Penguins 'hold our own destiny in our hands' after vital win vs. Flyers

The Penguins' 4-2 win over the Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday evening didn't exactly save the season.

But it was a good win, even if it came against a non-playoff opponent missing a couple key players and starting an AHL goaltender.

It was a much-needed win, too. The Penguins' 4-3 loss to the Bruins on Saturday and the Panthers' subsequent 7-0 obliteration of the Blue Jackets had knocked the Penguins out of a playoff position. Whereas Sunday evening couldn't have gone better, with the Penguins earning two points and the Islanders losing to the Hurricanes, 2-1, in regulation.

With five games left, the Penguins know they're in control.

"Everybody's keeping track of the standings," Casey DeSmith said after Sunday's win. "But I think it's most important to just focus on ourselves. We hold our own destiny in our hands right now. As long as we keep playing well and keep winning, we'll put ourselves in a good spot. I think the focus just needs to stay on ourselves."

The Penguins have a mixed bag of contenders for division titles and contenders for Connor Bedard to wrap up the regular-season schedule. On Tuesday they'll travel to Newark, N.J. to face the Devils, who sit three points out of the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. On Thursday, they'll have a home game against the Wild, who occupy the top spot in the Central Division. The last games of the season are against the Red Wings -- who are tied for the 9th-fewest points in the league -- then the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks, who are in a tight battle for the NHL's worst record.

The Penguins aren't looking at those as gimmes. They don't have to look back too far -- just last Tuesday's debacle in Detroit -- to see just how easily things can go haywire against a lesser opponent. The things that sunk the Penguins in that game were their own terrible start, sub-par goaltending, and lazy penalties. Those are three game-breakers that have popped up time and time again for these inconsistent Penguins, and could sink the Penguins again and cost them crucial points in the standings in this last stretch.

At least in Sunday's win, the Penguins had a solid start with a 15-7 shots advantage over the Flyers, and DeSmith was pretty darn good with a 31-save performance. But the boneheaded penalties -- most notably Malkin's parade to the penalty box with four minors -- could have blown this game had their opponent not had the worst power play in the entire league.

"Once again we took a barrage of penalties in the third period which we need to do a better job of not doing," Mike Sullivan said. "We put our team in tough spots when we do."

If there's one positive thing that can be taken away from this win, it's how the Penguins responded in a close game when the other team was pushing back. Nicolas Deslauriers cut the Penguins' lead to 3-1 at the 5:57 mark of the third period, and then when the Flyers pulled goaltender Samuel Ersson for the extra attacker late, Travis Konecny cut the Penguins' lead to 3-2 with a 6-on-5 goal.

"I thought we'd get to them," Flyers coach John Tortorella said of his team's push. "We certainly tried."

The Penguins defended hard from that point and only allowed one long-range, low-danger shot on goal in the last 2:29 of the game. Ryan Poehling used his speed to seal the win with an empty-net goal, and Jake Guentzel blocked two shots in the last minute alone to make sure that the Flyers didn't get back into the game.

"We're going to face those types of games in the next couple of weeks," Kris Letang said of the tight score late. "We have to be able to manage those one-goal games when teams are pressuring to get a goal. I think we did a good job."

Just like the Penguins, both the Islanders and Panthers have regular-season schedules remaining that include some tough matchups and some non-playoff opponents. The Penguins are surely going to keep an eye on the results of those games moving forward, but it's not something they're wasting too much thought on. They know that if they play the right way over these next five games, they can control their own playoff hopes.

"It's human nature to watch the scoreboard," Sullivan said. "We're all well-aware of who's winning and who's losing and where we stand. I just think that's human nature. But the most important thing is when we come to the rink to play that we don't get distracted by that stuff and that we just focus on the task at hand. When we talk about staying in the moment, that's a lot of what we're talking about. Let's control the controllables, let's control our own attitudes, our own performance so we set ourselves up for success. We still have control of our own destiny here. We've got to make sure we maximize every opportunity. The only one that matters is the one right in front of us."

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Kris Letang celebrates his 1,000th NHL game with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, his wife Catherine, his son Alex and his daughter Victoria

MORE FROM THE GAME

• The Penguins did Letang's 1,000th game so well. Just like players did for Sidney Crosby and Malkin their 1,000th games, players copied Letang's warmup routine:

• The video with his career highlights played before the anthems:

I asked Letang afterward what the feelings were like watching that.

"It was pretty emotional," he replied. "Having my son on the ice with me, that made it perfect. It's such a special group that we have here, to have played 1,000 games along with Sid and Geno, it's just special. The fans, they always believed in me. It was a special night, a lot of emotion. But you have to refocus and say that the two points are more important right now."

• Letang's wife Catherine, son Alex and daughter Victoria were there, and stood with Fenway Sports Group chairman Tom Werner as gifts were presented, including matching silver sticks for Alex and Victoria like their dad's. Alex skated out from the Penguins tunnel in full gear with a No. 58 Letang jersey with his dad, and stood next to his dad on the blue line during the anthem. They looked pretty identical during that, with the two hanging their heads and letting their flow cover their face in the same way:

Alex is eligible for the draft in 2030, by the way. The Penguins haven't traded their first-round pick away for that one yet.

• The coolest part might have been Alex recording the starting lineup over the public address:

I asked Letang how he thought Alex did there.

"He did pretty good, I was pretty happy to see that he wanted to get involved," Letang said with a big smile. "He's so good, he's way better than me in front of a camera. It was pretty cool that he's part of that day for me."

