Penguins Get Contributions from All Over in Touchdown Win over Detroit

The Penguins acquired Rickard Rakell at the trade deadline because they felt like he was a guy who could play with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
And so far, the chemistry he's shown with the captain has been a thing of beauty.

"It's really good," defenseman Kris Letang said. "Every time you have a player that has a good hockey IQ and can shoot the puck, they can be a great complement for Sid. Sid will find those guys. He attracts so many eyes on the ice that leaves other player with a lot of more time, and I think Rakell has been a really nice player for them."
Rakell is known for being a goal scorer, and that's evidenced by his numbers. He scored his 20th of the season in Pittsburgh's 7-2 win over Detroit on Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, which was the fourth time in his career he's reached that mark.
Those offensive instincts are another huge reason that general manager Ron Hextall went out and got the 28-year-old winger from Anaheim. But although the Penguins knew Rakell would make them a better hockey team, the coaching staff wasn't as intimate with his game as the scouting staff was. But after getting the chance to watch him day in and day out, Mike Sullivan said what's stood out the most is his playmaking ability.
"He sees the ice really well," the Penguins head coach said. "He has a physical dimension to his game on the forecheck. He plays the game with a lot of courage, he goes to the battle areas, he's willing to go to the net front and take cross checks to bang in a rebound or get a deflection. Those are the subtleties of his game that we've observed since we've gotten him."
That playmaking ability was evident on Rakell's first point of the day, which came in the first period. Letang flipped a pass to him as Rakell entered the zone, which bounced up into his equipment. He managed to settle it down before threading a perfect pass over to Crosby beelining towards the back door for an open look.
And then on his goal, Rakell did a tremendous job of making the play happen for himself. He got a feed from Mike Matheson at the circle and dragged the puck around a sliding Detroit defender before threading a shot through the pads of Wings goalie Thomas Greiss. It was a timely goal that put the Penguins up 3-2 in the second period, and from there, they didn't look back.
While that top line of Jake Guentzel, Crosby and Rakell shone, overall, it was a pretty complete effort from the entire group. Sullivan had said before the game they were looking forward to having their full complement of skaters with Evgeni Malkin returning from a four-game suspension, something that has been quite a rarity this season.
"We can keep the minutes in a reasonable workload so that players can sustain a high level of pace and performance," Sullivan said. "I think that's an important aspect of playing moving forward, especially in the playoffs. The ability to have to be able to use four lines to get contributions throughout our lineup offensively, it just makes us deeper and a lot harder to play against."
As a generational talent and one of the best to ever play, Malkin helps the Penguins in so many ways - especially on the man-advantage. And that's where he scored his 18th of the season in just his 38th game on Pittsburgh's only chance of the night. He completed the touchdown by scoring his second of the night in the final minute of play. Getting a pair in his first game back after 12 days without one is just Geno being Geno.
"You're stuck just practicing… so it's long, but at the end of the day, he skated with us and he went on off days on the ice and tried to stay in shape," Letang said. "But he's so talented that whenever he comes back, he makes our team a lot better. Especially on the power play, too. I think he was good."
Meanwhile, Letang, the third member of that core leadership trio, had his offensive instincts on display all night. He collected three points, a goal and two assists, to tie his career high of 67 set in the 2015-16 season.
"He's a guy that always wants to be in the mix, and he can make a play out of nothing," his longtime D partner Brian Dumoulin said. "He's fun to play with, and he always wants the puck, which is great. And it's good to see his offensive numbers reflecting on how he's playing and stuff. So I mean, he's just a great player."
The third line chipped in with a goal from Danton Heinen, his fourth in the last five games, and the fourth line set up Ruhwedel's goal, which meant the D-men were chipping in. And finally, when there were breakdowns, Casey DeSmith did a solid job of stopping them. His best save came right before Letang's tally, Pittsburgh's fourth of the game, where he did the splits to deny Joe Veleno on what looked like a sure goal.
"That's what you need from a goaltender," Sullivan said. "When you get a timely save like that, it just helps you maintain momentum. It helps you win games, quite honestly, and he made a few of them tonight."