Drive to the Net: Hornqvist paves the path

Dec 15, 2016 • 2:00 am

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Be nice to Tuukka Rask, Pittsburgh.

If it weren't for him, there'd be no Patric Hornqvist around here and, thus, no fourth Stanley Cup.

Those who've followed the Penguins for more than the past couple of winters know what I'm talking about. They'll recall, through a cringed forehead and gritted teeth, that 2013 Eastern Conference final. The one where your favorite multi-superstar-blessed hockey team squeezed out all of two goals and, what, a dozen total quality shots against Rask?

Oh, that really happened.

Things haven't changed much in Boston since then. Sure, the current roster is mostly unrecognizable except to the closest of kin to the Carlo, Czarnik, Grzelcyk, Acciari and Schaller families. But the half-dozen that remain -- Rask, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, Torey Krug and the great Zdeno Chara -- are still the core. And the coach, Claude Julien, is still Conservative Claude, so cautious in his strategy he probably walks into the building backward.

As Chris Kunitz gently worded it Wednesday morning at PPG Paints Arena, "Don't kid yourself: They're still the Bruins."

But the Penguins, of course, once again are the Penguins. Fresh off a championship, flying high with a seven-game winning streak, now atop the entire NHL at 20-7-3, and even beating the Bruins as they did by nightfall, 4-3, on Bryan Rust's overtime bouncing, backhanded beauty by Rask:

That's where the game was won, but it also really wasn't.