It was a familiar script for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. They played with purpose and jumped out to a multi-goal lead early. The path these games have taken is that the other team will claw back and eventually steal standings points away from a Penguins team who couldn’t maintain their standard.
Today, we got a different end. The Penguins saw it to the finish and were able to secure a 4-0 victory and get their first regulation win in ten days. They came out with a lot better energy.
The first half of the game the Penguins stifled the Predators attack before the score effects set in.
Pittsburgh is now 10-5-4 on the year and are now third in the Eastern Conference, but third in the division (NJ, CAR).
First win first shutout
Sergei Murashov entered Sweden with no wins and no shutouts on his resume and now has his first career victory and shutout to claim in customs on the way back home. He was good in his first career start despite being in a loss. He was great today.
Murashov had to navigate four Predators power plays and kept things at bay. His finest save of the night came on a Stamkos one-timer while the team was killing a 3v5. Stamkos has victimized dozens and dozens of goaltenders through the years, but not today. Here it is at the 10 second mark of the video
There were other solid moments for Murashov as you can see from the saves in the video. He was smooth, sharp, assertive, and on on his angles.
Murashov’s performance will boost what is already the NHL’s best goaltending
It was a well deserved first star of the game with many more to come in his career
Two headed monster put on a show
The Swedish natives received a performance we’ve been lucky to have many times over the past two decades, both Crosby and Malkin scoring in the same game. When this happens you might imagine the Penguins are very successful. You would be correct.
Malkin was the beneficiary of another fortuitous bounce from behind the goal line. It is the second game in a row he’s been able to sneak one in like this
Malkin is up to five goals and 23 points on the year. Malkin also remains the oldest player to ever score in a foreign NHL game, a record he set on Friday, and now updated for today.
Sidney Crosby took advantage of a poor placed Jusse Saros rebound and ripped home a puck on its side to blow the game open 3-0.
It is Crosby’s 12th goal of the season and he trails his buddy and league leader Nathan MacKinnon by two. It is Crosby’s 637th goal of his career, but don’t tell his father, Troy. He looks just as excited as when Crosby dusted Jose Theodore in a shootout two decades ago
Back to balance with the lines
Head Coach Dan Muse felt like things weren’t going as well as they could with the lines. The Penguins became a top heavy team after moving Ben Kindel to the top line. The team wasn’t getting the results they needed to justify the move. Thus, Muse elected to put Kindel back as the third line center and it was a good move. There was more balance throughout the lineup.
All four lines finished above 50% in xGF% on the afternoon.
| Line | xGF% |
| Hayes-Malkin-Mantha | 87.42 |
| Novak-Kindel-Tomasino | 82.63 |
| Dewar-Crosby-Rust | 61.10 |
| Koppanen-Lizotte-Heinen | 58.16 |
We are back to seeing a third line that is functional and winning their matchups. The Kindel-Novak combination hasn’t always led to goals for, but it has consistently led to the other team struggling to generate their own offense.
The lumbering line of Hayes-Malkin-Mantha led the way in xGF% and when the Penguins aren’t facing a super quick team having that size combined with the hands and hockey IQ of those three will be a handful.
I know these are 5v5 stats, but I’d like to give Blake Lizotte a shoutout for his penalty killing work today. He did a tremendous job breaking up opportunities and using his speed to force the issue. If the Predators scored a power play goal to make it a two-goal lead for the Penguins there would have been a here we go again attitude. Instead, Lizotte did his thing to make Murashov’s life easier.
The Penguins can let their hair down for a few days. They won’t be back in game action until Friday. They can feel good about themselves taking the two points today and can now spend some quality time in Sweden with their families.
