PITTSBURGH — Say what you will about these Penguins, but it’s pretty clear that the head coach hasn’t lost the room.
One night after he was fuming in Madison Square Garden, Mike Sullivan’s message to his Penguins was received and nicely executed.
The Penguins played likely their finest game of the season, largely shutting down the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 5-2 victory on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
“What a difference a day makes,” Sullivan said.
This marks the Penguins’ fifth win in six games, and they have pulled into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, though that number is a little misleading because Tampa Bay has five games in hand on the Penguins.
Still, considerable progress has been made in the past couple of weeks.
“I love how we competed,” Marcus Pettersson said. “This was a great response. I think it says a lot about our team. We came together a lot.”
The Penguins outshot the Maple Leafs, 31-28, but enjoyed a pretty decisive edge in quality of play and high-danger opportunities. They were particularly impressive in the final two periods, when they controlled play, didn’t allow any odd-man rushes and silenced the Maple Leafs’ dangerous offensive attack.
“We just played harder,” said Bryan Rust, referencing the night before in New York, when the Penguins permitted odd-man rushes galore in a 4-2 setback to the Rangers. “Came out from the dump of the puck. That team was physical, they played hard, they played in our face. For the most part, we matched that. Played really hard. Jars (Tristan Jarry) was great. Special teams were pretty good. Overall, it was a good win.”
Rickard Rakell, Rust, Michael Bunting, Blake Lizotte and Kris Letang scored for the Penguins.
THE RUSTY RAZOR! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Qf70p1SRun
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 8, 2024
Bunting, once a member of the Maple Leafs, scored the game-winner in the third period.
The Penguins nicely shut the game down at the point, something that’s been an issue this season.
Ryan Graves was back in the lineup and enjoyed one of his more solid outings. Rookie Owen Pickering was very good once again.
All in all, it was a step in the right direction for a team that badly needs it.
“Just a really nice win,” Pettersson said. “This is how we need to play.”
Ten postgame observations
• This game is a blueprint for how Sullivan wants the Penguins to play.
They didn’t give up any odd-man rushes of note, and perhaps more importantly — these things go hand in hand, in fact — they were so smart with the puck. As Sullivan noted after the game, the Penguins simply got the puck deep when there wasn’t a play to be made. The Penguins have a real, real problem with this, but in this game, they just played a simple and smart game.
And it worked.
The Maple Leafs didn’t play poorly at all and their overwhelming offensive talent was very much evident. And yet, the Penguins did a fine job of snuffing it. When you think of the Penguins, you don’t think of defense and nor should you. But they proved on this night that, when motivated properly by their coach, they are more than capable of playing this way.
• Jarry was tested heavily in this game but he played quite well. He stopped 25 of 27 shots against a very good offensive team and there is something to be said for that.
You can see Jarry getting steadily better and better. Needless to say, this is paramount for the Penguins moving forward if they’re to stick around in the playoff race. Credit to him for the way he’s handled the last month.
• The officiating was absolutely terrible in this game. Hate to harp on it for a second straight game, but Wes McCauley and Furman South were letting things go like it was a game out of the 1990s all night.
They also officiated the score blatantly. While with the lead in the third period, the Penguins should have enjoyed a couple of more power plays but the whistles were in the pockets. Rust was penalized in the final minutes of the third period with the Penguins clinging to a one-goal lead. It wasn’t a great call and, more to the point, wouldn’t have been called if the game were tied.
• Best player on the ice? Letang. I thought he was great and he’s been very, very good since missing a few games due to illness recently.
Letang looks like a different player suddenly. His decision-making has been much better and he’s skating better than he has all season.
He’s long been one to go through stretches where he doesn’t look right. That stretch appears to be over.
• The Penguins decided to split up the power play, giving Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin their own respective units.
Personally I hate when they do this, but I must admit, it worked on this night.
A PPG for PGH and Grzelcyk’s first as a Penguin 🐧 pic.twitter.com/7xkZpyN3Ri
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 8, 2024
Rakell and Bunting both scored power-play goals and the Penguins looked effective throughout the night with the man advantage. There was some serious decisiveness from both units, something they need.
• I love the pass Erik Karlsson made on Bunting’s game-winning goal.
Nothing like an Ontario native scoring against his former team 💪 pic.twitter.com/iYMxdy1cIL
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 8, 2024
For all the things he does that will drive you nuts, he does things with the puck that are so far accelerated intellectually. To his credit, he’s playing much better than he was earlier in the season. He still makes mistakes that coaches don’t appreciate, but he did some good things against the Leafs.
• One downside to this game, and it’s not like we didn’t know it already. But Toronto was so much faster than the Penguins that it was painful to watch. It’s a problem for the Penguins moving forward.
• Matt Nieto was a healthy scratch and Phil Tomasino was a scratch because of an injury sustained against the Rangers.
It was nice seeing Jesse Puljujarvi back in the lineup. He should stay there.
• That’s only eight goals in 29 games for Crosby so far this season, which projects to 23 goals over the course of an 82-game season. That’s an OK season for mere mortals, but for Crosby, it would be a troubling number.
He scored 42 goals last season and has only two goals in his past 15 games.
I took the liberty of doing some research and the biggest problem for Crosby is that he isn’t registering enough shots. Through 29 games this season, Crosby has failed to produce a shot on goal five times. He’s only been held without a shot in more than five outings twice in his career, during the 2008-09 and 2018-19 seasons, respectively.
This season, he’s on pace to go 14 games in which he doesn’t have a shot on goal. He’s never had more than eight games in a season in which he failed to record a shot.
So, what’s the problem? It’s easy to say, “Shoot the puck more, Sid!”
Let’s keep in mind, of course, as players age they sometimes struggle to create the separation necessary to create shooting lanes and shooting opportunities. We saw this very clearly with Phil Kissel in his final seasons. The “Phil is a playmaker” narrative was a friendly narrative that covered up the reality that he had lost a step and couldn’t get his famous shot off any longer.
With Crosby, I don’t really believe this to be the case. I think he’s been unlucky, I think he had reaching 600 career goals on his mind, I think he’s passed up some good looks that he would typically take, and it probably wasn’t realistic to expect 42 goals again this season. Physically, he doesn’t look any different to me, which is a good thing. But it’s worth watching moving forward.
• Up next for the Penguins is a very interesting game on Tuesday night at home against the high-flying Colorado Avalanche. Crosby will always be up for that one and the same can be said for his good friend, Nathan MacKinnon. Should be a fun one.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
