The heating up Pittsburgh Penguins faced off against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning last night. Here is your Penguins vs Lightning recap. The score was 1-0 Penguins after the first period via Ville Koivunen’s first NHL goal. The first period also included Boko Imama getting his first fight of the season thrashing Curis Douglas. The real story of this period, and the game, was Jarry standing on his head as the Penguins defensive approach was as porous as a sponge.

The Penguins, playing with the lead, in the second period played significantly better than the previous period. They finished the second period with a 3-1 lead. Malkin scored a beautiful breakaway goal and Kindel had a masterful deflection on the power-play. However, anyone watching could tell Tampa was going to push and likely even this game up during the third period.

Eventually, and unexpectedly, Tampa did even the game. Dumb penalties were a storyline in this one as each of the big three took one; Sid in the first, Letang in third that led to the second goal, and Geno took one immediately after Tanger exited the box. It looked like penalties were going to doom the team on this night, but the penalty killers saved them. Credit specifically to Lizotte and Kindel for holding Tampa to only one power-play goal in the third period. The team didn’t seem to gain much momentum from penalty killer’s efforts as Tampa skated circles around them for most of the third period.

With the game tied, it seemed as if Pittsburgh would once again lose a game in regulation after leading 3-0. Then one of the big three showed why we all collectively put up with their bad penalties. Malkin found a soft spot off a turnover and gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead with a little over 2 minutes remaining in the game. Game over.

Just kidding. Technically, yes, the game 4-3 in the Penguins favor. However, Kucherov (this game’s best player by a mile) scored a goal to even the game at four. After the goal, Toronto’s situation room phoned the ref’s and let them know that the puck had been played with a hand pass prior to the Kuch bomb. After review, the refs agreed and took the game tying goal off the board. The Penguins escaped with victory.

This game was insane. Tampa looked like the fastest team on planet earth last night. They had odd man chance after odd man chance. They moved the puck so well they seemed like they were robotic. Yet, the Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead. There was an early fight and nastiness for most of the game. You had Jarry looking unhuman only to let in a few soft ones in the third (I consider the disallowed Kucherov goal to not have been a good one either). The hand pass call gifted the Penguins victory. Tampa’s head coach was right to be disgruntled with the call despite it being the correct call as Hagel really had no intent to advance the puck with his hand but rather protect his face. From start to finish, this game was a perfect encapsulation of what makes the game of hockey so captivating. Erik Karlsson him said to reporters “that was a fucking crazy game.”

A few other thoughts:

1. Ben Kindel is such a good hockey player. He was one of the few Penguins who seemed to give a shit about defensive assignments last night. He was great on the kill, coming up with a huge block on a clapper from the point. He also didn’t abandon his offensive game as he was present in the O-zone all night and scored that beautiful power-play goal. Shoutout to management for finding this kid, specifically Wes Clark who implored Dubas to move him way up their draft boards.
2. My god is Tampa Bay good. They are playing without Brayden Point and Victor Hedman, but they still looked like an all-star team last night. Their team speed was frightening. The Penguins are much faster this year and really haven’t been outskated in a game, until last night.
3. I’m starting to think the Pens simply cannot trade Jarry. Yes, I didn’t like a couple of the goals, but holy shit was he good in this game. The Lightning had a what felt like a million grade A chances and Jarry just continued to make ten bell saves.
4. Malkin is tied with Crosby for the team lead in points. Don’t ever take these two for granted. They don’t take plays off to sip Gatorade on the sidelines or cry that they took a knee to the tummy like the two veteran defenders on the other team in Pittsburgh. Sid and Geno give a shit. Not only do they give a shit, but they also perform. It almost seems like they aren’t able to age. It’s just so special to get to watch those two play hockey and it’s even more special that they continue to defy Father Time.
5. The special teams are carrying the Penguins. Both the power-play and penalty-kill are top five in the league. Imagine if they get healthy, get Kevin Hayes out of the lineup, and start scoring more at 5-on-5. The Pens are currently on pace to finish with 107 points, if they begin to get scoring at even strength, I really don’t believe it is out of the realm of possibility that they win the East.