On Sunday the skate was finally on the other foot. Instead, of the Pittsburgh Penguins being on the wrong end of blowing a third period lead late, it was the Columbus Blue Jackets. Rickard Rakell scored with 14 seconds left in the third period and Sidney Crosby closed things out in overtime for the 5-4 victory. Columbus had previously beaten the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 to put an end to the Sabres impressive ten game winnings streak.
Back in the thick of things
With the victory, it makes five wins in a row for Pittsburgh and their sixth win out of their last seven games. It has catapulted them right back into the thick of the playoff picture. It is the first five game winning streak in a little over two years.
They currently hold the first wild card spot with 49 standings points and are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers, who currently hold the third place slot in the Metropolitan Division. The Carolina Hurricanes lead the division with 53 points.
All in all, the Penguins have done a great job clawing back after their dismal December
Top line getting it done
As mentioned above, Rickard Rakell tied the game late with Sidney Crosby winning it in overtime. For Crosby, it is the third game in a row he has had multiple points. He has four goals and nine points during the five game winning streak. He remains on pace for 48 goals on the season totally defying any reasonable kind of aging curve.
With the goal Crosby becomes the first ever NHL player to register 50 points in overtime
Here was his handy work in the extra session.
Right off the bench and on a breakaway courtesy of Erik Karlsson. I’d like to point out that Crosby went with a deke on the breakaway successfully. Perhaps, when he doesn’t have time to think and just reacts with his instincts he is way more dangerous 1v1 on the goaltender.
Rickard Rakell has been back for 12 games since injuring his wrist. The first ten games didn’t go so well on the goal scoring front, he had zero. He now has goals in back to back games after tying the game with 14 seconds left on a beautiful power play looking setup
Rakell did a great job of slipping into the soft spot as the bumper guy and Anthony Mantha immediately put the puck in his wheelhouse. Rakell did what he has historically done when he gets a good look and buried it. He was on a 27 goal pace before the injury and it would be a nice development for the Penguins if he returned to that pace, or better, moving forward.
Change to third line pays off
Coach Dan Muse elected to put Ville Koivunen back into the lineup in place of Rutger McGroarty and was rewarded with Koivunen scoring his second goal of the season to open up the Penguins scoring.
It has been a frustrating season offensively for Koivunen and you can see the emotion on his face after scoring, a combination of elation and relief to finally get a puck to the back of the net. Koivunen hasn’t been a bad player this year, in fact, his play driving has been totally fine. He just hasn’t transferred his possession time into tangible points.
With Yegor Chinakhov on the team there is going to be one less roster spot available for a player like Koivunen. The team isn’t going to scratch Chinakhov immediately after paying a second and third round pick to acquire him. Thus, the Koivunen scratch against Detroit and McGroarty against Columbus.
Koivunen does have built in chemistry with Ben Kindel and the two together play more of their time in the other team’s end than their own. In the 189 5v5 minutes Koivunen and Kindel have played with one another they have a 63.73 CF% and a 64.84 xGF%. Those are great numbers. In the 133 5v5 minutes without Koivunen those numbers for Kindel drop to 47.31 CF% and 43.78 xGF%.
| TOI 5v5 min | CF% | xGF% | |
| Kindle and Koivunen | 189 | 63.73 | 64.84 |
| Kindel w/out Koivunen | 133 | 47.31 | 43.78 |
I’m not suggesting that Koivunen is the reason Kindel has been a good player in his rookie year. I’m suggesting that they have decent chemistry and the thing holding back their ceiling has been Koivunen’s lack of offensive production. Perhaps with a finisher like Chinakhov on their line we can start to see more of the expected goals from the third line turn into actual ones.
Up next for the Penguins will be hosting the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. The Devils have fallen off a bit recently and will be looking to scrape back some divisional points against the Islanders on Tuesday and then on Thursday against Pittsburgh.
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