Musings: Pens Regroup to Beat Caps

The Pittsburgh Penguins snapped their two-game losing streak after battling back to win an entertaining contest against the Washington Capitals on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.

“They obviously came back, pushed really hard. For us to find a way was huge and, obviously, our fans were awesome on that, too,” Bryan Rust said.

Rust scored the game-winner to go along with two assists and a few posts. His linemates had big nights as well. Sidney Crosby tallied twice to become the NHL’s goal scoring leader with 11 in 15 games. Ben Kindel collected two helpers while playing on the top line and the top power-play unit.

“He's an extremely smart kid, knows where to be on the ice, knows which plays to make,” Rust said. “And when you combine that intelligence with his skill level, obviously, really good things are going to happen."

With the slew of injuries that the team has faced over the past week, Kindel earned the opportunity to slot in alongside Crosby and Rust, and he fit right in with those guys.

“There's a lot of communication,” Kindel said. “It's easy to play with those guys and just try and beat out for them. It was our first game together, but I think we started to build a little bit of chemistry, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Both of Crosby’s goals came on the man-advantage in the opening frame. Kindel notched his first career assist on the first one to go along with his five goals on the season, which leads all NHL rookies.

“I think just like, took a quick look before Rusty gave it to me, and he was on the backside, and just tried to make a quick play,” Kindel said. “I don’t know if the defenseman was expecting it, but just got lucky, went in.”

Rust then got the primary assist on Crosby’s second goal, which came shortly after the crowd gave Alex Ovechkin a standing ovation for becoming the first player in NHL history to reach 900 goals last night.

Anthony Mantha, who assisted on Ovechkin's 800th goal when he was a member of the Capitals, got on the board just over two minutes into the second period to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Capitals were able to tie the game heading into the third period – a little bit of déjà vu after what happened in Toronto.

"Unfortunately, we had some experience with it rather recently,” Rust said. “But I think being able to come in here after the second, kind of regroup a little and say, 'Hey, like, we need to be a whole lot better.' Our puck management needed to be a whole lot better, and I thought we were better in the third, and we were able to find a way."

Rust put home a beautiful pass from Evgeni Malkin midway through the final frame to put the Penguins back in front.

“That was incredible,” Rust said. “I was just trying to find the open space in the slot, and he just took it off the wall and zipped it right on my tape right away. It was awesome.”

Special teams was a key factor in the contest. Going into Thursday, Pittsburgh’s power play ranked second in the league at 32.4%, with the team adding three more goals tonight to increase that total.

A few minutes before Rust’s go-ahead goal, Connor Dewar swung the momentum after a relentless and hard-nosed shift on the penalty kill. While his play didn’t result in a goal, it drew praise from the crowd and a push from his team.

“Those little effort plays, they might not always show on the score sheet, or they may not always have visual proof,” Rust said. “But the team notices, the bench notices, and we get excited about that stuff. That right there gave our team a little bit of life, too.”

Pittsburgh was able to lock things down defensively off of Washington’s late push, and Dewar made it 5-3 with the empty net goal to secure the win. Arturs Silovs stopped 28 shots for the Penguins. Here is what Head Coach Dan Muse had to say following the team’s win and improving to 9-3-2 on the season.

What went haywire a bit when you lost the lead in the second period? And what was your message between the periods?

There was a number of things. I think we were trying to make something out of nothing at times, in terms of entries, coming out of our zone and into their zone. And look, we got skill on the ice, guys that could make plays, but I just think we were trying to force things that clearly weren't there, where we could manage the game better. There were some defensive breakdowns that also led to goals. And so, it was a combination of things. I think we got away from that. The majority of the first period I thought was in line with how we want to play. I liked our start. There's a couple of chances there that we don't want to give up and that we can clean up in the first. We just got away from it there in the second. But credit to the guys. We were just in this situation three days ago. It would have been really easy for this group to cave. It would’ve been very easy for this group to play back on their heels, to play worried. I thought we came out in the third period, and we did the things we needed to do to win the game. So yeah, we'll continue to look at things. We'll continue to clean up things there. But yeah, at the end of the day, guys got the job done. They got the two points.

Wanted to ask you about your power play, which was outstanding tonight. And specifically, Ben Kindel’s role in the power play. It looked like he was a step ahead of the play all night with the way he anticipated and distributed the puck. How pleased were you with his game in general, but especially on the man-advantage?

I thought the power play was great tonight, obviously. I thought the special teams were outstanding, both sides of it. And in terms of Kindel, you can see he's comfortable out there. He’s doing a very good job there in terms of just getting to the right areas, that anticipation to be able to get there. I just thought the crispness of his play, it just seemed like every pass that he was making, it was quick, it was on the tape. I thought the power play in general, though, like I thought everybody, that's what we were seeing. So, really good job by that group tonight. And obviously, a major, major factor there in the result.

Danton Heinen and Ryan Graves played their first games since being called up. Just what did you see from each of them tonight?

I thought they were good games. You know, you're jumping back into it. Obviously, both of those guys, they've got a lot of NHL experience, so it's not like you're calling up somebody that this is new for them. And I thought both guys contributed. I thought Gravy had really good gaps. There were a couple times there, especially just surfing across there, taking away time and space on the entries at some kind of key times – I thought those really stood out. I thought it was good. I thought it was a good game for both of them.

I thought Erik Karlsson had another really good game tonight. When you sat down to design the systems for this club, how much did you look at emphasizing what he could bring to a team, what your defenseman could by maybe unleashing them a little bit more?

I think you always need to look at your group. I think there's a lot of different ways to play the game. I'm not one to think that there's necessarily a perfect way. I think you got to find the right fit for your group. And so obviously, we had an idea of a starting point that we wanted to have, and we felt like it could fit the group of players that, you go back to the summertime, we felt like were going to be here in the mix. And then as you go, you make adjustments accordingly. But I think it's the way the game is played now, you want to get the D involved. It's just, teams are too good defensively. You can't just leave it up to three players on the ice. But there needs to be balance as well, and forwards need to back up the D, and D need to make good decisions of when to get back. And I think that's coming along.