The Penguins won a game for the first time this year. And even though they haven’t played a game since 2016, they picked up right where they left off, easily beating the Lightning to move their current win streak to five games.
The big talk surrounding this game was how the Penguins would come out after the seven-day vacation and how much rust there would be. Turns out there was only a Bryan Rust for the Pens, who haven’t played a game in a week and still were ranked second in both goals and shots coming into this game, which can now have another six goals and 40 shots added to those totals. It’s almost getting redundant, just describing how good this team is in almost every facet after each game. Only Jung-Ho Kang hijacking the team bus can derail them at this point.
Before the game the Pens honored the 2009 Stanley Cup team, even the USS Gill was there to make an appearance:
Matt Cooke stepped near the ice and didn’t physically assault anyone. Tyler Kennedy missed the picture shot by six feet but someone was there to move him in. All in all it was a great time until a very bizarre moment when multiple ball-taps appear to occur:
https://gfycat.com/ThickGrimGalago
No words, really.
Anyway, the hockey game…
The Pens looked fresh and had the jump early, putting up 15 shots in the first period, but couldn’t touch the back of the net as the first ended in a scoreless tie.
A little over two minutes into the second, Johnathan Drouin stayed onside and helped his team by putting them up 1-0. Victor Hedman shot off Valtteri Filppula in front of Fleury, and the puck slid to Drouin in the right circle and he one-timed a wrist shot home for the goal.
After that goal, things broke down for the Bolts faster than a Matt Moore scramble drill.
The Pens would go on to score the next four goals. Sheary would net the response goal about four minutes later, tapping in Rust’s loose change on the doorstep.
The puck was probably going in. Sheary should probably buy Rust a beer for that one.
Later, Fehr would put the Penguins ahead for good, one-timing a pass from Cullen past Vasilevskiy’s blocker. The two almost hooked up just moments prior but Vasilevsky did some robbery. Turns out it wouldn’t matter, as Cullen and Fehr were able to finish the job.
Hard to say if anyone would have needed a break in the regular season more than Cullen, Fehr and Chris Kunitz, who came out looking like they spent the week in cryotherapy. Kunitz would open the scoring in third with another goal from a high-danger scoring area…
…which is where the Penguins did almost all of their damage:
The only goal that didn’t come from below or between the circles was the sixth and final goal from Letang, which made its way through a ton of traffic. For comparison, the Lightning only mustered seven shots from the same area.
Scott Wilson made it 4-1 when Anton Stralman couldn’t handle the puck and his blue line and Wilson beat the traffic out of the city before anyone else in attendance.
The Bolts got some garbage time stuff to make you wonder, but Phil Kessel killed that dream with seven minutes to go.
Unreal awareness by Crosby to push the puck in Kessel’s direction, but it’s Crosby so we probably shouldn’t be that impressed.
Letang added the touchdown goal with two minutes to play to make it 6-2 and that was all she wrote.
Two goals from the fourth line today and another from the third. Gotta love that.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) January 9, 2017
The Penguins are 18-2-2 at home. They've outscored their opponents here, 89-23. That's crazy.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) January 9, 2017
- Pens are now 13-3-1 in their last 17 regular season games against Tampa. Amazing to think about when the Bolts are realistically one of the top teams to contend with in the East.
- Obligatory comment that white jerseys at home should be the norm.
- Max Talbot couldn’t make the ceremony but at least seven ex-girlfriends were in attendance.
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