Musings: Penguins Get Feel-Good Win in LA

The Penguins hit the road for California mired in a tough stretch that featured some discouraging losses, with the heaviest one coming on Thursday against Boston.

When asked about the mindset needed to get out of their skid, Sidney Crosby said, “You just got to try to win a game. I mean, you can’t get too ahead of yourself. You can’t think about the past. I think you just got to go in there with the mindset of putting a good team effort together and understanding that it might not be pretty, but you just got to find a way to win a game, however you can do that. That’s got to be our focus.”

That's exactly what transpired on Saturday in Los Angeles, with the Penguins earning a 5-2 victory. The captain had two goals, with his first tally giving Crosby the sixth-most points in NHL history with 1,772 to pass Marcel Dionne. It was fitting that Crosby did so in the arena where Dionne's jersey is hanging from the rafters.

"Probably a little bit cooler because it was here, just him playing here, and probably for how long it took,” Crosby said. “Haven't gone in easy. So, just nice to get that one, nice to get a win and have a good feeling going into tomorrow (against Anaheim).”

His second tally was an empty-netter, and after the buzzer sounded and the Penguins hugged their goalie, Crosby picked up the game puck for Sergei Murashov. The rookie netminder stopped 26 shots to get his first win of the season.

“It’s huge,” Crosby said. “He's played well for us, and he made some big saves tonight. There was a couple that we had some breakdowns and odd-man rushes, a couple chances right in front. They have some big bodies, and they're good in front of the net. So, he had to stop a couple second opportunities there right in front of him, did a great job.”

Murashov wanted to pass along a message of thanks to Flames goaltender Devin Cooley, who has gone viral for his interesting and deep postgame interviews where he talks about his mental approach. Murashov is a like-minded individual, having already earned a reputation for being philosophical and mindful. So, Cooley’s remarks have resonated with Murashov.

“I saw he was really popular recently, and I think most of the goalies (are) going through something like he's talking about, but not a lot who actually speak aloud,” Murashov said. “So, I think just thank you to him, what he's saying, and it helps. It genuinely just helped me a little bit, too. But there is a lot of work ahead, and just keep going.”

The Penguins got a spark from some line changes by the coaching staff. Evgeni Malkin skating with Crosby caused the most buzz, and understandably so, as it’s not a combination that has been seen often – at least to start a game, 5-on-5 – throughout their 21 years together.

But the switch that had the biggest impact early on was Tommy Novak, who had been on the top line for a stretch, moving alongside Ben Kindel and Egor Chinakhov.

Less than two minutes into play, Novak found his first goal of the night, capping off a strong shift for his line and the defensive pair of Kris Letang and Declan Carlile. Carlile moved the puck along the offensive blue line to Letang, who put it on net. Novak corralled the rebound and scored on a turning shot from the slot area.

His second goal came at the 5:10 mark, with Novak doing some terrific work at his own blue line to gain possession. He then fought off coverage after gaining the zone and made a nice drop pass to Kindel, who carried in for a shot. Once again, Novak found a rebound and put it home.

“First couple shifts, get a couple goals, I thought the line was good,” Head Coach Dan Muse said. “I thought with their skating, I thought they had some other good looks there in the offensive zone.”

The Kings used their timeout to settle down, and responded well. They capped off a long offensive-zone shift by getting on the board with a tough bounce for Murashov. The puck had gone off the end boards and up over the net, where Corey Perry was able to bat it in out of midair before Murashov could get eyes on it.

Thankfully, the Penguins capitalized on a late power play, with Egor Chinakhov scoring in the final 30 seconds of the period. Though the officials did wave it off at first, thinking it hit the post. But video review confirmed that the puck had actually crossed the line, it just went in and out so fast, which tracks, as Chinakhov has the best shot on the team.

The Penguins had drawn a penalty during the time that elapsed after Chinakhov’s goal, and were kept off the board to start the second period. The Kings then got another fortituous bounce during a power play of their own, as a puck deflected off Kaedan Korczak’s skate and into the back of the net.

Los Angeles appeared to tie it off the rush with the Penguins scrambling in their D-zone coverage, but Pittsburgh successfully challenged for offsides. It was a massive momentum changer, as the Penguins made it 4-2 shortly after.

The goal came on a beautiful play, with Erik Karlsson threading a magnificent no-look backhand pass to Malkin, who fired a vintage Geno one-timer that caught Crosby’s jersey on the way in. Malkin finished with three assists to go along with Crosby’s two goals as part of a nice night for their line with Rickard Rakell.

“I thought definitely in the second we started to get going a little bit more, and then the third, we had some good looks,” Crosby said. “I thought everybody generated at different times, but yeah, I think we, I think we kind of found our stride more.”

In the third, the Penguins stuck to their game plan and structure, and were mostly successful.

“Obviously, there's going to be urgency from both sides,” Crosby said. “They're down, they're going to push. I thought we just did a good job of defending hard and waiting for our chances to come from good defense. But you knew that they were going to start to press, and we were good in the way that we just stayed patient and defended hard there. It started with that.”

The sentiment was that while there’s still another level to tightening up their defensive play, this game was a good step in the right direction.

“I think our effort and our compete was really clear,” Crosby said. “And sometimes you earn your bounces, and you earn it with that. I thought that was the case.”