• Letang's daughter Victoria was getting a little antsy during the pregame. She wanted to be on skates, too.

"She was jealous of her brother being on the ice," Letang said. "She figure skates and she wants to be on the ice every day. I think when she saw her brother out there she didn't like it, she wanted to have her skates and get going. But when I got out there she kind of called down.

• Naturally, Letang was given the MVP helmet in the locker room afterward:

• A couple of players had social media posts for Letang after, and I laughed at the hashtags Jason Zucker used in his: #BangBang, #WorstDressed, #1-TimersOnly, #BrutalFlow, #GuentzelOwnsYou and #LoveYou. Just an absolute menace to society in the best way.

• Rickard Rakell had one of his best games with two goals, including a pretty wild first goal to open the scoring. Danny Shirey has more on Rakell.

• Bryan Rust scored off a backhand shot for his third goal in two games:

"He's a pretty conscientious player," Sullivan said of Rust. "He always brings effort, he brings energy. He's a good two-way player. He's a good of a defensive player as we have on our team, and he brings an offensive dimension to our game. I just think he's a complete player. For awhile there the puck didn't go in the net for him, but he was getting a number of looks. It wasn't a situation where he wasn't getting opportunities. He was getting them, they just weren't going in the net. That can be frustrating sometimes for players, and that's the nature of the game. I admire his stick-to-itiveness. He stayed with it. He's trying to play the game the right way, trying to simplify the game, and he's getting rewarded right now. Hopefully he can continue to build on it." 

• This was Rust's 500th NHL game, by the way. He wanted to make sure nobody forgot:

• Poehling used his speed to seal the win with an empty-netter:

• DeSmith was solid with 31 saves on 33 shots.

"He made some huge saves," Sullivan said. "He made some big saves in particular in the third on the penalty-kill."

One of DeSmith's brightest moments was a robbery of Konecny with a glove save in the first period. It was so close that the officials actually took a few moments to review the footage and make sure that it wasn't a goal. No goal, just a great glove save:

I asked DeSmith how sure he was that that would stick as a save and not be called a goal.

"I was like 70-30 that it was a save," DeSmith said with a little wince. "I wasn't quite sure. Those are always tough, when the glove is partly in the net. Thankfully just enough."

• No surprise who led the team in hits: It was Mark Friedman with six. He always seems especially feisty against his former team, and was jawing with more than a couple of players during stoppages throughout.

• Congratulations to Malkin, who set a new career-high in penalty minutes in a single game with 28. Great initiative by him to get the penalty kill some extra practice heading into the playoffs. Danny has more on what was going on with Malkin in Freeze Frame.

• The penalty kill went a perfect five-for-five.

• The power play went 1-for-4, with Rakell's second goal being the power-play tally.

• Been digging into some prospect stuff the past few days and came away with a few interesting takeaways. The first: When I spoke with goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist last week, he didn't think he would be coming over to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to finish the season after his Liiga season ended. Well, plans may have changed. Nothing official yet, but it sounds like there's a good chance that he'll be coming over soon. Could be an interesting insurance option if disaster strikes. Still, I'd be very surprised if he's in Wilkes-Barre next season. It's more likely that he plays one more year in Finland.

• I looked into the Judd Caulfield trade. It wasn't a matter of him not wanting to sign with the Penguins -- the Penguins didn't want to sign him. In fact, Caulfield got the vibe that no teams wanted to sign him to an NHL deal, which is why he wanted to go back to school for a fifth year, a prove-it year. The only way he could have tested free agency and know for sure was to officially leave college, so he had no way of knowing for certain what the market would be like for him without forgoing that fifth year. Anaheim taking a flyer on him via the trade changed Caulfield's plans -- he left college and signed a two-year deal with the Ducks on Sunday.

• The two undrafted Western Michigan products I've been following -- center Max Sasson and defenseman Aidan Fulp -- are off the board, with Sasson signing an entry-level deal with the Canucks and Fulp with the Islanders. The Penguins didn't make an offer to either, despite inviting both to development camp last summer. In general, the Penguins haven't been too impressed with the current crop of college free agents. There aren't many guys out there who really project well, and they're mindful of where they are in relation to the 50-contract limit -- right now, that's 46. There are only so many contracts to go around. They did sign six free agent prospects last year, a really high number for one year. A lighter crop of signings this year would make sense, especially given the market.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena

1. Rickard Rakell, Penguins RW
2. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW
3. Travis Konecny, Flyers LW

THE INJURIES

• Defenseman Jan Rutta is sidelined with a lower-body injury and is week-to-week. It seems like it was from the puck to the knee he took on March 14. He played on March 16 then was sidelined after that. He has resumed skating on his own.

• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson suffered a lower-body injury on March 18 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.

• Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov suffered a lower-body injury on March 12 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.

• Forward Nick Bonino suffered a lacerated kidney on March 9 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve and has resumed skating on his own.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen - Ryan Pohling - Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor - Jeff Carter - Josh Archibald

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
P.O Joseph - Jeff Petry
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel

And for John Tortorella's Flyers:

Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Owen Tippett
Travis Konecny - Noah Cates - Wade Allison
James van Riemsdyk - Kevin Hayes - Kieffer Bellows
Nicolas Deslauriers - Scott Laughton - Brendan Lemieux

Ivan Provorov - Cam York
Travis Sanheim - Justin Braun
Nick Seeler - Tony DeAngelo

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins have a planned day off on Monday. They'll travel to New Jersey for Tuesday's game against the Devils. Danny Shirey and I will both be there for that one.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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