PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It might not be on the radar due to the rollercoaster the Steelers have been on, but the other black and gold team in season is on quite a roll. Sunday night the Penguins beating New Jersey 3-2 for a seventh consecutive win.
It's still a team without Evgeni Malkin, without leading goal scorer Jake Guentzel, without top six forward Bryan Rust. They are four points from being tops in the entire league.
Pens lost the first game of the month giving up three goals in the third at Edmonton to drop to 10-13. Now, incredibly, gone from playoff doubtful to division hopeful.
How have they done it?
Goaltending
The same Tristan Jarry that melted down in the postseason is currently excelling in the regular season. Only once since November 14 has Jarry given up more than two goals in a game. The understandably maligned 26-year-old is third in the NHL in wins and fifth in save percentage at .932. Those aren't the best numbers.
No one is better in the NHL in goals against average than Jarry's 1.93. The same guy who had a 3.18 GAA in the playoffs last season is having an incredible bounce back in the first couple of months.
Penalty Kill
Your best penalty killer is your goalie, but he's getting help. Sunday night was the first time in the last 39 penalty kill chances the Pens gave up a goal. Even though the streak was broken, Teddy Blueger scored a short-handed goal.
Blueger, veteran defenseman Brian Dumoulin, Zach Aston-Reese, John Marino, Jeff Carter and Brock McGinn are the mainstays of a group that allows the Pens to make aggressive mistakes and not pay for it. The Pens are killing at 92.1 percent, nearly four percentage points higher than the second-best team.
Free agents
Trader Jim (Rutherford) made some moves that helped the Pens win Stanley Cups. He was praised, and rightfully so, for many of his key decisions. In his first off-season with the Pens, general manager Ron Hextall made quite an impact.
Let's look at the top four forwards Hextall signed or brought back for 2021-22:
· Brock McGinn (forward, $2.75 million)—8 goals, 4 assists, +4
· Zach Aston-Reese (forward, $1.75 million)—1 goal, 7 assists, +4
· Danton Heinen (forward, $1.1 million)—9 goals, 5 assists, +5
· Evan Rodrigues (forward, $1 million)—10 goals, 13 assists, +8
For $6.6 million dollars, or for less than Phil Kessel is making with Arizona, the Pens got FOUR key players who have combined for 28 goals, 29 assists and a plus 21. A couple of them are also key special teams players and who saw Rodrigues being that on the power play.
Hextall also found value in the $750,000 range signing Dominik Simon back (24 games) and Brian Boyle (veteran with 3 goals).
Coaching
Much like Steelers Hall of Famer Chuck Noll winning four titles and not being named coach of the year, similar thoughts with Mike Sullivan. The winningest coach in team history doesn't have a Jack Adams Trophy on his mantle, but he has not only won a pair of championships. He has this group, with all its issues this season, winning.
Sullivan will say it's about the players, but the coaches lay the foundation. The reaction to a seventh straight win tells you about the groundwork he laid.
"I like the compete," Sullivan said Sunday. "I like the attitude. I think these guys really care for one another. They play hard for one another. I like the compete and the resilience that I think the group has displayed here for most of the season. It seems like we are always getting something thrown at us from an injury standpoint or COVID. There's just been so many different things that have been thrown our way."
"What I love about this team is that they just embrace it. One of the things we talked about in day one of training camp is that we have to expect inconvenience and we've got to embrace adversity because we know it's going to come our way. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
"We understand it and we have to make sure we handle it the right way. I give the players a lot of credit because I think for me that has been the biggest attribute that this group has possessed is their resilience and their resolve and their attitude to react the right way whatever happens."
Specially to Sunday night, where his team overcame numerous mistakes.
"I think we found a way to win and that's a sign of a good team," Sullivan said.
The sign of a good coach with good leadership and good decision-making leading to good results. It won't continue at this pace, but so impressive what this Pens team has done through more than a third of the season.
