Penguins Report Card: Resilience & Toughness, Pens Learning How to Win

NASHVILLE, Tenn — The Pittsburgh Penguins again gave up an early goal as the Nashville Predators got a break on what was most likely a missed stoppage for the puck being in the netting. Nashville capitalized and scored on their second shot of the game, but the calamity didn’t slow the Penguins, who won their eighth of the last 11 games after a 5-4 OT win over Nashville at Bridgestone Arena.

Thursday, it surely seemed they were going to be on the wrong side as Nashville raced past them in the neutral zone. A few mistakes piled up, and they trailed 3-1, then 4-3 in the third period, before Bryan Rust scored the game-winner in OT.

Read More: Crosby Silences Nashville; Rust Dramatic OT Winner

Trailing and trailing again, that’s when the blood and guts of the Penguins’ locker room took over.

There will never be a greater blood-and-guts player than Sidney Crosby. He forced the Penguins back into the game as the top line created chances and more chances in the third period. Crosby scored a power-play goal, his first tally in 11 games, and he was just getting started.

“I mean, feels good. (I) hit the post five seconds before that, and then you see one go in, it’s nice,” Crosby said of finally scoring. “So, hopefully, they start to go in bunches now. But yeah, (it was) definitely a relief to see one go in (and) just to find a way to get some momentum there.”

Then Rickard Rakell tied the game just over 90 seconds later.

And when the Penguins were down 4-3, seven minutes into the third period, they didn’t wilt or submit. Instead, they got angry. Gloves and fists were flying, and so were the Penguins in the final 10 minutes. They were going to get that tying goal.

“We’ve just got to compete. And that’s probably what I’m most proud of the group–I thought we competed hard,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It wasn’t perfect by any stretch. It wasn’t the cleanest game; from an execution standpoint, I didn’t think we made great decisions in certain areas and at certain times.

“I thought we got some big saves from (Jarry) when we needed to, but I love the resolve of the group and just get the complete level to keep trying to answer the bell, so to speak. We gave up our fourth goal in the third period, and there was no let-up at all–if anything, it was the opposite. And you can sense that you can feel it on the bench.”

Indeed, the Penguins are a different team than the melting sour pusses who quit games when things didn’t go their way earlier this season. They play differently, they skate differently, and they’ve learned to attack when bounces or breaks, even by their own hand, go against them.

“I think we found that (mental toughness). We obviously didn’t do that for the first part of the year, and we learned a lot of lessons the hard way,” Rust said. “And I think now we’re starting to kind of get the hang of it. I think that’s a sense of belief we’ve got in this room that, hey, it doesn’t matter how this game went, a few plays here or there, and we can come back into it.”

Penguins Xs and Os

Nashville wants to play a “fun” brand of hockey–lots of counterattacks, three and four-wide rushes. They’re dangerous, but that’s also a double-edged sword, which the Penguins exploited enough times.

Very simply, the Penguins were too aggressive against Nashville. The patient layers they created in the neutral zone against LA on Tuesday were replaced with gung-ho forecheckers.

The forecheckers weren’t as successful as they would have liked. Nashville was able to generate speed out of the defensive zone. Worse, the Penguins made a lot of impatient plays with the puck, which have Nashville superior numbers on the rush and odd-man rushes.

For the Penguins chalkboard, there’s one guy: Sidney Crosby. His exemplary work spread throughout the team, which was gritty and tough in the low zone. Erik Karlsson flashed that elite offensive prowess a few times, too.

Karlsson also took a few unpenalized punches from Jeremy Lauzon in the third period and dared Lauzon to throw more.

For the Penguins’ success, they’ll want to avoid chasing the game like they did Thursday. It’s a feel-good comeback win, but those evaporate quickly.

Penguins Report Card

Team: C

They won, and there’s an impressive takeaway that this team is finally … FINALLY

FINALLY

…Finally, they are learning to win when they don’t have their best. Rust kind of laughed to himself when PHN asked if that was the case–if he felt like the Penguins have. He laughed because there was no way out of that question other than to admit how bad things were but how good they could be.

They had way too many turnovers and bad shots Thursday. A bad shot is like a turnover, especially against Nashville. The defensemen were a bit scrambled, and the forwards didn’t slow Nashville, but a win is a win, and the locker room was pretty happy about it.

Tristan Jarry: B+

Ignore the numbers (22 saves on 26 shots). Jarry faced high-quality looks from big-time players. He didn’t make a lot of saves, but he had to make a lot of very tough saves.

Sure, he could have been on top of the crease on a couple of them, but those were also very good shots. Jarry’s great saves far surpassed any that he could have stopped.

Sidney Crosby: A+

C’mon, that was vintage Crosby. And we get to watch. No one can carry defenders as well, and he’s easily the best since Jaromir Jagr. He gave Ryan O’Reilly a piggyback ride to set up the tying goal because he wanted it that much.

Owen Pickering: Rough night

The rookie had a rough go. Nashville attacked. He’ll be in the film room tomorrow to get a better look. He was hesitant but also tried to jump forward to blunt Nashville possession, which created a couple of odd-man rushes against.

You learn more from mistakes and Pickering got a few lessons.

Philip Tomasino: Tough luck

Against other goalies, he probably would have scored. He was harder on the walls, and he was aggressive in spurts. He had a few good looks, but Nashville goalie Juuse Saros knew Tomasino’s little trick after playing with him for the last few years. Tomasino likes to change the angle before shooting, but Saros jumped the shots, making the saves look easy.