In an city where aesthetics are everything, the Pittsburgh’s victory over the Los Angeles Kings was anything but. The Penguins were able to gut out a gritty and at times ugly looking victory by a score of 4-2.
Pretty important first career goal
Filip Hallander has waited a long time to register his first career goal and he picked a great time to get it. Hallander’s shorthanded goal in the third period turned out to be the difference maker in the 4-2 victory.
The Swedish native was drafted in 2018 58th overall and played with WB/S earning three NHL games on his first stint in North America. He then went back to Sweden for two years before returning for the 2025-26 season.
He combined with Rickard Rakell while shorthanded to strike the game winner in a situation where Los Angeles was probably thinking they were going to be the ones to take the lead
It was a great individual effort by Rakell to gain the zone and let the shot rip off the post. Hallander did a nice job of recognizing the situation and joining up the ice even though the Penguins were shorthanded.
Congrats, Filip.
Good bounce back performance
Arturs Silovs didn’t have a great time against the Rangers in his last start. He gave up six goals on 24 shots in the 6-1 blowout last Saturday.
Last night, he gave up two goals in the first period and then locked things down. I wouldn’t put the goals on him. The first one was a rebound his teammates lost the battle on and the second one was a bad door tap in off a poor turnover which led to transition. After those goals the Kings got nothing.
Much like the game not all the saves were aesthetically pleasing. There were times Silovs was swimming around and the Kings were unable to direct the puck back on goal to catch him. Regardless, it was a strong performance and he finished the night with a .938 save percentage, a much improved number than the .800 against New York.
Goals for the two-headed monster
Last night, for the 129th time, both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby scored in a regular season game together.
When it happens, you can see the Penguins are pretty close to unbeatable.
Malkin was able to score his goal on the power play using some movement and a little bit of puck luck beat Anton Forsberg
Malkin was able to take the space the Kings gave him and if teams want to give him that look I’m good with Malkin being selfish and trying to beat the goaltender from there. It was Malkin’s first goal of the year and it avoids him going goalless in the first four games of any season in his career.
Sidney Crosby’s second goal of the season was a long range empty netter he buried to take the stress away from what could have been an eventful finish to the game.
Fourth line steps up
It was a nice night for the depth forwards on the Penguins. At even-strength the top line was getting caved in on this evening. The Crosby line had an xGF% of 38.34 while Malkin’s line was at 34.57%. The Dewar-Lizotte-Aciarri line finished at 55.06 and helped stem the tide over the course of the evening.
The high point was Connor Dewar’s hustle goal less than a minute after Malkin’s power play goal which tied the game and shell shocked the Kings
It was a perfectly fitting goal for the messy game the Penguins played last night. Like Malkin’s goal, there was some puck luck to be had, but there are no style points to be had and the Penguins picked up the two points last night.
They have one more game left on their road trip on Saturday when they face the San Jose Sharks before making their way back across the country.
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