After having three days off between games, it may have been reasonable to expect a little bit of rust from the Pittsburgh Penguins when they took on the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday.
Well, that was somewhat true in this one. The Penguins had a slow, lethargic start to the first period, which is something that hasn’t happened much lately. But – as they have since the holiday break – they kept the game close and showed up big-time in the second period.
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And they absolutely took over from there.
After surrendering the first one to Blackhawks’ defenseman Connor Murphy, the Penguins scored six consecutive goals – including four in the second period – to chase the Blackhawks out of their barn with a 6-2 victory. Pittsburgh was outshot 9-8 in the first period and outshot Chicago 36-11 for the rest of the game, putting forth a dominant effort to earn their league-best fifth-straight win.
With the win, the Penguins kept pace with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders – who sandwich them at first and third in the Metropolitan Division – since both teams also emerged victorious Thursday.
“I see it every day in practice. I believe in these guys and what they’re capable of doing,” head coach Dan Muse said. “And I’ve seen the work that they’ve put in… you feel good coming off a road trip like we just had, you feel good coming off this game, so it’s not surprising that I believe in them.
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“But, with all this being said, too, we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We’ve got to keep pushing and keep getting better”
Pittsburgh came out of the gate slow, and Murphy got on the board approaching the midway point of the first when Penguins’ goaltender Arturs Silovs was screened and impeded by his own blueliner in Kris Letang at the net front. However, they had a pretty quick response, as Connor Dewar registered his 11th of the season when he picked up the loose change and shot the puck from the low-slot area to tie the game.
And from the jump in the second period, the Penguins asserted themselves. Nearly six minutes in, Anthony Mantha found Ben Kindel breaking to the left circle in the offensive zone, and Kindel snapped the puck past goaltender Arvid Soderblom for his third goal in two games to make it 2-1. Then, later in the period, Penguins’ defenseman Parker Wotherspoon laid a big-time hit on Blackhawks’ forward Tyler Bertuzzi in the neutral zone, which freed up the puck for Evgeni Malkin. He skated it into the offensive zone and put a perfect spin-o-rama backhand pass on the tape of a breaking Egor Chinakhov, who deked his way to the net and beat Soderblom for Pittsburgh’s third goal.
And the Penguins weren’t done. Just 31 seconds later, Kindel threaded a pass to Mantha, who came through the middle on a breakaway and finished it off for his 17th of the season to put the Penguins up, 4-1. Ryan Shea added a one-time tally with just 30 seconds left in the middle frame – assisted by defenseman Ilya Solovyov, playing in his first game with the Penguins – to make it 5-1.
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Fourteen minutes into the third, Dewar notched his second of the game in a scrappy net-front scramble that resulted in a post-goal scrum. Blackhawks star Connor Bedard fired a laser less than a minute later to cut into the Penguins’ lead, but it didn’t amount to anything, and the Penguins secured the 6-2 win.
“Everyone’s working hard. It’s hard to win in this league, and everyone understands that,” Silovs said. “And I think that guys have been clicking really well on [their] lines to each other, so it’s great to see that.”
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Here are some thoughts and takeaways from this one:
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– I’m just going to put this out into the universe, even if it’s a bold statement. You know who Chinakhov very much reminds me of?
The last guy who donned No. 59 before him.
Look, I’m not saying he will produce to the level that Guentzel does. Chinakhov is a finisher, not so much a playmaker. But, like Guentzel, he has a quick, deceptive release, his puck skills are high-level, and he just always seems to be in the right spot. He knows how to expose the right areas of the ice and put himself in the right place at the right time, every time, in the offensive zone. And – unlike Guentzel – there is a defensive element and a speed element to his game.
That’s six goals and eight points in 14 games with the Penguins, and he had three goals and six points in 29 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Well, thanks Columbus, and thank you, Kyle Dubas. I have no idea what was so amiss in Columbus – and I have no idea what Chinakhov’s Penguins’ career has in store for him – but this guy is a legitimate goal-scorer in the National Hockey League. I think, if paired with an elite playmaker – which the Penguins sure have – he can be a perennial 30-goal scorer, perhaps more.
– The third line produced three Penguins’ goals tonight and is really starting to hit its stride.
Kindel and Mantha are developing some legitimate chemistry, and Rutger McGroarty had himself a nice game after being recalled from the AHL as a complement to those guys, too. I love how you can always find McGroarty around the net.
But Kindel and Mantha’s connection is starting to produce results, and Muse was complimentary of Mantha, as he had three points and once again showed some playmaking ability in tight areas.
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“He’s absolutely got the ability to do that,” Muse said. “You see the shot, but he sees things well offensively, he can make those tight-area plays. Sometimes, because he’s so big, you don’t always see that kind of playmaking from players his size, but I think he’s shown that over the course of the year. It doesn’t come as a surprise there.”
That line was humming all night long, and hopefully, they can continue to just keep climbing.
– I’ve said it a million times in the past few weeks, but the forward depth on this roster, when healthy, is a force to be reckoned with. There are few teams in the NHL with the four-line depth that the Penguins have. And so much of it has to do with the emergence of Kindel.
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Mantha talked about the maturity that Kindel plays with at such a young age.
“He’s learning quick,” Mantha said. “If you compare his first couple of games to right now, I don’t think it’s the same player out there. And you see the confidence level on the ice right now that, maybe earlier in the season, you didn’t quite see. And he’s making plays, he’s running the puck up, and, yeah… he’s a smart kid, so he’ll keep learning.”
With the second and third lines rolling the way they are, it’s crazy that Sidney Crosby’s line almost feels like a secondary source of scoring at this point. And that’s quite the development, especially since they were, pretty much, the only source of scoring for two seasons prior.
This team’s forward group is legitimate. And it’s dangerous.
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– It was nice to see Solovyov register his first point with the Penguins. He isn’t the fleetest of foot out there, but I thought he played a pretty steady game alongside Shea. And he doesn’t shy away from physicality.
I’m not sure what the defensive rotation is going to look like with Jack St. Ivany on the shelf for the next two months. But I think he may have earned a few more looks with his play on Thursday.
– That Wotherspoon hit was something else. He has been a revelation for the Penguins this season – and continues to be – but his physicality is such an underrated and underappreciated part of his repertoire.
This was a prime example of physicality directly translating to offense in transition. The Penguins have been missing this kind of physicality for many a year, and now, they have a couple of players who provide that. Solovyov had quite the hit on a first-period penalty kill, too, and Connor Clifton and Noel Acciari aren’t afraid to throw the body, either.
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This is just a very different kind of energy and toolset that the Penguins have needed.
– Like Malkin, I think it’s safe to say Dewar has earned an extension.
A fifth-round pick was all it took to acquire him last season. What a fourth-line player.
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