Teams that hold playoff spots on Thanksgiving morning have about an 80 percent chance of qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Despite their best efforts on Wednesday night, the Penguins woke up this morning and are still not in the top eight of the Eastern Conference. They are a .500 team and, even after putting up a five spot, now have just a plus-2 goal differential.
All that said, the Penguins will rightfully enjoy some turkey with all the fixings, or at least enjoy their short charter flight up to Boston on Thanksgiving Day.
In the bigger picture, this 5-1 drubbing of the undermanned Stars really doesn't change too much, at least for now.
But, man, was it cathartic.
The Penguins washed away about three weeks of bad turnovers and even worst goaltending to earn just their second win in the last 25 days.
Secondary scoring might still be an issue but the Penguins will gladly overlook that after receiving all of their goals from five different members of their top six. In order, Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist and Tanner Pearson netted goals for the Penguins, who, if nothing else, ended a four-game slide and are now at 8-8-4.
It was not mere coincidence, however, that the Penguins' skid ended on the night that Crosby made a triumphant return from a three-game absence due to an upper body injury.
As he's done for the better part of the last 14 seasons, Crosby simply put the Penguins on his 5-foot-11 and 200-pound shoulders and carried them when he had to. Mike Sullivan and the 18,430 who packed PPG Paints Arena for the annual pre-Thanksgiving game should hardly be surprised.
"I think our team gets a foot taller when he's in our lineup, with the inspiration that he is for our group," Sullivan was saying. "He's not only a great player, I think that's obvious, everyone sees that, but he's a terrific teammate. He cares so much about the Penguins and trying to help this team win. When he's in our lineup, like he is tonight, I think his game was inspiring."
Perhaps it was Crosby who was inspired. Earlier Wednesday, Dallas coach Jim Montgomery was eagerly talking up a matchup with Crosby against his top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov.
"I told our top line, ‘Hopefully, I can get you guys out against him,’ because I want our best against the best,” Montgomery was saying following the morning skate.
Afterward, Montgomery had to fall on his proverbial sword, taking full responsibility for Dallas' biggest loss this season in terms of margin of defeat.
"I don't think I prepared our team well enough," he said. "We weren't ready to dig in. We weren't ready to win faceoffs. .. Ultimately, that preparation falls on the head coach."
To be fair, Montgomery might have been a little too hard on himself. This was not the first, nor the last time that Crosby has dissected a team.
With his goal and two assists, the captain recorded his second three-point game of the season and the 129th of his career. That tied him with Jaromir Jagr for the most three-plus point games in franchise history. Some guy named Mario Lemieux is still the all-time leader with 272.
"Their big guns were going, and made a difference," said Benn, Dallas' captain. "You come into these games and want to shut the best in the world down, and it obviously didn't happen tonight."
Crosby, reunited with old linemates Guentzel and Hornqvist, not only won the matchup with Benn and the Stars, they dominated in every metric. The trio accounted for 10 shots on goal while Crosby's Corsi For percentage of 75.00 at 5-on-5 was bettered only by Hornqvist's 77.78.
Case in point was the Penguins' first goal.
At the 3:58 mark, Crosby skated the puck around the left faceoff circle and whistled a no-look, backhanded pass 40 feet to the right circle where Guentzel fired a one-timer through Anton Khudobin's five-hole with Hornqvist providing a distraction in front:
Prior to the Penguins' loss in Ottawa last weekend, Hornqvist said it might take one shift to turn the season around. Well, it didn't happen against the Senators and whether the Penguins actually right their ship remains to be seen, but if they do, that shift might be it.
Since Crosby teamed with Malkin in 2006-07, the Penguins have never missed the playoffs. If Wednesday's any indication, they'd like to keep that streak going.
Two minutes after Guentzel scored, Malkin scored on the power play and four minutes after that Crosby scored on a remarkable drive to the net (see below) to make it 3-0 going into the first intermission.
"They have got some of the best players in the world," Montgomery said, before correcting himself. "They have the best player in the world, maybe the second-best player in the world. They had way too much time and space to make plays."
That was all the support that Casey DeSmith would need.
Unlike Monday's loss to Buffalo, the Penguins didn't fritter away another sizable lead. Making his second straight start, DeSmith turned aside 18 of 19 Dallas shots -- including a Seguin breakaway -- for the win.
"It's definitely a different type of game for a goalie," DeSmith said. "We came out flying and, obviously, happy we did. We jumped out to a big lead. I think that momentum was something we really needed to get, and rode it."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
Who else would it be?
2. Patric Hornqvist
Penguins right winger
Scored his ninth of the season, tying Crosby for team lead and was -- as Jack Johnson said -- his usual "pain in the ass."
3. Casey DeSmith
Penguins goaltender
Now has two career wins vs. Stars while making just 35 combined saves.
THE INJURIES
• Penguins: Matt Cullen, center, is out longer term with a lower body injury. Justin Schultz, defenseman, is expected to miss four months after fracturing his leg Oct. 13 in Montreal.
• Stars: Ben Bishop, goalie, was out and will miss at least a week with a lower body injury sustained Monday vs. the Rangers. John Klingberg, defenseman, is expected to miss a month with a broken hand. Western Pa. native Stephen Johns, defenseman, has been out all season with post-concussion symptoms. Martin Hanzal, forward, has missed all 21 games with a back injury. Connor Carrick, defenseman, is out with a lower body injury. Marc Methot, defenseman, has been out since Nov. 3 with a lower body injury.
