Penguins Notebook: 4th Line Strong; DeSmith’s Miscalculation

It would have been perfectly understandable if Mike Sullivan and Paul Maurice had split a six-pack after the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 7-6 overtime victory against Florida Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

A six-pack of antacid, that is.

That’s because neither team showed much interest in paying attention to the details of its defensive game, and goalies Casey DeSmith and Alex Lyon didn’t do anything to force their way into Vezina Trophy conversations.

It was the kind of performance by both sides that could prompt a coach to seriously reconsider his choice of professions.

Still, there were a few things for Sullivan to like about what he witnessed.

Getting two points was the most important, of course.

A superb showing by Kris Letang in his first game since Dec. 28 certainly makes the list, too.

As does the way the Penguins’ power play rebounded from giving up a shorthanded goal to score on each of its final three opportunities.

And an outstanding effort by the fourth line, which had Ryan Poehling between Drew O’Connor and Danton Heinen, was hard to overlook, too.

Those three accounted for two goals — one of them being Heinen’s first in 35 games — and five assists as the unit made a high-impact contribution to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ victory.

“I thought we did a lot,” O’Connor said. “I think we had some good looks. I thought we spent a lot of time in their zone, which is always good, and didn’t give them many chances.”

O’Connor got his goal, which tied the game, 5-5, at 10:29 of the third period, a split-second after he put a shot off the left post from point-blank range.

“I was just hoping I could get it back,” O’Connor said. “You don’t want to miss an open net like that. It was rolling … but you still have to put that in. I got a little lucky that it came back to me.”

Getting in Rhythm

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in a game-every-other-day stretch, with one day between each of seven consecutive games.

Playing that often can become a bit of a grind, but a lot of guys enjoy being in such a predictable routine.

“I like it,” Sidney Crosby said. “That’s not that bad. It’s a little bit off with the travel — home-away like that — but as far as playing every second day, I think it’s nice to get into that type of rhythm.

“You start playing back-to-backs, three-in-fours, cramming everything in, after a time, it kind of adds up. I think it’s a little bit easier to get into a routine that way.”

‘I misjudged it’

Casey DeSmith, who said he learned that he’d be filling in for Tristan Jarry about five minutes before he began putting on his equipment for warmups, gave up six goals on 39 shots, and didn’t seem to have his game in sync for most of the evening.

That included on Carter Verhaeghe’s goal with 40.8 seconds to go in the opening period, which snapped a run of three unanswered goals by the Penguins and tied the game, 3-3.

Verhaeghe chased down a long lead pass from Aaron Ekblad, finally catching up to it in the Penguins’ zone as DeSmith raced from his crease to get to the puck first.

DeSmith failed, and Verhaeghe, with only one hand on his stick, nudged the puck over him and into the vacated net.

“I misjudged it,” DeSmith said. “I thought it was (moving) a little bit faster. I thought I could get to it first. He made a good play, obviously, kind of chipping it over me.”