From the diehards in the nosebleeds to the bandwagoneers down in the lower bowl, hats in every style and color -- but mostly black and gold, of course -- rained down on the ice at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.
At 15:54 of the second period, Jake Guentzel buried a rebound to put the finishing touches on the third hat trick of his career. In itself, that is a fairly noteworthy accomplishment.
What made Saturday night's HT remarkable though is that it, get this, didn't occur in an April playoff game.
Guentzel's three-goal game in the Penguins' impressive 4-2 win over the Metropolitan Division-leading Blue Jackets was the first of his 144-game regular-season career. It was also his first at home after turning playoff tricks on April 16, 2017 and a four-goal game last April 22 at Philadelphia.
Guentzel said he didn't know what fate was in store for all the hats that were collected but, hey, "It's always nice to get one in front of your fans.”
Judging solely by his postseason numbers, Guentzel isn't just a star in the league, he's a legend. He's averaged 1.14 points with an astonishing 23 goals in 37 career playoff games. In the regular season though, Guentzel has been just good, hardly great. From mid-October to mid-April, the notoriously streaky scorer has averaged just .67 points per game.
That maddening discrepancy has even led to recent speculation that he could be dealt if the Penguins continue to sputter, though they have now won two of three games and have points in four straight. Guentzel would certainly bring a good return, but a team that is in win-now mode isn't going to move a proven playoff performer who, by the way, is also now their leading goal scorer this season.
With his 11 goals, he now has half the career-best 22 he scored in 82 games last season. And that's after Guentzel had two high-danger chances denied Friday night in Boston by the glove hand of Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak. The difference this time, Mike Sullivan said, was simple.
"He always ends up, when we track the scoring chances and scoring chances involvement, every night he's on it in some capacity," the coach said. "Sometimes the puck goes in for him, other times it doesn't. We just have to focus on the process of playing the right way, Jake included. And hopefully, more often than not, we'll get rewarded with the results, as far as goals for."
OK, so maybe now is not the time to quibble about when Guentzel scores. For a team that had lost 10 of its previous 12 and averaged just 2.5 goals per game over that span, they'll gladly take any scoring they can get.
But it is clearly welcomed news that Guentzel is starting to heat up. His ninth, 10th and 11th goals of the season now give him five in the past four games.
Why now?
"I don't know, pucks kind of keep finding me and they're just going in right now," he said. "Just got to try and ride it as long as you can."
To be sure, Guentzel was the beneficiary of some exquisite passes from Sidney Crosby, the first goal in particular:
But also, to be sure, Guentzel is clearly more than just the captain's caddy. He's not Crosby's answer to Warren Young or Rob Brown. If it were that easy to play with Crosby, he might be paired with Phil Kessel or someone else. With Patric Hornqvist out of the lineup with a concussion, sustained Friday night, many were wondering who would play the right wing on the top line. There was never a doubt who would be on the left.
"We've tended to move different guys around the right side, but we've always felt that he's had pretty good chemistry with Jake," Sullivan said. "That's why he's played there for the amount of time that he has."
To succeed with Crosby, you not only have to have the requisite speed to keep up, but also the vision to see the game the way the captain does. As impressive as Guentzel's three-goal outburst was, they don't paint a full picture of what he can do when he's on top of his game.
"Even when he doesn't score, he plays the game the right way," Sullivan said. "He's good on the wall. He's got great hockey sense. He's a good penalty killer. We used him tonight at the end of the game with Sid. He just has a high intellect and reads plays well."
Case in point: This was from the first period when Guentzel was in on the backcheck when he disrupted what would have been a good scoring chance for Pierre-Luc DuBois and Cam Atkinson, and then setting one up the other way:
And this was Guentzel in the second, getting in on this relentless forecheck on Artemi Panarin:
At the end of the proverbial day, Guentzel is not the most physically gifted player, but he is a natural goal scorer. That's how he's carved his niche. And it's what the Penguins need him to do more consistently.
"Obviously when he scores like he does tonight, he helps us win," Sullivan said. "He's definitely a guy we're going to rely on moving forward but, obviously, he had a strong game tonight."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Jake Guentzel
Penguins left winger
Four shots, three of them found the back of the net.
2. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
Couple of pretty nice assists. Ho-hum.
3. Kris Letang
Penguins defenseman
Ties Brooks Orpik for most games with Penguins at his position, records three assists.
