PHILADELPHIA — Look hard and you won’t find the name “Mike Sullivan” anywhere on Sunday’s scoresheet.
But make no mistake, the coach’s fingerprints were all over the Penguins’ 5-1 win over the Flyers in Game 3.
Remember all that talk about finding stability in the line combinations? About his preference to keep his top three scorers — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel — on separate lines? Forget about it.
When the Penguins took the ice for the pre-game skate, the line rushes shown were the same as those used in Games 1 and 2, and basically those used in recent weeks.
Then, a funny thing happened: The game started.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOX SCORESullivan played the old switcheroo with his right wings, placing Patric Hornqvist on the top line and moving Bryan Rust down to the third and allowing Kessel to be reunited with Malkin.
Showing once again that he knows his team and how to push its buttons, Sullivan’s plan worked to perfection, or at least victory and a 2-1 series lead.
“It was more of a general shakeup a little bit,” Sullivan explained afterward. “There's not any combination that we haven’t used in the past. Sometimes, when we just tweak a little bit, we get a positive response from people.”
Indeed, Kessel-Malkin and Crosby-Hornqvist — who combined on the Penguins' first goal Sunday – have been fairly common this season. But in taking Kessel off the third line, that left Derick Brassard centering Conor Sheary and Rust. That’s a new one.
Brassard, playing just his third game after missing two weeks with a groin injury, scored his second goal of the series, albeit on the power play:
The Penguins' biggest trade deadline acquisition had shown some decent chemistry with Kessel, but nothing like the connection shared between Kessel and Malkin, a duo which played a large part in the Penguins' title defense last spring.
Sunday’s “general shakeup” could be what’s needed to get Kessel going, particularly at even strength.
Apparently playing through some sort of upper body injury, Kessel has been conspicuously quiet in recent weeks, though he did earn the primary assist — a nice one — on Brassard’s power play goal.
Physically, Brassard said he’s been improving daily. Given Sunday’s win, it would seem his next challenge is getting used to a new right wing:
“Tonight we had a different look with different lines and everything, so just trying to build on some chemistry between guys,” he said. “Just trying to play on the right side of the puck, trying to build your game.”