Musings: Penguins Extend Point Streak to Six Games

The Penguins improved to 7-2-1 on the season, and 5-0-1 in their last six, after beating St. Louis in a back-and-forth game on Monday at PPG Paints Arena.

“They're a good team. They're trying to bounce back,” said Sidney Crosby, who recorded his 1,700^th point and passed Mario Lemieux for the most multi-point games in franchise history (498). Full story here.

“They had a tough one last game. So, I think we understood that they're going to push back. And we did a good job of not letting it get out of hand.”

After getting his first goal of the season to tie the game late in regulation against Columbus on Saturday, Bryan Rust opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the contest.

“I just try to keep with it,” he said. “Obviously, missing the first couple of games (due to injury) is never fun. Had some chances there early on. Didn’t really go my way. But I think I just tried to keep with it. I’ve been around this league long enough (to know) the whole season is going to be a roller coaster. There’s going to be times that are great and times that aren’t.”

Just 16 seconds later, it was the red-hot second line of Anthony Mantha, Evgeni Malkin, and Justin Brazeau who added to Pittsburgh’s lead.

“That whole line has been awesome. They just make plays, one after another,” Parker Wotherspoon said. “They all have confidence. They’re all huge, obviously. Tough second line to play against for other teams, and it’s just huge for our success.”

With his three-assist performance on Monday, Erik Karlsson now has nine helpers in his last six games. Wotherspoon, his D partner, scored his first goal in a Penguins sweater and the second of his career in the second period to regain Pittsburgh’s one-goal lead.

“It’s just a good moment,” Wotherspoon said before adding with a smile, “I don’t score many. So, it was pretty awesome. It felt like it was a good shot, and it was good to put the team up.”

Rust then got his second of the night just 42 seconds into the third before St. Louis cut their deficit to 4-3 at the 4:35 mark of the period. As the Blues began to press with just under five minutes left in regulation, Crosby was sprung on a breakaway and buried his own rebound on St. Louis goaltender Joel Hofer to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-3.

Malkin secured the win with an empty-netter for his 16^th point of the season, had him tied for the league lead in scoring when the buzzer sounded.

At 38 and 39, respectively, Crosby and Malkin have combined for 30 points throughout the team’s first ten games this season.

“They’ve been incredible, I never doubted it for a second,” Rust said. “They could be skeletons walking around here, but they’re still going to give everything that they’ve got. They’re going to work as hard as they can, and they’re always going to be leading this team.”

Goaltender Tristan Jarry got the start in between the pipes tonight, continuing on with the team’s goalie rotation implemented by Head Coach Dan Muse. Jarry improved to 4-1-0 on the season and stopped 26 out of 29 shots that he faced.

Muse began his postgame media availability by addressing what happened in the arena tonight – the Penguins’ full statement is here.

“I just wanted to start off by saying, right after the game, I was informed, and the team was informed, about the man who fell from the upper-bowl to the lower-bowl. He was taken to the hospital. I just wanted to start off by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Obviously, they all come here for a sports game, and you hear something like that, that kind of puts everything else aside. So again, our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”

While it was a milestone night for Sid, Geno’s empty net goal now ties him for the league lead in scoring. What can you say about the start to the season that he is having at 39 years old?

“I thought that him and his line had a strong game there tonight. I think with all three guys, it feels like we’re celebrating a milestone almost every game or every couple of games. You go back a couple of games, and it’s Tanger. You go into tonight, and you’ve got Sid hitting that milestone with seventeen hundred points, which is incredible. And Geno, I didn’t even realize that until you just said it. It seems like you’ve got these constant reminders. I quickly forget too about the age. You think about the fact that they’ve been doing this for as long as they have been, you got guys on the team who weren’t even born when they started this journey. It’s remarkable. It’s incredible. It’s pretty cool for everybody involved there that we’re constantly getting reminded because they’re doing something new or hitting a new milestone all the time. I see it, and I go back, and it makes more sense to me when you see the day-to-day, though. You see the way that these guys prepare and the way they compete and push each other every day. It becomes pretty clear why it is that they’re doing what they’re doing.”

What is your impression of Hallander’s performance on the first line?

“That was a good first game. You’re looking for all of the lines to complement each other, to read off each other, to be able to find that next play with each other. I thought he was doing that. I thought he was getting in there on the forecheck. I thought he was working at both ends of the puck. I think you see with that line, especially just some of the plays that they can make. One of the big things is if you’re going to be able to find that next play and extend plays, which I thought he did a good job. My initial thought, without going back and watching the tape yet, I thought it was good, especially for one practice together. It was a solid start.”

Even though you took an early lead, it looked like a sloppy first period. How do you feel in particular about the third period with how the team protected the lead?

“I agree with the first period. I think you take away that first minute, and sometimes you get a lead early on, you can see it’s going to get away. You start to think that maybe it's going to come easy tonight. You can't think that way. And I'm not saying that was the case tonight. I just think we put ourselves in some bad positions there after getting a good lead. I thought we left that period there, and all the momentum was over in the other locker room. And I liked our second, I liked a lot about our second. I thought we got back to breakouts, especially back half of that second period, I thought we were better. I thought our gaps were better. I thought putting ourselves in a position to be in the offensive zone a little bit more was better. And then in the third period, obviously, you come out there and you extend it, which is good. There were parts of it that I thought were strong. I think it's still a couple of areas there, too, where you're playing with the lead and there's still some things to clean up in that regard. But as an overall assessment, I thought our second and third periods were more in the direction of where we want to be going and the way we want to be playing.”

What has gone right for Rust with these last two games compared to his previous six games to start his season?

“I think he's been good overall. I think it's just finding the back of the net there for the first time. He's been pretty consistent in terms of getting chances. For me, it's more about whether we’re getting the right areas. Are we getting the looks? And I thought he was getting those. Going back a game there for him to get that first one, and then he follows it up pretty quickly there tonight. He puts himself in good spots. He's a guy who can create offense in terms of going to the right areas, finding those pockets where he's going to be open. But he's also a guy that can create offense just by the work ethic that he has, and driving pucks and taking pucks to the net. When you have multiple ways like that that you're able to generate, it's a pretty dangerous thing. And I think we've seen that with a lot of the chances that he had there. Even earlier, prior to the last couple of games, he just missed. Those net drives where he's taking it right to the back post and just misses. And so, he stuck with it, and he's getting rewarded. I thought the line did a good job of getting into the ozone. Obviously, a really nice goal there, really good effort on Sid’s last one. Just really good defensive work, a blocked shot in the zone, and then it was good defense that led to a good offensive chance.”