Penguins Grades: Slow Start, Pretty Plays & Another Dominant 3rd Period Win (+)

It’s one of the best stretches in franchise history. The Pittsburgh Penguins have won six in a row and 17 of their last 19 games while remarkably not playing their best hockey. They slumbered through 40 minutes before blowing past the Arizona Coyotes in the third period for a 6-3 win at PPG Paints Arena.

Sidney Crosby had one goal and three points including a no-look pass through his legs to Bryan Rust, who also had three points. Kris Letang had two goals, and Evan Rodrigues had two primary assists.

Brian Boyle also scored a jaw-dropper in front of the net by pulling the puck behind him and chipping it top shelf.

“The fact that he’s chipping in offensively has five goals to this point. It’s impressive. The goal he gets tonight is impressive. And around the net front, he has great hand-eye coordination,” Sullivan said. “He gets a stick on a lot of pucks with deflections, and he’s so big and strong he can move them in that area…”

“…Quite honestly, I don’t put him in a position to score a lot of goals. He doesn’t get a lot of ozone starts. And so we put him in difficult situations. The fact that he scored five goals at this point, I think it’s impressive.”

The chalkboard was again an evolving story of a Penguins awakening. We’ll dive into the topic on Wednesday, but the Penguins are getting a habit of playing their best when they need to, but not playing great hockey until then.

They’re that good right now.

We’ll also dish some very good grades, but some ghost marks to players who didn’t answer the bell. The Penguins top line and fourth line were the best all night.