PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s another game in what we’ve seen recently from the Penguins. A gutty, responsible effort that resulted in a 3-2 overtime win against the 18-win Kings Tuesday night.
Rickard Rakell scored the winner off an assist from Erik Karlsson, which moved him past Bobby Orr for 13th place for assists by an NHL defenseman with 646. Matt Grzelcyk scored his first as a Penguin and Evgeni Malkin tipped one in for the other goal, his 505th of his career.
Head coach Mike Sullivan said he was proud of his team on Tuesday because they just stuck with it. After giving up a goal on the first shot and trailing much of the game, the team kept battling, especially in the third period when great opportunity after great opportunity stayed out of the net.
“We are just trying to play the right way,” Sullivan said. “We are trying to play a style of hockey that gives us a chance to win regardless of the night and regardless of the opponent. I think our guys are making a concerted effort at commitment to some of the details.”
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who finished with 29 saves, said it’s playing simple hockey. Now when they make a mistake—giving up a first goal, having a tough shift, taking a penalty, they keep going. It’s a belief in the group to find a way.
“Trust the guys next to you that they are going to do their job,” Nedeljkovic said. “They are going to pick you up when you are down and right the ship. We’ve been doing a lot of good things lately.”
The win is the seventh in the last 10 games and now points in eight of those games. They are now in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and they have beaten the second-place Kings, first-place Toronto, defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers among others in this stretch.
“They are believing,” Sullivan said. “I’m happy for them because we had gone through a difficult stretch early in the year and we’ve dragged ourselves into the mix here and we beat some good teams along the way. This team (Los Angeles) being one of them.”
It was a team that was sloppy, and at times borderline reckless, the first month plus of the season. Now it’s responsible. They are making better decisions. No one on the ice sees that clearer than the goalie.
“We haven’t really given up a lot off the rush,” Nedeljkovic said. “Things happen, breakdowns happen but we haven’t given up the egregious two-on-ones from deep ice or three-on-twos from deep ice.”
“We are just being sticky. We are in the right spot. We are being disciplined with where we are and not trying to cheat for offense. Making sure we are doing our job and making sure everyone is doing their own responsibility and things are taking care of themselves.”
Sullivan said they are playing with more structure. That’s not something that was stressed on some of Sullivan’s earlier teams because of the amount of talent. Now they are working on it at practice. They are showing more film to the players to get them to understand the importance and they are responding.
“It’s not by coincidence that we are starting to get some results,” Sullivan said. “I think the guys are working hard. They are committed to playing the game the right way. I think we are more predictable for one another because we are playing the game with more structure.”
Sullivan admits they continue to work to find the sweet spot between structure and letting some all-time great players act on their instincts. He said it’s a fine line because he doesn’t want to turn them into robots.
“I think we are playing more as a unit out there,” said Pens forward Bryan Rust. “The more we believe in one another and know where everybody is going to be, we can be on our toes a little more. I think that just lets us take the game instead of reacting to it.”
Crosby effect
What is kind of crazy is the Pens are playing at this level and captain Sidney Crosby hasn’t scored a goal since before Thanksgiving. What will they be like when he starts scoring?
“He could have had three in the third period alone,” Sullivan said. “It’s a matter of time it’s going to go in the net for him. He makes a terrific play to Griz for the game-tier. He’s probably the only guy in the rink that can make that play.”
“He still has an impact on the game even when he doesn’t score in so many ways. The way he drives our offense. He’s so close to scoring and we hope it will come in bunches for him.”