunen and Kindel. So let's try it.
- And speaking of Koivunen, I thought he played another nice game on Friday. The simply just cannot buy a goal right now.
I do think there are some timing issues he still needs to work out at the NHL level. He tends to hold onto pucks too long, he waits too long to pull the trigger on shots sometimes, and he looks so desperate to get the monkey off his back that he's almost trying too hard and forcing plays.
But he's generating chances, he's creating offense, and he's often putting himself in the right spots to finish chances. The goal he so desperately needs will come if he keeps playing like this.
And, on that note: Penguins' fans need to be more patient with young players.
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Yes, on rare occasions, you'll get players like Kindel, who make an impact immediately upon arrival. But most of the time, there is going to be a period of adjustment for young players entering the league for the first time. We've seen that with Rutger McGroarty, who very clearly wasn't ready at the start of last season, got sent to the AHL for the season, and was a better player upon his return. We've seen that with Harrison Brunicke, who started off well for the first few games then ran into some trouble after.
Let's not forget that Koivunen is just 21 games into his NHL tenure and - like Kindel - got off to a roaring start to his NHL career with seven points in eight games last season. He's had a slow start, but he's so close to breaking through.
So, patience needs to be exercised with Koivunen, and it will need to be exercised with others. The Penguins will have a lot of young talent debuting over the next handful of seasons, and expectations for these young players in their first sustained taste of NHL hockey need to be tempered. As mentioned before, even Kindel has hit a bit of a rough stretch after a wildly impressive start.
Therefore, let's pump the brakes on calling a guy a "career AHL-er" 21 games into his career.
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- And, about McGroarty...
He scored yet another goal for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) on Friday, making that four consecutive games with a goal in the four games he's been back from injury. He has six points in those four games as well.
The Penguins could sure use some scoring depth, and McGroarty is blowing return-to-play expectations out of the water so far in WBS. I know there is a plan in place to ease McGroarty back into game action before making further decisions regarding where he will play the rest of the season.
But I do think there comes a point where needs for the NHL roster - and performance - outweigh whatever preconceived plan came about.
WBS plays the Hershey Bears Saturday. If McGroarty continues his torrid start, I don't think it would be the worst idea to give him an NHL look sooner than expected. The Penguins need all the scoring help they can get right now, and McGroarty is showing that he's, arguably, already capable and ready for NHL minutes this season.
He's definitey one to keep an eye on in the coming days.
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