The Penguins are 9-4-2, top of the NHL. Sidney Crosby is the league\u2019s leading goal-scorer at 11. The (unexpected) situation fairly begs for refreshing Penguins notes!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Crosby is also just two points off the NHL\u2019s points lead. Even for him, he\u2019s sizzling. If Crosby drags this rag-tag Penguins team into the playoffs, he could get his third NHL MVP. At 38, that would make him the NHL\u2019s oldest MVP ever. (Crosby should already have three or four.)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Thursday\u2019s 5-3 victory over Washington wasn\u2019t a great win. But it would have been a bad loss. The Penguins blew a 3-0 lead for a second consecutive game but this time rallied to grab the two points. That result didn\u2019t save the Penguins\u2019 season, but it kept their hot start from officially turning to excrement. The dressing room was more relieved than happy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rookie forward Ben Kindel was brilliant on the power play Thursday, decent in his debut on Crosby\u2019s line. He needs to get closer to Crosby when the Penguins get the puck down low playing five-on-five. But Kindel is already sublime with the man-advantage \u2014 mostly on the left half-wall, but also rotating with Bryan Rust into the bumper spot. Kindel\u2019s puck movement and ability to patiently clear space befits a 10-year veteran. Kindel should not come off the top power-play when Rickard Rakell is healthy. Only Mario Lemieux coming out of retirement again should displace Kindel. His power-play IQ is tops on the team. Kindel was directing Erik Karlsson where to go at one point.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kindel is the current power-play catalyst. Crosby leads the NHL in man-advantage goals with six. But don\u2019t discount Evgeni Malkin\u2019s role in the Penguins\u2019 35.9% conversion rate, No. 1 in the league. Malkin\u2019s puck movement and precision have been big factors. He\u2019s got seven power-play points. His cross-ice dish to Bryan Rust for Thursday\u2019s game-winning PPG was wondrous.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Penguins had two monstrous penalty-kills on Thursday with the score tied 3-3 in the third period. Forward Connor Dewar did a lot of the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Karlsson has played more good games this season than he did in his prior two years with the Penguins. He\u2019s more responsible defensively but still makes plays. Coach Dan Muse has reeled Karlsson in just enough.<\/p>\n
\u2022 It\u2019s been years since the Penguins have had anyone consistently go hard to the net like winger Anthony Mantha. Mantha has seven goals and seems born again after surgery to repair a torn ACL last year. He puts opponents in the net along with the puck.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Penguins can score: Their 54 goals rank second-most in the NHL. But how quickly their defensive structure can abandon them is frightening. Their defensive corps isn\u2019t good. Their neutral-zone mistakes can be nauseating. Their penchant for stupid plays multiplies when they have a lead and feel their oats. Their 9-4-2 mark has a shaky foundation.<\/p>\n
\u2022 To wit, the Penguins allowed four goals in 10:12 on Monday at Toronto, three goals in 10:14 on Thursday vs. Washington. They need to work on that.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke has been a healthy scratch in five of the Penguins\u2019 last eight games and has struggled mightily when he has played. But I still wouldn\u2019t send Brunicke back to Major Junior. I\u2019ve got faith in his talent and attitude, and Brunicke just won\u2019t improve by returning to that level.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Washington\u2019s Alex Ovechkin got a standing ovation Thursday when his 900th career goal was shown on the Jumbotron, and rightly so. He\u2019s a true all-time great and a worthy foe.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Had Lemieux stayed healthy, he\u2019d have scored 900 goals. Maybe a thousand.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Crosby and Ovechkin played against each other for the 99th time on Thursday. They play twice more this season, a home-and-home on consecutive nights in April. It might be the best individual rivalry in hockey history. The only thing left for them to do is fight.<\/p>\n
\u2022 As this space previously noted, phenom goalie Sergei Murashov should have made his NHL debut Thursday. The Penguins erred stupidly by not playing him. It was a chance to create the kind of great moment the franchise is built upon. The win doesn\u2019t justify not starting him. If Muse sticks to his goaltending rotation, Murashov won\u2019t make his home debut until Nov. 21. There won\u2019t be half the buzz. Everybody will have already seen him play on TV.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Arturs Silovs played OK in goal on Thursday, making 28 saves. My demand that Murashov should have played doesn\u2019t reflect badly on him. Silovs was good enough, if not great.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Thursday was the Penguins\u2019 first sellout of the regular season. (In addition to Marc-Andre Fleury\u2019s exhibition game return.) The crowd was boosted by lots of Washington fans. But the Penguins have played to just 84.7% of capacity, second-worst in the NHL. The hot start isn\u2019t enough of a draw, nor is the team\u2019s old-timey star power. Different hype seems needed.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Saturday\u2019s game at New Jersey will tell a tale. The teams are tied at the top of the NHL with 20 points. The Devils are a difficult matchup. They have a deep roster, which the Penguins don\u2019t. The Devils\u2019 whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A bit of star power anchored by center Jack Hughes. Their goaltending isn\u2019t great, but whose is?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Penguins are 9-4-2, top of the NHL. Sidney Crosby is the league\u2019s leading goal-scorer at 11. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-277615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}