Penguins Report Card: ‘Starting to Believe,’ Team Emerges from Stench

The Pittsburgh Penguins second-power play unit scored three goals, figurative backup goalie Alex Nedeljkovic was brilliant, and the bottom-six forwards scored two of the three even-strength goals.

The Penguins flexed their improvements as the team continued to emerge from the stench of pathetic former contenders and mediocrity that gripped them for most of the first two months of the NHL season. They won their third game in a row—their first three-game winning streak this season—by beating the Calgary Flames 6-2 at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.

“We’re just playing a more honest game. And I think when we play an honest game, we’re going to give ourselves a chance. We’re not chasing offense at the expense of turning into a high-risk team,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence we were able to string three-in-a-row here. I think the style of game that we’re playing is conducive to winning … I give the players a lot of credit. I think they’re buying in, and I think they’re playing on their toes.

“I think they’re they’re starting to believe. And for me, that’s a good feeling.”

The Penguins were cruising for a shutout, up 5-0, before Calgary popped a couple of garbage-time goals, forcing Blake Lizotte to whip a wrister past Calgary goalie Dan Vladar with 1:37 remaining just to make sure the game appeared as lopsided as it was.

Lizotte has four goals in 10 games this season, and even coach Mike Sullivan couldn’t help but slip a little wisecrack into his postgame presser.

“Lizzo’s playing a good brand of hockey for us. When get offensive contributions throughout the lineup, it just increases your chances of winning,” said Sullivan. “(The third line) got a couple tonight. (Anthony Beauvillier) gets one. (Lizotte) gets one. He’s got whatever it is, four goals and nine in 10 games, so he’s on a 40-plus-goal pace. If you keep that up, it’ll be great for us.”

In five prior NHL seasons, Lizotte has never scored more than 11. We won’t correct the coach that he’s actually a 32-goal pace, but you get the idea.

Here’s a stat that bears watching: The Penguins are now 6-2-2 with Lizotte in the lineup and 4-10-2 without him. That’s too great of a disparity to be purely coincidence.

Penguins Locker Room

The room is a different world from last week.

The Penguins are starting to feel better about themselves. The long faces and slumped shoulders, the gritted teeth and heavy atmosphere that gripped the team last week as trade rumors swirled and absolutely ugly losses mounted, have been replaced with optimism and burgeoning confidence. The team no longer hates itself amidst a cascading deluge of self-sabotage befitting hours on a therapist’s couch.

Guys are joking with each other. Huddles involve laughs about a moment or a play instead of stern discussions about what they could have done better.

Standing a few feet from the players, everything is different.

“I think these last three games were huge for us to gain momentum and get a little confidence and look forward to the next game,” said Michael Bunting. “We had a tough schedule here–that was a tough back-to-back, and the last three games were against good teams. So that obviously gives us a little bit of a boost knowing that we can play and we’re good enough in here. So we want to keep that going.”

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Bunting is no offensive dynamo like Lizotte, but he, too, is rounding into form. He had three points Saturday, including a power play goal and two assists in the surprisingly offensively productive third line with Lizotte and Beauvillier, who scored the first goal of the game on a strong backhander.

It was Beauvillier’s seventh goal of the season, and the goal looked an awful lot like one we’ve seen from Sidney Crosby a couple hundred times.

“I thought our line, especially in the first period, we had our legs and had some chances. That was a good play off the entry by (Lizotte) and (Bunting),” Beauvillier said. “So I’ve been feeling pretty good. It feels like I got my legs so far this year and I’m just trying to play simple, honestly.”

However, all of the above would be for naut–ALL OF IT–if not for spectacular goaltending by Alex Nedeljkovic. It’s not an exaggeration to say the Penguins goalie stole one. If Calgary scored on only a couple of the chances in the first 35 minutes, the Penguins would have been down by at least one goal, if not multiple goals.

Instead, Calgary looked defeated deeper into the second period. They had accepted they were not going to win, as Nedeljkovic made timely saves, and the opportunistic second power play channeled their version of the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.

By the end of the second period, Calgary was flatfooted, watching the Penguins pressure in waves.

It’s merely a three-game winning streak and a whole lot more wins are needed to begin talking about being a good team, but it surely makes life a lot better for those on the inside to look like a competent hockey team once again.

Penguins Report Card

Team: B

They scored opportunistic goals and got tallies from PP2 and the bottom six, but their defense played yet another strong game. There were weak spots on the blue line, but they overcame those mistakes instead of being undone. The scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances were close to even, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, and that tracked with the eye test, too.

Maybe, just maybe, Sullivan’s Yahtzee cup line creation tool is yielding results.

Alex Nedeljkovic: A+

Theft. 30 saves, including this one.

Buntin-Lizotte-Beauvillier: B+

Guess which was the only Penguins line to have a positive Corsi? Yep, the third line anchored by Lizotte.

Negatives

Ryan Shea has struggled on the right side this season. Owen Pickering remains perfectly steady and fine on the left side–you don’t notice him and that’s a great thing, but you can’t help but notice Shea on the right, and that’s bad. He’s had successive rough games, especially in the first period.

O’Connor-Malkin-Tomasino was not so good at 5v5. They were out-chanced 8-2.

While PP2 scored a trio of goals, PP1 was shut out. PP2 clearly had the best chances.

Unheralded Positives

Erik Karlsson played really well again.

Kris Letang also played very well.

And lastly, it’s fun to watch Angry Crosby. Rasmus Andersson ruffled Crosby’s feathers with a roughing penalty in the middle of the second period, and Crosby had a chip on his shoulder the rest of the game. Crosby, with that chip on his shoulder, is even better than regular Crosby.