It was starting to look a lot like a familiar trend that's persisted all season.
The Penguins jumped out to an early one-goal lead against the Lightning here at PPG Paints Arena Sunday night, scoring just over three minutes into the game. But like many other games, they quickly squandered that lead, and even found themselves trailing by a goal heading into intermission.
This time, however, they managed to flip the script. A six-goal outburst in the second period was all that was necessary to ride to a second consecutive victory, securing four of four standings points over the weekend.
Dating back to the early stages of last season, the Penguins' goal-scoring rate has generally lagged behind their expected output based on the quality of their chances. That wasn't an issue at all against the Lightning, as they not only benefitted from some puck luck, but capitalized on many of their high-octane chances.
Knotting the score at 2-2 six minutes into the second period was Evgeni Malkin, who immediately atoned for his minor penalty by jumping right out of the sin bin and scoring on a breakaway, magnificently set up by Josh Archibald. It was so great that I broke it down in a Freeze Frame.
There was actually another nine-plus minutes of game action before the onslaught really began, but once it started to rain, it poured.
Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal for his 26th of the season, assisted by Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang:
Even though it came with the man advantage, a goal like that had been building. Prior to that, the Penguins had been moving the puck around the offensive zone with ease and seemed to have Brian Elliott on the edge of imploding.
Turns out, they did.
Not even a minute later, Teddy Blueger got off the schneid with just his second goal all season and first in 33 games. Taylor Haase has more on him busting out of a funk.
Another minute and a half after that, it was Jeff Carter flashing a glimpse of the player the Penguins acquired in the 2020-21 season with an absolute snipe for a 5-2 lead:
It was Carter's first goal and point in eight games and just the second goal he's scored since Jan. 10. He's up to nine goals on the season.
Another 50 seconds passed before Jason Zucker deposited a backhand roof job from in tight on Elliott to make it 6-2:
And to cap off the outburst, it was Brian Dumoulin scoring his first goal of the season with just five seconds left in the period. 7-2, Penguins:
"It was good," Dumoulin said of potting one for the first time since the beginning of 2022. "It was awesome. It felt nice to be able to chip in and help our team. Obviously it’s good to chip in."
Six goals in the second period. Five of them occurred across a span of 4:27, serving as the second-fastest five goals scored in franchise history (first being 2:07 on Nov. 22, 1972 against the Blues).
"It’s good to stay on them," Dumoulin said of how they were able to make it rain. "I thought, consistently, after we scored those goals, we had some great shifts, which obviously led to those goals. Some of the past games, the shift after goals has been huge and momentum builders. I thought we did a good job capitalizing on those and creating some momentum for ourselves."
Don't get me wrong, the Penguins were very, very good that period, but they didn't dominate to some absurd degree in terms of shots or chances, the puck just so happened to be going in.
"I don’t know, sometimes it’s funny how it works like that," Drew O'Connor said. "I think we just responded in a good way after a tough week. I think yesterday was a really good game for us and we just kind of continued that today, and obviously that second period was great for us."
Mike Sullivan agreed with O'Connor's sentiments, albeit in longer, nuanced form.
"What I will say is, I think, when you look at the last handful of games that we’ve played, we’ve generated a fair amount of scoring chances," he said. "I don’t think our team got rewarded for them for the amount of quality looks that we’ve had. Tonight, we had some looks that we were able to finish on. So, maybe in that regard from a process standpoint, just trying to play the game the right way, trying to get to the net, trying to make it hard on the goaltender’s that we’re playing against, as far as picking up sightlines and just getting to the blue paint, making it hard.
"I think we’ve generated a lot of quality looks here over the last handful of games. It’s nice that our guys got rewarded tonight for it, for sure. And I do think that, from a process standpoint, if we continue to play that way and get those types of looks, eventually the puck’s gonna go in the net for us."
JUSTIN BERL / GETTY
Bryan Rust is trailed by Brayden Point in the first period Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Here's O'Connor's first-period tally, opening the scoring for his fourth of the season:
He now has points in back-to-back games for the second time this season.
He'll never by an overly dynamic player, but it seems like O'Connor is figuring out how to make plays while still embracing the straight-ahead, gritty game Sullivan is requiring of him. He had several semi-threatening zone entries that might otherwise have been stymied earlier in the season.
"I think I’m playing more confidently," O'Connor said after the game. "That comes with more minutes, more games you play. You get more comfortable out there, so I think I’ve been playing a little bit more confident, for sure."
• Malkin is in beast mode right now. After a goal and an assist Sunday for a third consecutive two-point game, he's up to 23 goals and 39 assists in 59 games. That's a 31-goal, 86-point pace over a full season for the 36-year-old, who, by the way, hasn't missed a game all season. The last time he played all 82 games was the 2008-09 season.
It wasn't just the individual production for Malkin on Sunday, as he had the most dazzling on-ice metrics of all forwards. During his 16:18 of 5-on-5 action, the Penguins outscored the Lightning, 3-0, out-attempted them, 23-9, and controlled 62.1% of the expected goals.
• Malkin's last one-point performance was on Jan. 8 in Arizona. No, seriously. He has 11 multi-point performances in 20 games since then (11 goals, 16 assists). There was a stinker or two sprinkled in somewhere during that stretch, but for the most part, I'd say he's been doing just as much as Crosby to try and drag this team along.
