Every single game feel like must-wins right now. Doubly so if the teams around you in the standings are winning. Even more so when you’re playing a team that’s in the race with you. The Penguins were given the opportunity to kick a team down a peg last night when they traveled to Ottawa. It seemed like a nightmare scenario for the flightless birds. Yet, as they have done all season, they were resilient and showed they simply want it more than everyone else. Sidney Crosby went down with another injury. Malkin was already out with an injury. So too was Blake Lizotte who has become an increasingly more important piece to this team than many realized. All the excuses in the world could have been made for the Penguins to lose this game, especially when Sid went down. They could have simply said they got goalie’d, because they did. Prior to last night Linus Ullmark had never lost to Pittsburgh, 8-0-0, and he looked like he was about to make it a 9th straight W with several highlight reel saves. The Penguins, specifically the Swedes Rakell and Karlsson, were not going to be denied. The Penguins just absolutely took it to the Senators after the first period. They didn’t get deterred when miraculous saves were made, or goaltender inference calls didn’t go their way, they simply played with a fierceness that made it feel like they weren’t going home without two points.
Maybe we should get this out of the way early. Goaltender interference is just comical at this point. I think Muse should challenge every single goal for it until he gets one right. Last night was one of the more nuanced challenges that I have seen, but as someone who has played goaltender at a high-ish level that goal should certainly have been overturned. When Skinner is contacted, it affects his ability to properly close and swallow up the puck, which obviously resulted in a rebound goal. Had Skinner been allowed to move unimpeded, he likely covers the puck, and the score would remain 3-2 Penguins. Unfortunately, I can understand why the situation room and the refs deemed it was a good goal because it is a minute thing that only goalies may understand. My counterpoint to that is the fact everyone acknowledged that there was contact and incidental, or not, if you’re admitting there’s contact you should also have to admit that it plays a factor into a goal/save swing. Similar to when Mantha was called for interference against Sheshterkin after Igor pushed off of Mantha’s skate, the contact was incidental, but they deemed it impactful enough to disallow a goal. The same rule should have been applied here, but the NHL has shit for brains when making these decisions and they are less consistent than your wife’s emotions once a month.
Onto the good stuff. What a performance by the two Team Sweden Olympians. Moreover, what a month for the two Olympians out of Sweden. Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson have been doing some phenomenal work for this team and continued doing so last night. Each player finished the evening with three points combining to score every goal for the Penguins. Karlsson has been so damn good and last night was yet another virtuoso performance out of EK65. Stepping up to intercept a pass to feed Rakell for the first goal, picking a perfect spot to score around a Kindel screen, and setting up Rakell beautifully on the 5-on-3 powerplay. Right now, Erik Karlsson is the best hockey player in the world. It’s not the first time in his career he has held that moniker for a period of time, but certainly the first time has done it while wearing a Penguins uniform. Without Karlsson this team would almost certainly be out of the playoffs and more likely near the Rangers in points on the season, he has seriously been that good all year.
A lot of talk about the defensive play, and the goaltending recently, but last night has a step in the right direction. Stuuuuu was very solid, despite giving up three goals, making huge saves in the first period when the Penguins had yet to find their game. Skinner also saw a barrage of shots and chances in the overtime frame that he stonewalled. Maybe it’s time for Dan Muse to abandon the goalie rotation and give Skinner some consistent starts to see if he can put together a little run of good play. While I did voice my opinion on bringing up Murashov, and I still think they should, if that isn’t going to happen then give one of these guys a few games in a row if they had a good start.
Everyone talking about the Senators and their banged up blue line… booooooooooohoooooooooooo. What a bunch of soft humans. The Penguins lost Sidney Crosby. The Senators could lose half of their team, and they wouldn’t combine to be as valuable as Sid, so I don’t want to hear their ridiculous excuses. Both heads of the two-headed monster in Pittsburgh were not available yet all that was discussed was the Ottawa blue line, give me a break.
The Penguins best forward right now is Egor Chinakhov (yes, I have made it mandatory to bring him up every blog). He was absolutely flying again last night and honest to God should have had five goals. Between the post and Ullmark getting lucky (the only way to stop Chinny), Egor’s goalscoring streak did come to a close, but he still put together a phenomenal performance. When evaulating a player I look at the game’s where their name isn’t on the scoresheet and if they were still noticeable or impactful that’s when I know they got the goods, Chinny has got the goods. So too does the other player that scored in the shootout, Ben Kindel. Kindel was quiet at times this month, but he has been excellent the last few games. The ice in this dude’s veins… 18-years-old and casually skates down to bury a game-winner in a game with huge playoff implications, doesn’t get much bigger/better than that.
I don’t know what’s going to happen over the next 10 games. I don’t know if Sid is going to play in any of them. The same goes for Geno. However, I am starting to feel like this team has something special going on. Something so special that no circumstance can really deter them. All they need to do is outpoint the Islanders or Blue Jackets, and they will be in the playoffs. Even without Sid, I am starting to believe this team can do it.
