After the Pittsburgh Penguins suffered their fourth straight loss on Monday in Utah, Head Coach Dan Muse said the group had a chance to come together and fight through adversity.
On Thursday, the Penguins did just that, putting together one of their more dominant efforts in a 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers at PPG Paints Arena.
Nick Robertson scored twice, Evgeni Malkin and Hendrix Lapierre also got in the goal column, and Arturs Silovs pitched his second shutout of the season.
“It's definitely not easy coming off the road when things haven't gone well. So, it's a credit to the locker room. They're the ones that are out there playing,” Muse said. “I really thought we had contributions from throughout the lineup. We’ve talked about consistency, and that’s right up there for me in terms of the most consistent game of the year.”
Before the game, Muse said he felt confident that the group would be prepared and excited to play despite their recent struggles and the scary situation involving Ben Kindel, who is doing well after having a medical episode on the flight back from Salt Lake City.
"It wasn't easy, but I thought we were ready,” Lapierre said. “Even before the game, I just thought there was an extra focus in the room. You can kind of see that, okay, enough's enough. Obviously, there was stuff that happened in the last couple days, but we're a family, we're a brotherhood, and we're there for each other. I think we showed that tonight.”
The Penguins spent the majority of the first period in the offensive zone. They connected on breakouts, got pucks on net, and controlled the overall pace of play. They were rewarded with Robertson’s first goal of the night.
“In terms of just driving pucks in, getting pucks behind, just being a little harder to play against – I thought there was more elements of that in our game there tonight,” Muse said. “I think that's always going to be important.”
The team is currently dealing with a plethora of injuries at the forward position, being without Bryan Rust, Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau, and Egor Chinakhov, which was an opportunity for other players to step up and fill those roles.
Lapierre had a big night as the second-line center between Malkin and Ville Koivunen.
“Obviously, two very good players, two very smart players,” Lapierre said. “Before the game, I was talking to Tommy Novak. He played with Geno a lot, and I said, ‘What's Geno like? Playing with him, what does he like?' And he said, ‘Honestly, he's too good. Just let him do his thing, and he'll find you.'”
In the second period, the trio entered the zone and Malkin kicked it over to Koivunen, who put the puck in a perfect spot for Lapierre. He went backhand-forehand and quickly snapped it past Panthers goalie Cooper Black for the 2-0 lead.
“We do a lot of extra stuff after practice. Sometimes it might seem just like very simple stuff, but just catching passes on your backhand stuff like that. But you try to do it with a purpose,” Lapierre said. “So, when you come in the game and you're at full speed and you receive the puck, then you're able to make a play. I was glad that I was able to make it at that point and score a big goal.”
The Panthers had pushed back in the middle frame and found themselves with some quality scoring chances, but were denied each time by Silovs. He was assessed a double minor for high sticking with 3:43 to go, and the team did a tremendous job of keeping the Panthers from finding a shot.
“Some (penalty kills) didn’t go our way in past games,” Silovs said. “But I think today, we’re desperate. We’re trying to win every single battle and get every single puck. That worked for us.”
Up by two heading into the third period, the Penguins went full throttle. Malkin gave the Penguins some extra breathing room with his sixth goal of the season.
Florida did get a critical power play opportunity with six minutes left in regulation. Both the defense and Silovs rose to the occasion and stopped the Panthers from clawing back.
“No matter what the situation is, you don't want to be doing things (where) you’re giving easy offense to the opponent,” Muse said. “I thought we did a good job kind of controlling things that way. When it was time to defend, I thought we defended hard.”
Robertson iced the victory with an empty-net goal for his second of the night.
“We didn't let off the gas,” Robertson said. “Obviously, going into the third with the lead, we wanted to finish it off, and we did.”
