The gusts felt last night at PPG Paints Arena were not that of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes weren’t even at a breeze level in their 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Those gales were the winds of change as the Penguins have been able to close out consecutive games with a big third period lead. An unthinkable task just weeks ago.
The Penguins put together another solid performance, this time over the Eastern Conference leading Hurricanes. Jumping out to a lead less than four minutes in on a Sidney Crosby goal. Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha each contributed a first period goal and the Penguins never allowed the Hurricanes to get closer than that.
It was a solid victory over a solid team, even if they were missing Seth Jarvis and Jacob Slavin.
The Brazeau show
If you are looking for the best 5v5 goal scorer you could think about players like Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Brad Marchand, Sidney Crosby, and Macklin Celebrini, but you’d probably overlook one of the most surprising candidates this season in Justin Brazeau.
Coming off of his first career hat trick the other night against Chicago, Justin Brazeau added another goal last night. He is now up to 12 goals in only 24 games played this season. Not too shabby for a player making 1.5M this year and next. The 12 goals are already a career high
Brazeau has a 1.85 goals per 60 at 5v5. Among players who have played 250 minutes that leaves only Brad Marchand’s 2.02 above Brazeau’s goal rate this year. Nathan MacKinnon is third right behind at 1.77.
Nobody has been more efficient with their shooting than Brazeau who currently leads the NHL in shooting percentage at 28.6%. In his 119 NHL games he carries a career shooting percentage of 17.3%. So, while the current number is certainly bloated, he has shown to shoot above the league average in his young career.
It wasn’t just the goal last night. He also had a terrific assist to Anthony Mantha who registered his 14th goal of the year with his second of the night.
These two giants have given the Penguins some of the best depth scoring they’ve had in years. It has been an impressive start for both Brazeau and Mantha.
Skinner earns first Penguins victory
Since the trade from Edmonton Stuart Skinner has had a rough go of it. In his first game with his new team he had to play his old team who put up five goals and left Skinner with a .773 save percentage on the night. Against Montreal and Toronto he had an .850 and .862, both in losses where he gave up three and four goals.
Last night, Skinner played well in the Penguins 5-1 victory turning aside 27 of the 28 shots for a .964 save percentage. It was his first victory with the team and has to be a relief to get his first quality start with his new team. It earned him the first star of the game.
His teammates recognized him with their player of the game helmet.
A home and home to open the new year
Up next for the Penguins will be two contests against the Atlantic Division leading Detroit Red Wings. On New Year’s Day the Penguins will host Detroit at 7PM and then head to the Motor City on Saturday for a noon contest.
Detroit’s record is impressive, thus being in first place. However, when you peak under the hood this is a team the Penguins can compete with, or at least should.
That’s not the look of a team that can’t be had. It certainly isn’t what I thought their card would look like given their place in the standings. For comparisons sake here is how the Penguins have fared so far this season
I think we are going to see two evenly matched sides going at it. The Penguins will be the beneficiary of Detroit playing the night before, something that has happened in Pittsburgh’s three most recent victories over Carolina, Chicago, and Montreal.
And who knows, maybe we’ll be seeing two Russians added to the lineup by the time the weekend hits.
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