The Penguins tripped on Friday but responding with a stomping of the Nashville Predators on Sunday morning. Friday afternoon the Penguins came out with one of their least sharp performances of the season. Passes were not connecting crisply, offense was non-existent, and the defense was haphazard. Still, the Penguins were up 1-0 with about a minute to go and found a way to salvage a point out of a poor performance. The goal for this trip was always to get 3 points at the bare minimum. The team was able to do that when they stomped on the Predators throats for the first ten minutes of the second game in Sweden. In a blink of an eye the Penguins were up 3-0. Malkin scored his second goal of the global series, both coming from passes behind the net. Parker Wotherspoon opened up the scoring with a seeing-eye wrister from the point and Sidney Crosby pounced on a failed clearing attempt to make the game 3-0.

Once the first period ended, the Penguins went into a defensive shell. They used their F3 very high in the zone in an attempt to limit any rush chances by Nashville, it worked because for the first time in what seems like forever, the Penguins did not allow a single odd man chance in a game. While the game(s) were not especially entertaining, it was important for the Penguins to dumb the game down and come away with a win. Protecting leads of any variety have been difficult for this team for years now but hopefully Sunday will start to change that trend.

The biggest storyline coming out of Sweden is Sergei Murashov. The 21-year-old netminder ended the trip with his first NHL win while also picking up his first NHL shutout. Through two games, Murashov has a save percentage of .938 which pretty much falls in line with his save percentage at every other professional level, this kid is special. Fellow rookie netminder Artus Silovs was the only Penguin who showed up on Friday making several amazing saves and is the sole reason the team made it to overtime, Silovs has .917 save percentage, good for 7th in the entire NHL. The future is seemingly very very bright in goal in Pittsburgh.

After the lifeless performance on Friday, coach Dan Muse shuffled the lines. Kevin Hayes went up to play with Malkin in an attempt to re-create the big boy line in Brazeau’s absence and it worked, the line ended Friday with an 89% expected goal rate. Ben Kindel moved back to third line center, I think he should stay there. He certainly has the skill to play on the top-line with Crosby, but the Penguins are such a deeper team when he is manning his own line, the way he drives offense when he’s playing in the middle cannot be ignored. Due to Kindel being bumped down, Connor Dewar played up on the top-line with Crosby and Rust, he didn’t look out of place. Injuries are certainly an issue for this team right now, but the schedule is relatively light and easy for the rest of the month so hopefully these new line combinations can stick for a few games until help arrives.

Speaking of help, the Penguins will have help on the way very soon. Rutger McGroarty returned to action for the Wilkes Barre Penguins on Saturday night and by all accounts was the best player on the ice. I assume Dubas will let Rutger get his legs through this week/weekend down in Wilkes but the Penguins top prospect (until Ben Kindel became a training camp sensation) will hopefully be back with the club to play Buffalo on the Thanksgiving Eve game. Whether Rutger ends up on the top-line with Sid, or the third line with Kindel, he will be such a welcomed addition to this team he will make either line more effective, that would hold true even if the team was perfectly healthy.

The Penguins won’t play again until Friday and have shown issues the last few years when having extended time off (see this past Friday against Nashville). It would be wise for the Penguins to buck that trend because the rest of November is a soft schedule which will not be the case come December, they need to bank some points.

Steelers

The Steelers beat Joe Flacco and Bengals. Wooohooo. It’s just so hard to emotionally invest yourself in this team. There is no hope of a Super Bowl run. Aaron Rodgers and Jaylen Warren got hurt making things even more bleak despite a win. Mike Tomlin as head coach is beyond stale but we all know he isn’t going anywhere. If nothing else, we have Darnell Washington I think we should just get him the ball every single play because that’s the most exciting thing we got right now.