Best player on the rink was Erik Karlsson.
Biggest impact on the event came from ... a couple of kids.
And if I'm being blunt, there's no reason that couldn't have been the case from the outset of these Penguins' seemingly-too-late-to-be-salvaged season, even after their 4-1 tourniquet of an outcome over the Canadiens on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. Because, at the risk of being accused of classic hindsight, they've could've been getting this kind of impact all along.
Or, at the very least, more of it.
Watch this:
Two goals in 21 seconds has broken this game open for the @penguins! 🐧#NHLStats: https://t.co/cN44MTdxeI pic.twitter.com/QiV9bVgoAo
— NHL (@NHL) February 23, 2024
Those two goals within a 21-second span began with Karlsson setting up Bryan Rust's power-play tip, then continuing with Karlsson setting up, via Valtteri Puustinen, Drew O'Connor's overwhelming wrister past Montreal's Cayden Primeau for a 3-1 lead midway through the second period, lighting up the 17,160 on hand in a way I hadn't heard here in a while.
Wonderful stuff.
Not to mention the childlike glee in the locker room of those couple of kids who planted the dagger, both of whom looked like they wanted nothing more than to lace 'em right back up for a doubleheader.
"Man, that was fun," O'Connor would tell me afterward, absolutely beaming.
"It felt so good to play like that," Puustinen would essentially echo at his nearby stall, his smile no less electric.
Let's share in that and dig a little deeper into that goal:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 23, 2024
Press play. Don't skip. It's a different angle that shows more.
"The best part was how Puusty drew everyone's attention," O'Connor told me, before asking, "Did they all look his way? Was that my imagination?"
Nope, I came right back. Confirmed. Once Karlsson dished back to Puustinen, Montreal's top D-pairing of Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle had their eyes locked on him. And once Evgeni Malkin eventually joined the rush he initiated back in the Pittsburgh zone and blew through to the net, he took Juray Slavkovsky's eyes, only for Slavkofsky to then turn back to Puustinen ... even after the pass had slid across to O'Connor.
Did he call for that pass?
"Nah," he'd reply. "Just had to skate up there and give him an option."
Besides ...
"We played together in Wilkes my first year," Puustinen would say of their shared time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. "He's a good player, I like playing with him. He's fast, strong, he wins the battles. He shoots the puck, goes to the net. I know a little bit of what he can do on the ice. This is easy for me, because we played together."
Easy, huh?
I'll say it again: Wonderful stuff.
And not exactly a common sentiment around here this winter, never mind a week in which this maddening group might as well have sucked the hockey soul from our city by losing after the Jaromir Jagr number retirement ceremony, then losing two nights later to the Islanders in overtime, then having to hear directly from Kyle Dubas the next day that there's an excellent chance they'll be plucked apart by the March 8 NHL trade deadline. Maybe even by selling off Jake Guentzel to the highest bidder.
Maybe this makes a dent, and maybe it doesn't:
NHL
That's only the Eastern Conference's wild-card picture, so the top two teams are the only ones that'll qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Penguins are eight points behind the Red Wings, seven behind the Lightning, but with three games in hand over Detroit, four over Tampa Bay. Certainly seems doable mathematically, with 28 games remaining.
But the trade deadline's only 15 days away and, if Dubas follows through on his Wednesday pledge that, "We have to get younger," that might do the plug-pulling all by itself.
Which, combined with an evening like this one and others in recent days, really ought to swing some of the dialogue back to this: Why'd he wait so long?
Meaning Dubas. Meaning a seriously smart dude who had to have grasped the day he got this job that grafting a bunch of 30-year-olds onto a quartet of stars in their mid-30s wasn't going to get this done. Meaning, even if the smart dude also had grasped that the Wilkes-Barre well was close to bone dry, that didn't force him to fill out his forward lines with the likes of Reilly Smith (32), Noel Acciari (32), Matt Nieto (31), while also never pushing Jeff Carter (39) up into the press box, where he's belonged for two long years.
And heck yeah, I'm omitting Lars Eller (34) because he's been terrific, though a more hardened cynic might include him on the basis of nothing other than raising the average age.
Why couldn't those acquisitions have prioritized younger, more vibrant legs and invested approaches, even if they'd be less talented?
