Musings: Penguins Start Road Trip Strong in Seattle

It’s been a good few days for Parker Wotherspoon.

His beloved Seahawks came up with a big win on Saturday night, advancing to the NFC Championship game. After that, he got to travel back home, as the Penguins defenseman is “from somewhere in BC,” per Connor Clifton in this hilarious video from the team plane...

Then, Wotherspoon opened the scoring in Pittsburgh’s 6-3 win with around 20 people in attendance – including his billet family from his junior hockey days playing for the Tri-City Americans, who are based out of Washington.

“Pretty cool moment, yeah,” Wotherspoon told SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Dan Potash during intermission.

That tally came 5:44 into play, with Connor Dewar following it up just over two minutes later with a shorthanded breakaway goal. The 26-year-old forward, acquired from Toronto at last year’s deadline and re-signed in the summer, has tied his career high of 11 goals set in 2022-23, after icing the win with an empty netter.

“Love it when you see him get rewarded on the offensive side,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse said. “He’s got skill. You see it there on the shorthanded goal, you’ve seen it throughout the year. But I think his offense usually starts with just doing all the right things there away from the puck. It’s always great when you see him get rewarded.”

After Dewar’s first of the game, the Kraken battled back with a goal late in the first, and tied the game with just over six minutes to go in the second. But the Penguins had a quick response to the latter tally.

Sidney Crosby, playing in his 1,400^th NHL game, won a draw back to defenseman Brett Kulak. He maneuvered to the center point and sniped a shot for his first as a Penguin.

“That was a heck of a shot,” Stuart Skinner said. “Really good play by them. Big faceoff, a clean faceoff to get Kuly in a good spot, and then we were just able to go to the net, and he was able to pop one. So, it's a special moment for him. Very, very much deserved.”

It was a strong finish to the period from there, with the Penguins producing a lot of offensive zone time, and going into the intermission with 15 shots in that frame.

“I thought we just kept playing,” Muse said. “There wasn't too much in terms of those heavy momentum shifts the other way. I thought we just kept responding. I thought it was a good kind of business-like approach there to the game, which is what you want to see. I thought that carried through, honestly, the whole game.”

Justin Brazeau got Pittsburgh on the board early in the third to give them a 4-2 lead, before Seattle scored on the power play at the 7:47 mark. Rickard Rakell got his second in as many games during the final minutes, before Dewar put one into the empty net.

The Penguins have gotten at least three goals in each of their last three games, including two six spots, after scoring just one in each of the previous three before that. The defensemen have played a big role in that, which is especially impressive considering they are without Erik Karlsson, who is sidelined with a lower-body injury.

"It's great for these guys to be chipping in," Muse said. "I think we want everybody to be involved in the offense. And obviously, they have been the last couple of games. I think we've been seeing it. ... We need everybody chipping in there and working to impact both sides of the puck."

Overall, the Penguins finished with 32 shots to Seattle’s 23.

“I feel like it was just a battle. It was a little bit of back and forth pretty well the whole game,” Skinner said. “But for me, it was yeah, they had some O-zone time, but not a ton of shots tonight. And that's big props to the guys in front of me blocking shots.”

Skinner has now won five of six starts coming out of the holiday break after being acquired from Edmonton alongside Kulak in mid-December.

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I think the whole squad in here is feeling confident. And I feel like when everybody in here feels that way, it kind of rubs off on anybody. No matter what the results are for you individually, it kind of rubs off everyone. So, for us as a team, I feel like we're going a really good direction here.”