THE INJURIES
• Penguins: Patric Hornqvist, right winger, missed his first game after being diagnosed with a concussion suffered Friday in Boston. Matt Murray, goaltender, missed his second game with a lower body injury. He is out "longer term." Matt Cullen, center, is also 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.
• Blue Jackets: None.
THE GOOD
From the free-agent signings of Jack Johnson and Matt Cullen to the lack of depth at the AHL level, it's become fashionable in some circles to bash Jim Rutherford for the general manager's construction of this year's team. While Rutherford isn't beyond criticism, his trade of Carl Hagelin for Tanner Pearson is starting to look good.
Pearson does not make the Penguins any faster because there just aren't too many faster than Hagelin. But Pearson has given the second line with Evgeni Malkin and Kessel a different look. It's probably too early to say it's a better line, but it's certainly trending that way.
Pearson brings a bigger body who can hang on to pucks and is good around the net. Most importantly, he's shown the ability to score, which is something Hagelin just wasn't doing enough of considering the talent around him. Pearson was a 24-goal scorer while centered by Jeff Carter in Los Angeles and seems to be maximizing his opportunity in Pittsburgh.
At 5:59 of the second period, Malkin won an offensive zone draw vs. Boone Jenner back to Kessel, who threw a hard snap shot on Joonas Korpisalo, but the Blue Jackets goalie kicked out a big rebound to the left of the net where Pearson was camped out to bang it in. It was his third goal in the last four games.
"He's different than what we've had in the past but a guy we thought could be a complementary player and has the ability to finish," Sullivan said.
THE BAD
If ever -- ever -- there was a chance for Daniel Sprong to play in a meaningful top-six role, Saturday figured to be it when Sullivan announced that Hornqvist would be out with a concussion. With a vacancy at the right wing, Sprong would have seemed an attractive candidate.
Sullivan might be desperate but, apparently, not that desperate. Instead, it was Dominik Simon who skated with Crosby and Guentzel.
As he's been all season -- at least when he hasn't been a healthy scratch -- Sprong skated on the fourth line with Garrett Wilson and Riley Sheahan. In 39 combined games, that trio had accounted for one goal — Sheahan's vs. Montreal, 18 games ago.
However, Sheahan and Sprong did have a glorious chance with a little over five minutes to play in the opening period. After a couple slick give-and-gos, Sprong fed Sheahan but he couldn't convert:
Save for a drop pass to no one in particular, Sprong actually gave his best showing to date. More tellingly, he played just 7:35.
THE PLAY
Guentzel's first goal. No question. See Drive to the Net.
THE CALL
For a split second, the Blue Jackets thought they had pulled to within a goal with 9:15 remaining in the second period. Alexander Wennberg fired a shot past Casey DeSmith but referee Dan O'Halloran immediately waved it off.
DeSmith was unable to push off left to right much less stop the puck with Anthony Duclair draped on his back. Duclair was already in the blue paint when he took a bump from Johnson. Columbus did not challenge the ruling.
And that was just the first goal of the second period that was disallowed.
With 4.9 seconds remaining, Kessel pushed a Pearson shot past Korpisalo that would have given the Penguins a 5-2 lead. However, John Tortorella challenged that the play was offsides. Which it was. As Pearson gained the offensive zone, Kessel failed to drag his right skate on the blue line.
THE OTHER SIDE
Tortorella was saying 90 minutes before the puck dropped that the Penguins weren't dead yet. A few hours later, he was proven correct.
His Blue Jackets dropped their eighth in a row against the Penguins, postseason included. They haven't won a game in Pittsburgh since Nov. 13, 2015.
The Blue Jackets lost on Saturday after jumping out to a 1-0 lead on Scott Harrington's goal at 5:14 of the first. They had been 7-1 when scoring first. But Tortorella said his team was not intimidated in the least.
“Just be careful how you judge it, because we had some good minutes,” Tortorella said after the game. “I don’t buy the crap about an aura around that team. There’s no feeling in our room about that.”
Cam Atkinson accounted for Columbus' other goal. He has now scored in seven straight games.
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have an off-day Sunday. They will return to practice at 11 a.m. Monday in Cranberry, then have back-to-back road games Tuesday and Wednesday, in Winnipeg and Denver.
THE COVERAGE
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