MONTREAL -- Sidney Patrick Crosby's not exactly the type for training wheels.
Sid the Kid was only Sid the Relative Infant, all of three years old, when he began skating here in his home and native land, over in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. And he's kinda done OK for himself since then, as well, almost always as the literal center of attention. Little help needed, even less sought.
But his current situation, as he'd acknowledge Thursday night at Bell Centre after finally getting to score his first goal of the season in the Penguins' 6-0 crushing of the Canadiens, comes with no real precedent in his NHL career.
Meaning, of course, offseason wrist surgery, a month missed of the regular season, one game back, then another couple weeks missed for COVID. And now, chugging uphill to catch up.
"I'm still learning, and this is a new scenario for me to go through," the captain would say. "I mean, I've come back from injury but never that long missing camp and going through stuff with the virus. So it's hard to be patient. But you kind of have to be. And it's a lot easier when you get a win to kind of get through it."
Get through it?
Meet Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel, the new training wheels, going a good bit further:
That entire sequence is so gorgeous that even here, where Quebec's known as La Belle Province and where a romance language is the preferred tongue, it'd be tough to assign an apt description.
It opens with Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry clumsily coughing up the puck at the Pittsburgh blue line, then Mike Matheson poking ahead to Rust. Next, Rust transforms it into an odd-man break by flat-out burning Brendan Gallagher in a footrace, before he backhands a pass across to Guentzel that probably should've brought in a shot but instead ... wow, it wound up a one-touch pass worthy of the recipient.
"I was just trying to get up in the play," Crosby replied when I asked what was going through his mind while those two went to work. "I mean, it's easy, sometimes, not too long, just to watch and be a spectator and hope it goes in."
For real. He said that.
"But yeah," he proceeded, "I was just trying to get up in the play if a pass broken up or a puck laid there, just gonna try to clean it up. And they made a great play, Rusty to Guentz, and then Guentz made a great play to find me there and I had an open net."
I asked if he called for that last one.
"I didn't call for it, no, I thought Guentz was going to put it in. But he made a great look to me there."
This is significant.
And this whole event might've been that, truth be told.
Because this win, the Penguins' first in regulation since Oct. 23, after which they'd plunge into a 2-6-2 slump that'd see them squeeze out all of 19 goals, mattered mostly from the standpoint that Todd Reirden had presented thusly following the morning skate: "We need to get two points while we're here in Montreal."
Blunt and boring, but not a lie:
DKPS
Listen, it's barely mid-November, but every point counts the same in the NHL standings regardless of when it's accrued. One can reasonably expect, given the caliber of competition in the Metro and, really, across the Eastern Conference, that others will continue accruing their own at a healthy pace. And as such, any notion that the Penguins could simply out-pesky their opponents while buying time for Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and all the other injuries and ailments, that's already buried.
So, when the team put together maybe its most dominant period of the season Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena by outshooting the Sabres, 20-3, but still finished on the wrong end of a 2-1 score, that isn't enough.
This result, even though it came against a 4-13-2 Montreal team that's been by far the league's most disappointing, represented everything that was needed in the moment.
Those two points.
Contributions up and down the depth chart, notably two goals from Teddy Blueger, one each from Danton Heinen and Brock McGinn.
A sound overall commitment to 200-foot hockey, outshooting the Canadiens, 43-23, and owning five-on-five possession with 56.2% of the shot attempts and 12 of the 18 high-danger changes.
A shutout by Tristan Jarry, bouncing back in a spirited way -- more on this below -- from his two lowest save-percentage performances of the season.
But maybe above all, a reminder from Rust, Guentzel and, yeah, that other guy that there's still ample skill at hand that'll rise up. Because let's never forget the ground upon which this particular franchise is grounded.
"Yeah, it's great to get everybody going. You know, points, goals," Kris Letang replied when I asked him the same. "You know, sometimes you have them, sometimes you don't, but guys are so close to a breakout, and it's fun to get rewarded in that regard. When you see guys on the scoring sheet, it's good. It's a good confidence-booster."
For the collective, he meant. And anyone who's ever been part of hockey at any level would attest to the same.
So, if it takes Rust and Guentzel to help Sid get rolling, that's all right. Plenty of precedent suggests they'll catch themselves doing their own spectating soon enough.
"It's getting better every game," Sid would say of his own status. He, Letang, Zach Aston-Reese and Mike Sullivan are known to have been hit hardest by COVID symptoms among the Penguins. "In Washington, I didn't feel great. And I didn't expect to. And then, against Buffalo, I thought it felt better as the game went on. Tonight, it started off a little better."
Just wait.
Better yet, don't.
GETTY
Tristan Jarry stops the Canadiens' Jonathan Drouin on a point-blank chance Thursday night in Montreal.
• As promised: Jarry was terrific both on and off the ice.
