LOS ANGELES -- The sentiment in the locker room before the Penguins departed for their three-game California road trip over a week ago was that the Penguins were playing far better than their 3-6 record at the time would suggest.
"We're looking to get wins when we go (to California)," Ryan Graves said before the Penguins flew to San Jose to open the trip. "I think that it's unfortunate where we are right now. If you look at the way the games have gone, it's not like we're getting outplayed. We played some good hockey. We just have to find ways to get wins out of the good hockey."
A successful road trip would have seen the Penguins capture at least four of the six points at stake, with some signs that the team is moving in the right direction. They did even better, sweeping the Sharks, Ducks and Kings to earn all six points in the standings and improve to a .500 record.
It was only the second time in franchise history that the Penguins have swept a California road trip, with the only other sweep coming back in 1996-97.
The Penguins' 4-3 overtime win over the Kings here at Crypto.com Arena secured the sweep, and it was Bryan Rust who scored in the extra frame to seal the win.
And he did it twice ... sort of.
Rust appeared to score the game-winner off of a rush opportunity set up by Erik Karlsson, but teams came back onto the ice when it was determined that the goal was offside and didn't count. So seconds later, Rust scored on a wraparound that snuck between the post and the pad of Pheonix Copley. That one would stand:
BRYAN RUST, OUR OVERTIME HERO! 💪 pic.twitter.com/jJtpyPwrN3
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 10, 2023
"The first one, when I first got it, I thought it was offside," Rust said. "They didn't blow the whistle, and I just kept playing and put the puck in the net. And I celebrated like it was a goal. And I wasn't too surprised when it didn't count. I was able to get out there right away again and make the most of it."
The California trip can often be a challenging one. The Penguins went 2-1 last year, and got smoked 6-0 by the Kings in the middle of it. They went 2-1 the year before as well, with a big 6-2 loss to the Kings in the middle again. Coming into the trip this year, the Sharks were winless but hungry for that first win. The Kings are one of the top teams in the Pacific Division, and the Ducks aren't too far behind them.
The Penguins came away with three pretty different victories -- a 10-2 blowout over the Sharks, a 2-0 shutout of the Ducks in a tightly-contested matchup, and this 4-3 overtime win in a game that was much more open, and they definitely weren't their best at times. Through the first two periods alone, they were being outshot 25-12, but No. 3 goaltender Magnus Hellberg stopped all but two shots as Sidney Crosby and Lars Eller found the scoresheet themselves. The Penguins tightened back up in the third period, and goals from Jake Guentzel and the Kings' Kevin Fiala kept the game tied, setting the stage for Rust's overtime winner.
"It was huge," Marcus Pettersson told me afterward of the sweep. "We knew coming in that in all the years I've been here, this hasn't been the easiest trip for us. But we knew we were desperate coming into it, we needed some points. I think that's a huge three points. They all came different ways, those three wins. It just shows ourselves that we can win different ways."
That was a sentiment echoed by Rust.
"For us, it's huge, obviously," Rust said. "Three very, very different games, and we found ways to win games in very different ways. I think we didn't have our best for a lot of this game, but we kept playing, defense kept playing hard, (Hellberg) made some huge saves back there."
That ability to win in different ways is almost as meaningful as a takeaway as the six points are. It's something to build on moving forward, and gives the group that confidence that they needed after such a slow start to the season.
"I think to be able to take all three games, this is not an easy road trip," Mike Sullivan said. "Anaheim was playing really well. This team here is playing extremely well. To take all three of these is huge for our team, I think it'll be a great confidence booster for us, it'll be a good momentum boost. I think it'll be something to build on."
There's a lot of good to like about the last three games:
• The Penguins outscored opponents 16-5.
• The power play was operating at a 25% success rate (2-for-8)
• The penalty kill had a 83.3% success rate (10-for-12) and also scored a shorthanded goal in Eller's tally today.