• Marcus Pettersson is another skater on fire right now, as he's surely enjoying a bit of a boost from his newfound dad strength. He scored his first goal all season in St. Louis Saturday, adding an assist in the process. He recorded another two-point game Sunday with a pair of helpers. That marks the first time in his career he's had back-to-back multi-point games.
The Penguins absolutely feasted during his 5-on-5 ice time against the Lightning, outscoring them, 4-1, out-attempting them, 24-10, and controlling 79.1% of the expected goals in 17:16 of work. They have a 6-1 advantage in goals with him on the ice at full-strength over the last two games.
• Jeff Petry also picked up a pair of assists, both coming on the same goals that Pettersson had assists. He has assists in four of his last five games and five of his last seven. He hasn't scored in 15 games since returning from injury, but he does have 10 assists during that time, and only three of them have come on the power play.
Regardless of any production, it seems like we're getting closer to seeing the offensive impact from Petry that was expected when he was acquired from the Canadiens over the offseason. I've noticed him looking to make plays with the puck on his stick a bit more frequently than he was early on. Part of that was to be expected as he adjusted to a new system and environment, but I still believe the offensive upgrade he is over John Marino will pay dividends, if that isn't happening already.
• Game management has been an issue this season. The Penguins were tied or had a lead in 11 of their last 19 losses. They took a five-goal lead into the third period, so it would've been hard to add insult to injury in that regard, but I still followed up with Sullivan to see what he thought of his team's performance in the final 20.
"For the most part, yes," Sullivan responded when asked if he was pleased. "We had a couple of moments where I thought we could have made some better decisions so we don’t put ourselves in difficult spots. And so, for the most part, I thought we managed the game pretty well. And that’s an important aspect of winning; understanding situational play. When you have a lead, you don’t necessarily have to manufacture things. We wanna continue to try to score, but we have to do it the right way."
• Crosby (goal, assist) and Letang (two assists) each had two points, as well.
• I made a comment during Saturday's game that, even though he's having a truly great season, it's been slightly disappointing to watch the frequency in which Crosby relinquishes possession or gets rid of the puck on occasion. That was mostly referring to some of the plays he's been making upon entering the offensive zone, but it also applies to passing in obvious shooting situations.
That happened during the first period, and it came back to bite in the form of a Lightning goal:
During 4-on-4 action, Crosby made a great move by getting to the inside and taking advantage of open ice on his way to the net, but tried to force a pass to Guentzel instead of firing on target. The pass was deflected, and then the Lightning raced down the ice and scored.
• One of only two skaters not to attempt a shot (the other being Archibald), Brock McGinn yet again went without a point. His point drought has now reached 26 games. That's simply astonishing. It's not like he's been buried on the fourth line in an extremely limited role, either. He's been on the third line for the vast majority of the streak. To not even pick up a secondary assist just from being on the ice during that time seems nearly impossible.
Don't expect it to happen, but I would heavily consider finding a way to get him off the books as part of a larger trade, or even waiving him to get some cap relief on his hard-to-swallow $2.75 million cap hit ... that runs for another two seasons after this one. He is not particularly hard to play against even when he is playing well and, outside of solid defensive impacts at even-strength and improbably scoring rush goals at will once a season, he's not providing much. I get that he's tasked with Carter as his center, but he has no shots in two of his last three games and just six shots in his last 10. Empty sweater right now.
• Casey DeSmith started in goal and made 26 saves on 29 shots against.
• Bryan Rust, somehow, was the only skater on either team who wasn't on the ice for at least one 5-on-5 goal, meaning for or against. Weird sport. He finished second on the team with five shots. Zucker had six.
• Rickard Rakell led the team in hits with four. He also took more hits than anyone on either side (six).
• All of Crosby, Malkin, Carter and Blueger were at or above 50% at the faceoff dot.
• The Penguins currently sit in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 29-21-9 record and .568 points percentage. The Sabres currently have a .569 points percentage with a game in hand. The Red Wings are coming out of nowhere as a potential threat at .552. Also in range are the Islanders (.548) and Panthers (.525). It's going to be a tight race.
• Musician Donnie Iris was hosted by the team to sing the national anthem prior to puck drop. He turns 80 on Feb. 28. Something tells me Crosby will be lobbying for him to sing the anthem prior to every home game until they lose again. I'm kidding ... sort of.
• Thanks, as always, for reading!
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
2. Brian Dumoulin, Penguins D
3. Teddy Blueger, Penguins C
THE INJURIES
• Forward Ryan Poehling has missed the last seven games with the same nagging upper-body injury that he's been dealing with off and on since December. He skated Sunday morning.
• Defenseman Mark Friedman suffered an undisclosed injury on Feb. 11. He has been skating with the team, and skated on his own Sunday morning.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
And for Jon Cooper's Lightning:
Brandon Hagel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos - Anthony Cirelli - Alex Killorn
Ross Colton - Nicholas Paul - Patrick Maroon
Vladislav Namestnikov - Pierre-Edouard Bellemarre - Corey Perry
Victor Hedman - Ian Cole
Mikhail Sergachev - Nicklaus Perbix
Haydn Fleury - Zach Bogosian
THE SCHEDULE
Monday is a travel day for the Penguins. They'll head to Nashville in advance of their Tuesday night matchup with the Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Taylor and Dejan Kovacevic are making the trip.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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