Penguins Get Character Win in NYC Without Crosby, Malkin

On Friday in New York, the Penguins played without their captain for the first time since 2022, when Sidney Crosby missed Game 6 of the First Round against the Rangers.

He missed tonight’s contest with an upper-body injury, ending his consecutive games played streak at 229. Head Coach Mike Sullivan said, “Right now, we’re just taking it one day at a time” when it comes to Crosby’s situation, but that it’s encouraging he was on the ice for the optional game-day skate.

“Obviously, he's an important player for us,” Sullivan said. “When he's not in our lineup, he's a hard guy to replace. He’s the heartbeat of this team. So, we're going to do our best to put our best game on the ice tonight.”

Crosby joined Evgeni Malkin (lower body, week-to-week) on the injury list, which meant other players had big opportunities to step up – and that’s what they did. They brought the high compete level that Sullivan said would be necessary for success, and battled their way to a 3-2 win to begin this year’s Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Dads Trip.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves, while Blake Lizotte, Rickard Rakell and Phil Tomasino all scored for Pittsburgh.

"I think it just speaks volumes to the type of people that we have in our dressing room. You can thank that group right over there because they're a reflection of those guys,” Sullivan said, gesturing to the assembled dads and guests.

“They're great kids. They compete hard, and they don't look for excuses. This was a game that we potentially could have, but we didn't. I thought our guys competed hard. We battled. We found a way. Some guys stepped up. We got good goaltending. But, I thought our competitive spirit was as good as it's been."

The Rangers struck first 8:31 into the game on a defensive zone turnover, taking that 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Play got a lot more back-and-forth in the second period, with Lizotte putting home a pretty feed from Noel Acciari to even the score just 2:25 in.

While Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Adam Fox put the Rangers back in front just over a minute later, the Penguins continued to push, with Rakell scoring his 25^th of the season (which leads the team).

The Penguins asked Rakell to step into the top-line center role, something he hasn’t done since the couple years of his career, and he delivered with a terrific performance – winning 56% of his draws (9-for-16) to go along with the goal.

“He was 9-for-15 going into the final face-off. That's why we put him in the circle at the end on that right side, 'cause he was having success,” Sullivan said. “He was winning against pretty good faceoff men. So, I thought he played well.”

Bryan Rust told us to interview the ‘centerman extraordinaire’ when we walked into the locker room postgame, so we obliged.

"I thought that it was fun. It was a challenge,” Rakell said. “I didn't feel like I had a lot of expectations on me because it's a new position, so I could just go out and try to play. Do as best as I can. But obviously, I want to do it as good as I can.”

The Penguins went 1-for-3 on the power play when Tomasino put home a feed from Bryan Rust, his second primary assist of the night. Five of Tomasino’s seven goals this season have been game-winners. Since he made his Penguins debut on Nov. 27, no player in the NHL has more game-winning goals. It came right after SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Dan Potash interviewed Tomasino’s father Manny.

“It's awesome,” Phil said. “I got a chance to do it last year with him, so this is my second time with him, but it's awesome. It’s one of the things he looks forward to the most, and it's same with me as well.”

As Rakell said, the Penguins took care of the puck in the first two periods, but the Rangers stepped it up in the third and tested them. They kept Pittsburgh from getting a shot on goal, not to mention the Penguins had to kill off two penalties in the final minutes of the game. That group went over the boards and got the job done with some resilience and sacrifice.

"I just think there was a level of urgency,” Sullivan said. “Obviously, that's a pretty dynamic power play that they have. Just their willingness to do the little things -- win puck battles, block shots. They had a couple of looks, but I thought our guys competed hard. And, that's an important element of it. The other aspect of it is just decision-making and execution.”

The Penguins close out the road trip with a matchup in Philadelphia on Saturday, their last game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

“We got one more job tomorrow. We've put ourselves in a spot to climb back to .500 now,” Nedeljkovic said. “Gives us a chance to tomorrow. So, we're hoping to get the job done."