Snap Shots: Pens 5, Canadiens 3

Thoughts, musings and observations from the Penguins' 5-3 win over Montreal...

* In the words of Saturday Night Live's Stefon, this game had everything. It featured back-and forth action, two penalty shots, a heavyweight fight, collisions with officials, fluky bounces, and, most importantly, one of Sidney Crosby's best goals ever.
* Let's talk about that goal, because it was absolutely incredible. Jake Guentzel flipped a pass that bounced over to Crosby as he was skating to the side of the net. Crosby caught it with his forehand, flipped it ahead as he took a stride and then backhanded it from mid-air past Carey Price. The hand-eye coordination from Crosby on the play is just ridiculous. This is why he's the best player in the world. No one else scores goals like this. Not to mention it came at an opportune time, as Montreal had just turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead less than a minute earlier.

* Going into more detail on the other occurrences: Derick Brassard and Brendan Gallagher were both awarded penalty shots that they couldn't convert; Jamie Oleksiak (6-foot-7, 255 pounds) took down Michael McCarron (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) in a heavyweight bought; Jake Guentzel was checked into an official and both crashed to the ice before another official had to leave the game after getting cut with a skate; and Casey DeSmith searched helplessly for a puck that had bounced off his shoulder and high into the air before getting whacked into the net.
* Everything settled down in the third period, which is when Pittsburgh's top-ranked power play went to work early. The second unit stepped up with a big sequence, which started with Olli Maatta making a nice keep to Jake Guentzel. Despite having the time and space to shoot, he waited and made a perfect pass to Derick Brassard in the slot for the game-winner. That meant both the first and second units chipped in goals, as Evgeni Malkin scored earlier in the game. The Pens did a much better job of staying disciplined - only taking two penalties of their own - and converted the chances they got.
* The Pens had spotted their opponents 2-0 leads in the first periods of each of their last two games. Tonight, they reversed that trend and jumped ahead 2-0 in the opening frame. They did a good job of getting pucks and bodies to the crease and making Price uncomfortable in his first game action since Feb. 20. Price is arguably the best goaltender in the world, but he looked a little rusty early on - understandably so - and the Pens took advantage.
* While the Pens are still struggling to find that consistency they keep talking about - which was evident with how they let Montreal back into the game - overall, this was a much better effort than the one we saw last night in Brooklyn. The Pens may have had stretches where they lost focus and didn't defend hard enough, but they responded nicely and pushed back to get the result and a much-needed two points. Overall, as head coach Mike Sullivan said, they didn't unravel and they stayed with the game.