THE GOOD
Obviously, there's plenty to like from Sullivan's emphasis on defense and better breakouts, but the most pleasant development has been the fairly seamless addition of Pearson into the lineup.
He now has scored goals in his last two games, eclipsing in four games what Carl Hagelin scored in 16 games before being traded to Los Angeles.
Pearson put the finishing touches on Khudobin, who was pulled in favor of Landon Bow after the Penguins' fifth goal at 8:52 of the second period:
It was the first time the Penguins, who had averaged just 2.40 goals over their previous 10 games, chased a starting goalie since Oct. 25 at Calgary. Coincidentally, that was the last time that the Penguins had Crosby, Malkin and Derick Brassard in the lineup.
Playing alongside Malkin and Kessel, Pearson has shown good chemistry and, now, even a booming slap shot. With the talent around him, the goals should keep coming -- but maybe not via the slapper.
"It was actually funny, it wasn't the same goalie, it was the same team, at home in L.A. and did a slapper and went short side there," Pearson, who hadn't scored in consecutive games since last March 12-13 of last year, was telling me. "I don't usually take slap shots. I'm not one to do it, but today it worked out."
THE BAD
Just to keep things in perspective: On Thanksgiving Day a year ago the Penguins were 11-9-3. The year before that -- the year they won their second straight Cup -- they were 12-5-3. The year before that they were 13-8-0 and soon to swap Mikes, Johnston for Sullivan.
The Penguins are now 8-8-4. They haven't seen that kind of start since Crosby's rookie year in 2005-06 when they were 7-9-6 on Nov. 24.
Wednesday night's win, which improved their record to 23-15-8 in their annual Thanksgiving Eve game, will mean nothing if they don't start stacking wins. They are still six points out of the final wildcard spot but Hornqvist said this was the win that could propel his team.
"For sure ... over 60 minutes, I think that was the best game we've played all year," he said. "We didn't give them much and controlled the territory. We were the better team."
THE PLAY
Crosby's backhanded assist on Guentzel's goal, impressive as it was, was only his second-best play of the night.
At 10:04 of the second, Crosby took a Guentzel chip at the offensive blue line and, sensing only one defender on him, drove to the net on his backhand. Full credit to Khudobin, who, unlike the Flames' Mike Smith and the Oilers' Cam Talbot, two of the most recent victims of the NHL's most lethal backhand, the Stars' goalie easily made the stop on the no-angle shot.
However, Crosby kept driving across the goal mouth. With Esa Lindell on his back, he managed to kick the puck up to his stick and put a forehand shot off Khudobin and in to make it 3-0.
"Just try to take it to the net and be aggressive when there's opportunity and when there's space," Crosby said. "A loose puck like that, try to get speed into it and then had some room to take it to the net. Sometimes they go in. Sometimes you get a save. Sometimes you draw a penalty. It was good to see it go in."
In the pantheon of Crosby's highlight reel goals this one probably doesn't crack the top 20, but the edge work and feet-eye coordination required -- and to do it at speed -- makes it fairly remarkable.
"It's a very athletic play," Johnson told me. "For him to be able to track the puck, with a guy all over him, keep control of his body like that, it's a testament of how great an athlete he is."
THE CALL
Brett Ritchie, all 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds of him, had been in and out of the Stars' lineup over the past month due to ineffective play or injury.
Clearly, Ritchie was trying to make an impression on Montgomery and the Dallas coaching staff on Wednesday. In the opening minute of the second period, Ritchie took a tripping call after he slew-footed Crosby.
That, however, was nothing compared to the penalty he took four minutes later.
At 4:55, Ritchie took a boarding minor for absolutely crushing Juuso Riikola along the boards near the scorer's table. It easily could have been a major as Ritchie skated about 40 feet to drive Riikola into the glass long after the defenseman had already passed the puck. Count for yourself how many Mississippis:
Riikola missed the remainder of the second period while being examined. A teammate said that the 24-year-old Finn had only had the wind knocked out of him. He did return for the start of the third period and even jostled with the much-bigger Ritchie, who took a series of vicious crosschecks to the back courtesy of Johnson.
It will be interesting to see whether the Department of Player Safety will look to review it.
THE OTHER SIDE
When the Stars acquired Ben Bishop in the spring of 2017, many prognosticators pegged the Stars to win the Stanley Cup last year.
That didn't happen when Dallas faltered badly down the stretch after Bishop went out with a knee injury. In his place, Kari Lehtonen went 0-7-1.
In signing Khudobin this summer, the Stars wanted an insurance policy. He's been a solid backup this season going 3-3 with a solid .925 save percentage.
However, Khudobin and the Stars ran into a buzzsaw on Wednesday. He allowed five goals on just 15 shots (hey, that sounds familiar!). With Bishop out at least a week, it's up to Khudobin to pick up the pieces, and quickly.
The Stars, who are playing seven of eight games on the road, play back-to-back games Friday (vs. the Senators) and Saturday (at the Avalanche).
"We've just got to refocus and go win that (next) game," said veteran center Jason Spezza. "We know it's a different style of game with some of the guys out, but we've had some success offensively with them in, so we need to find a way to get back to it."
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice at noon on Thursday in Cranberry. Afterward, they'll travel to Boston where they'll take on the Bruins at 7:30 on Friday night. I'll have your coverage every step of the way.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Stars, PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 21, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS