Penguins Report Card: A Scrappy Good Performance; Crosby Brilliance

PITTSBURGH — After a trio of overtime games, none of which became wins, the Pittsburgh Penguins badly needed a victory. However, facing a team that has beaten, if not embarrassed, them for a few years running was not the most advantageous situation.

The Penguins had lost seven straight to the Edmonton Oilers, and one veteran recently described a few of the games as “getting stomped.” Yet with a strong urgency, the Penguins started fiercely, scrapped to do what they needed to do in the second period to keep a two-goal lead, and continued to attack in the third for a 5-3 win at PPG Paints Arena.

Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust had three points (1-2-3) as the Penguin’s top line provided most, but not all, of the offense. Drew O’Connor and Kevin Hayes also scored.

“We weren’t just trying to sit back and accept the rush; trying to play defense and trying to clog up the middle or anything like that,” said goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. “We weren’t trying to shut it down. We were just playing our game and playing on top of them. And in doing that (we) did the same thing and shut them down.”

Nedeljkovic was one of the primary stories. Edmonton did not quit, nor did they accept their fate meekly. More than a spoonful of credit should also go to Nedeljkovic, who fought off a couple of sure Edmonton goals with desperate saves. There were no softies or deflating goals from which to rally. Nedeljkovic stopped 40 of 43 shots.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who was named to the Penguins Quarter Century Team, would have been proud of several of Nedeljkovic’s acrobatic saves.

“I just got lucky (on a few of those),” said Nedeljkovic with a laugh. “They made a few good plays … I was happy to be able to get a couple of them. You’d like to maybe be a little more square (and) centered on some of those plays. But they’re good players over there.”

Instead, the Penguins did the stomping on Thursday. Badly needing a win and facing a tormentor, it was not an ideal situation, yet the Penguins specifically did several things that they hadn’t recently done. Not the least of the Penguins’ improvements was finishing their chances.

Sidney Crosby climbed a few more notches in the NHL record book by notching a pair of assists and a power play goal.

Read More: Crosby Continues Assault on All-Time Lists With Big Game

As important as the upgrades to their game to deal with the defending Western Conference champions was the mental ability to wrestle momentum back from Edmonton in the second period. It might be an overlooked feature, but every team fights back, and Edmonton’s pushback is much better than most.

The Penguins stabilized well.

Edmonton kept chipping away, and late in the second period, a controversial penalty for interference to Bryan Rust yielded an Edmonton power-play goal and a mere two-goal lead for the final 20 minutes. The players on both teams may have recognized the folly of the call, but Edmonton wasn’t going to give it back, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a power-play goal to pull Edmonton to within 5-3.

However, that was the last goal of the game.

Penguins Xs and Os

In the first period, the Penguins did two things especially well: They collapsed around their net and made the gritty plays in the offensive low zone, swarming the Edmonton net.

Edmonton got the edges and got behind the Penguins’ defense, but the forwards collapsed to the hash marks and were able to block several shots or deny the chances for rebounds.

“One of the things we talked about was making sure that we didn’t give them any easy offense. In other words, we didn’t want to be careless with the puck,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “We didn’t want to get beat out of the deep ice in the offensive zone, letting them ramp up speed with numbers. If they were going to enter our zone, we wanted them to have to go through four or five of us to get there; the importance of staying above the attack and staying above the puck … I thought our guys did a good job.”

Make no mistake: Edmonton is a very good team. It wasn’t that the Penguins made a lot of mistakes as much as Edmonton can make the best defensive schemes look ineffective. The Penguins didn’t dominate the puck in the second period, and Edmonton counterattacked at full speed and ferocity.

“We had to elevate our intensity, try to simplify the game, and play straight ahead. Give Edmonton credit. They’re a dynamic team. I thought we did a good job playing on top of them in the first period,” Sullivan said. “We had a lot of offensive zone time. We scored some goals … we were trying to get to get control of the game and get momentum … I thought in the third period we played a pretty solid game.”

Fast-forward to the third period and the Penguins played a game beyond the chalkboard. They raced after loose pucks, battled in the corners, and were generally hard to play against. The high points were Sidney Crosby outracing Edmonton’s defense to negate an icing and fighting through a bearhug by Evan Bouchard. The second line did its best work of the game by cycling low in the right-wing corner for the entirety of a shift immediately following Crosby’s hardnosed play.

Not only did the Penguins kill some clock while leading by two, but they wore down Edmonton and blunted momentum–exactly how it should be done.

Penguins Report Card

Fair warning: I really liked their performance on Thursday. I enjoyed watching the game immensely. That was high-level competitive hockey. It’s a shame a national TV audience didn’t get to see it because it would have made a few more hockey fans. I saw no bad grades to deliver.

Team: A

The cleanest game? Nope. The most structured? Not a chance. But there was a desperation and determination to defend and get the next puck. That’s the mark of a winning team. Whether or not the Penguins can achieve that designation despite their personnel limitations is an unknown question, but they earned their two points Thursday.

One thing to note: despite blowing a couple of third period leads, the Penguins have indeed played well in recent third periods.

“That kill on (Bunting’s third period) penalty was big. Even in those (recent games we lost), we did a pretty good job in the third,” Crosby said. “We played on our toes and made a couple of mistakes–we still made a couple of mistakes (Thursday), but we then got a block or a save or a kill. And you know, sometimes you’ve got to do that.”

Alex Nedeljkovic: A+

There were so many good saves. The desperation glove throw against Evan Bouchard in the first period, the windmill pad save against Zach Hyman (even though Draisaitl finished the rebound), and numerous slides from post to post. The Penguins embodied Nedeljkovic’s fight, and Nedeljkovic embodied the Penguins’ fight for a solid performance.

Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust: Wow

If they’re not the best line in hockey, they’re close enough. They can score in every way–off the rush, near the crease, and counterattack from stiff defense. They did it all and played against Connor McDavid Thursday.

Owen Pickering-P.O Joseph: A

No goals allowed. Pickering thumped Mattias Janmark at center ice during a particular chippy patch of the game. Joseph skated out of trouble a few times. They didn’t have to guard McDavid too often, but the young guns pairing did their job without struggle.

Bunting-Glass-Beauvillier: Solid

They didn’t score a goal, but they didn’t yield a high-danger chance, either. They got to the net several times and were tough to play against, especially in the third period.