Why couldn't, so long as Dubas and Mike Sullivan acknowledged this past summer agreeing that their third and fourth lines should prioritize "being hard to play against," per Sullivan, they simply have rounded up a few Tasmanian devils to wear down opponents and, in theory, create space and comfort for the stars?
You know, as opposed to this blood-and-guts forecheck from Carter on this night:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 23, 2024
Or this someone-please-come-get-me-out-of-here zone entry from Smith:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 23, 2024
Want to see what that might look like with more youth in the mix?
This was Puustinen with a hat trick of golden chances, all on the same shift:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 23, 2024
"I needed to get a goal there," he'd lament, but every coach at every level of this beautiful game will attest that, if you're getting chances, you're playing well.
Both he and O'Connor came hard. Both told me they're feeling as confident, as comfortable -- in the right way -- as ever at this level.
Could they have been accelerated in some way?
I can't answer that definitively, of course, but I did appreciate the scope of this response when I asked Sullivan after this game to elaborate on what he meant when he'd told me a week ago in Chicago that Puustinen's rediscovered his speed:
"He's got another gear, and it showed itself tonight on the forecheck when he chased a couple of the defensemen down, forced turnovers," he'd reply. "I think the step that he's picked up -- maybe more -- is evident in his overall game. He's getting better and better with every game. We're real excited about the progress that he's made. I think the footspeed that he's picked up is really going to help him moving forward."
It's shown: He's outpaced all forwards in nearly all advanced analytics the past two games.
"He's in better shape, also," Sullivan proceeded. "He's more fit. He's in much better shape. That's just part of the learning process that a learning process that a young kid goes through, understanding the type of condition that you have to be in to play in the NHL. He's done a great job just working in the offseason, doing a better job with his diet and nutrition and things of that nature. He's really embraced everything that our support staff has helped him with."
See, that's what I mean when I say I can't know -- and none of us outside the team's immediate orbit can know -- everything that might hold a youngster back.
I do know this, though: O'Connor and Puustinen are making that aforementioned impact now, supporting the stars the way they need to be supported at this stage of their respective careers. That's tough for some to accept, including internally, but it's the cold truth. Sidney Crosby's scored 31 times and has been borderline historic for his age, but no one would argue he can carry the whole operation the way he once did. Geno was outstanding in this one, but he's still stuck at two goals over his past 20 games.
And yet, get this: Seven of the Penguins' past eight goals have been scored by people not on Sid's line.
"I think the good thing for our group," Sullivan would say without prodding, "the last couple of games, when you look at it, we’re getting contributions offensively through our lineup.”
Not just everybody, but from younger players. Against heavier odds in Pittsburgh than they might've faced elsewhere, in part because of Sullivan's unwavering favoritism toward veterans.
Ice times from this game:
• O'Connor: 16:25
• Carter: 15:42
• Smith: 12:17
• Puustinen: 10:40
When Puustinen made an ill-advised lateral pass before exiting the Pittsburgh zone -- that's never anyone else's fault -- Sullivan kept him on the bench for a shift. Which was fine. Message received, move on, and put him back out there, which Sullivan did.
It's progress. It's not enough.
Neither was Dubas' role in assembling this roster enough in this regard. A lot of ice time and a lot of cap space was wasted on the ineffective forwards I've cited, and that's time and space that could've been committed to a concept as basic as added energy, fire, physicality ... or whatever all those non-factor forwards are usually doing while watching wiry Marcus Pettersson chase and challenge 50-pounds-bigger Josh Anderson upon seeing the latter steamroller Tristan Jarry.
It's not too soon to turn the page everyone's already anticipating being turned.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Kris Letang, Penguins D
2. Drew O'Connor, Penguins LW
3. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Rickard Rakell–Sidney Crosby–Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor–Evgeni Malkin–Matthew Phillips
Reilly Smith–Lars Eller–Valtteri Puustinen
Jansen Harkins–Noel Acciari–Jeff Carter
P.O Joseph–Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson–Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves–Chad Ruhwedel
And for Martin St. Louis' Canadiens:
Cole Caufield–Nick Suzuki-Juraj Slafkovsky
Joshua Roy–Alex Newhook–Josh Anderson
Joel Armia–Jake Evans–Brendan Gallagher
Tanner Pearson–Colin White–Jesse Ylonen
Mike Matheson–Kaiden Guhle
Jayden Struble–Jordan Harris
Arber Xhekaj–David Savard
THE FEED
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