• The fourth line, pointless in the first nine games of the season, combined for two goals in San Jose -- Matt Nieto and Vinnie Hinostroza. Hinostroza wasn't able to dress Thursday in Los Angeles due to cap constraints, but should be able to get back on the roster in the coming days and retake his place on the fourth line.
• The top six was hot. Guentzel had six points (three goals, three assists), Rust had five (two goals, three assists), Erik Karlsson had five (five assists), Reilly Smith had four (two goals, two assists), Crosby had four (two goals, two assists), and Evgeni Malkin had three (two goals, one assist).
• The Penguins got great goaltending from both goalies on the roster. Tristan Jarry played the first game against the Sharks and nearly two full periods of the next game against the Ducks before being hit in the face with a puck and sustaining an injury that doesn't seem like it should keep him sidelined for too much longer. Before he got hit, he stopped 44 of 46 shots for a .957 save percentage. Hellberg, the No. 3 goaltender because Alex Nedeljkovic remains on LTIR, finished the game against the Ducks and played the full game against the Kings. He had nearly an identical stat line, with 44 saves on 47 shots for a .936 save percentage. Despite losing their starter, the Penguins didn't exactly feel like they needed to shelter Hellberg in net by playing any differently.
"He's very vocal out there," Pettersson said of Hellberg. "He talks to his defensemen, and he's seeing the puck well. We really didn't think too much about it out there, and that's a good sign."
The Penguins still have some ground to make up after they weren't getting the results so often to start the year. They're still only at .500 with a 6-6 record, and three points shy of a would-be playoff spot in the tight Eastern Conference standings. There's a lot of work to be done and some tough opponents coming up soon on the schedule.
The sweep of the California teams can really set the tone as the Penguins get into those tough games moving forward. It's not that they were terrible at the start of the year, but as Sullivan put it after a recent loss, it seemed like the Penguins just kept "finding ways to lose" despite some pretty good performances.
The Penguins seemed to get that habit of finding ways to lose out of their system on this trip.
"We definitely needed it," Eller said of the sweep. "We needed to get a little bit of wind in our sails. I think the last few games we played really well in San Jose and Anaheim. Today, we didn't play our best. We were on our heels a little bit, but we had some games (before) where it was the same in our favor, and somehow we still came out on the wrong side. It evened out a little bit today. We fought for it, I think we got a little better as the game went on. Not our best, but it's a strength to be able to win when you're not on top of your game."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Crypto.com Arena:
1. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW
2. Adrian Kempe, Kings RW
3. Kevin Fiala, Kings LW
THE INJURIES
• Goaltender Tristan Jarry left Tuesday's game in the second period after being taking a puck to the face when his mask became dislodged. Sullivan said Thursday that the testing on Jarry came back good, and that he was just still dealing with some swelling in the eye area that made it hard to see well. I saw him in the press box and he had a black eye and what looked like stitches on the right side, but the swelling was hardly noticeable anymore.
• Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is sidelined week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He is on long-term injured reserve and cannot return until Nov. 19 at the earliest. He has resumed skating.
• Defenseman John Ludvig is out indefinitely with a concussion sustained in his NHL debut. He is on long-term injured reserve and cannot return until Nov. 19 at the earliest. He has resumed skating.
• Defenseman Will Butcher is sidelined with an undisclosed injury sustained at the end of last season. He has resumed skating with a group. He will be put on waivers to be sent down to Wilkes-Barre once healthy. He is on season-opening injured reserve, so his cap hit does not count.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor - Lars Eller - Radim Zohorna
Matt Nieto - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter
Ryan Graves - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea - Chad Ruhwedel
And for Todd McLellan's Kings:
Quinton Byfield - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore - Phillip Danault - Arthur Kaliyev
Kevin Fiala - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Alex Laferriere
Carl Grundstrom - Blake Lizotte - Trevor Lewis
Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov - Matt Roy
Andreas Englund - Jordan Spence
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins fly home on Friday. Next game is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against the Sabres at PPG Paints Arena.
THE CONTENT
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