The Canadiens came out skating hard to start each of the first two periods, believe it or not, and the first few minutes saw a handful of point-blank chances, a couple accompanied by thick traffic, that Jarry did well to reject.
Maybe more impressive, I'd say, he spoke afterward as if he'd found a little extra fire, fresh off a couple of struggles.
"I think it's just the bit of a sour taste coming from Washington," he said, referring to the 6-1 loss last Sunday in D.C. "You never want to give up six goals, and I think that's something that I kind of took personally ... something that I want to improve upon. I think just the last two games, Buffalo and then today, I thought I was better."
Trust me, that's General George S. Patton by Jarry standards.
So was his next answer, when I asked if he could handle this heavy workload, having started eight of the past nine games and having logged the third-most minutes in the NHL.
"Yeah, it's fun. It's been awesome," Jarry came back, with a beaming smile I'm certain was new to me. "I had stretches where I played quite a few games last year, but it's different. You're back to all the travel, you're playing different teams and every night it's something new. So you're not just playing your eight divisional games anymore. I think it's it's exciting when you get to play a new team every night."
If anyone's seen the real Jarry, contact the FBI immediately.
• Jarry was the best player on the ice, Rust the best skater.
• Sullivan wasn't able to cross into Canada in time for this game, per the country's COVID regulations at the border, but he'll be at practice Friday in Toronto.
Think he'll be eager to put this episode behind him?
Sullivan had the team arrange a virtual connection with the coaching staff here so they could communicate between periods. Not directly with the players -- Reirden did that -- but to exchange ideas based on what he was watching from afar.
• This is a regular reminder that Blueger's a really good, self-made player who won't be outworked.
This is a not-as-regular reminder that Ron Hextall and Brian Burke were right to protect him from the Kraken.
And these are both of Blueger's goals on this night:
Questions?
• Does everyone who raves every time Jared McCann and/or Brandon Tanev score in Seattle realize that Heinen and McGinn, their essential replacements, have now totaled nine combined goals, as well?
That's very good for bottom-six duty. Which is what McCann and/or Tanev would be getting on a non-expansion roster.
Look, I wasn't wild about either acquisition, but I'll give due where it's deserved.
• Fifteen seconds of Letang answering a question in French:
Nothing to add. Just one of the countless things that make hockey special.
• Minutes later, I jokingly asked Sid when he entered the room, ‘En Francais?’ because he used to give answers in French many years ago. He laughed and begged off, as I knew he would. He isn't as comfortable with it as he once was.
But when the Montreal reporters thanked him in French on the way out, he turned at the door and gave a ‘Bienvenue!’ Everyone loved it.
• Super-cool statistic, courtesy of Sid's goal here:
NHL
That should surprise no one anywhere. He's done a bunch of both.
• Many times as I've been here, I hadn't heard the home faithful booing their beloved Habs. But that's how far the franchise has fallen since stirringly reaching the Stanley Cup Final a mere few months ago.
"We didn't play together," Dominique Ducharme, the head coach, said. "We were not on our game. We were bad."
End analysis.
• That aside, it's wonderful to be back in Canada for the first time in two years, and that much more wonderful to experience the NHL's biggest building filled again.
Evidence can be found behind the floating press box in the steepest seats I've seen in any sporting venue aside from the old barn in Hershey, Pa.:
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Upper deck, Bell Centre, Montreal, Thursday night.
Nuts, right?
And yeah, they're steeper than the old F-level at the Civic Arena. Lean forward, and it feels like one's life is imperiled.
Whatever. Again, nice to see. There's no city like this when it comes to hockey, and no amount of trashy starts could change that.
• Two-minute tour of the floating press box, which has to be traversed to be believed:
• Merci d'avoir lu, comme toujours!
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at the Bell Centre:
1. Teddy Blueger, Penguins
2. Jake Guentzel, Penguins
3. Kris Letang, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Evan Rodrigues, center, skated off the ice in apparent pain in this game's final shift. But Reirden downplayed it, saying, "I think he's going to be OK. Just a play at the end of the game that I don't anticipate will be a problem."
• Evgeni Malkin, center, is expected to miss the first two months of the season while recovering from knee surgery. He has been skating with Ty Hennes in Cranberry and didn't accompany the team on this trip.
THE LINEUPS
Reirden’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Carter-Kapanen
Simon-Rodrigues-Heinen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
And for Dominique Ducharme's Canadiens:
Toffoli-Suzuki-Gallagher
Drouin-Dvorak-Anderson
Lehkonen-Evans-Armia
Pezzetta-Poehling-Belzile
Chiarot-Jeff Petry
Kulak-Savard
Romanov-Wideman
THE SCHEDULE
I'm flying down to Toronto early Friday morning -- like, before sunrise -- in time to cover a noon practice at Scotiabank Arena. The game against the Maple Leafs is Saturday, 7:10 p.m., at Scotiabank Arena. Hockey Night in Canada 'n' at.
THE CONTENT
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
