ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The record will show that 2018 will forever be remembered, from the Penguins' perspective, as the year they did not lift the Stanley Cup after doing so the previous two summers.
Well, we're still another five months and change from knowing if they can reclaim it in 2019, but they've certainly set themselves up with a running start.
On this New Year's Eve at the Xcel Energy Center, they flipped the calendar by fending off the Wild, 3-2, for a sixth straight win that was part of a season-saving 11-3-1 December, following a 4-7-3 November. And as has been the case for much of the past 31 days, it was done on the strength of special teams, secondary scoring and goaltending, goaltending and more goaltending.
"It's been different things," Sidney Crosby was saying. "Our goaltending, for sure. We wouldn't win a number of these games without the big saves those guys have been making. We still need to improve, I think. But our mentality, we're doing a better job of keeping it simple and not forcing things for the most part. We're getting big plays. Special teams have been good. Probably a number of different things. Timely goals, timely saves. They probably stick out the most."
Timely saves in the second period stuck out again, just as they had two nights earlier in St. Louis. Only it was Casey DeSmith making those saves now, and Matt Murray then.
The backup-in-name-only stopped 31 of 33 shots, 13 of them in the middle period, to earn his first win since Dec. 20, also against the Wild. And what was most impressive wasn't the quantity but the quality, with Minnesota generating 11 high-danger chances to the visitors' three.
A montage of DeSmith's greatest hits:
If anyone should have lifted a glass to DeSmith later Monday night it was Jack Johnson, who was twice bailed out by his goaltender. On one, Johnson was undressed by Jason Zucker. On the other, Johnson blew a tire allowing Jordan Greenway a partial break.
"They dominated the second period," Crosby said. "They generated really, really good chances. It felt like almost every shot was Grade-A."
But despite the Wild's best attempts, DeSmith was unfazed. Although they are completely different personalties, as Mike Sullivan was saying before faceoff, in that sense, DeSmith is much like starting goalie Matt Murray.
"It's all about, as a goaltender, managing the game and knowing when they're kind of pressing and hold them off until your team finds a way to push back and responds," DeSmith was saying. "Luckily, I was able to do that in the second period. We had some guys who did a good job finishing their chances tonight. I think that was the story of the game."
Whether it's been DeSmith or Murray, goaltending has been the story of the Penguins' revival: Their .939 cumulative save percentage in December led the NHL.
Also, know this: The Penguins don't have a goalie controversy. What they have is a partnership. Sullivan considers it "a healthy competition amongst themselves."
I asked DeSmith how much he pushes Murray and whether there's been some oneupmanship between the two. The answer was pretty telling:
"Yeah, obviously, it's unspoken," he said. "But when I see him playing really well, I want to play well, too. Obviously, I always want to play well, but it's easier to kind of step in and pick up where he left off, rather than going in for a goalie who might be struggling when the other goalie's red-hot. It makes it a little easier to go in there and replicate it."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Phil Kessel
Penguins right winger
The former University of Minnesota Golden Gopher had a goal and two assists, giving him three points in each of the past three games, nine total. Don't look now, but Kessel's 16th on the NHL's scoring list with 46 points.
2. Casey DeSmith
Penguins goaltender
He's faced 160 total shots in his past four starts -- 40 per game -- and given up nine goals.
3. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
In his 900th game, joining Mario Lemieux as the only player to do it all in a Pittsburgh uniform, the captain tacked on another pair of points. That's 12 in the past four games.
THE INJURIES
• Bryan Rust, right winger, is day-to-day after a lower body injury Saturday in St. Louis.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, also had a lower-body injury from St. Louis, but he was called a 'game-time decision' by Sullivan and played.
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, is expected to be out until mid-February with a fractured leg. Sullivan said Thursday that Schultz is progressing as hoped and that the next step will be taking the ice.
THE GOOD
Riley Sheahan is a natural center disguised as a fourth-line winger -- on either side -- these days. But he does have a first-round pedigree. You just don't get drafted 21st overall to be a plugger.
He has the ability to do more than just kill penalties and he showed it again at 10:19 of the second period. That's if you could see it. Meaning when he fired an absolute missile that grazed off Marcus Foligno's stick and went past Dubnyk high to the blocker side to make it 3-1. The puck went bar down and out so quick -- with the naked eye -- it didn't appear to go in:
Matt Cullen earned the secondary assist and Kessel the primary after giving a nice feed in traffic to find Sheahan, who had just jumped over the boards, at the right circle.
Sheahan explained:
It was Sheahan's fifth goal of the season and first in a dozen games. Sullivan preaches all the time about having what he calls a "shooter's mentality:"
Sheahan doesn't disagree. He's on pace for 11 goals this season, which would match his 2017-18 total, but there's still more he feels he can get. He scored 14 in 2015-16 with Detroit, so it's possible.
"I think that's something I can do a little more of, is shoot," he was saying. "That one got a good bounce, but I think getting pucks on the net, there's a good chance something good is going to happen."
THE BAD
Inevitably, the Penguins' run of successful penalty-kills was going to come to an end at some point. It just would have been preferable if it came on some gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing or perhaps a flukey tip-in.
Instead, it ended at 14 kills -- a span of five games -- when Mikko Koivu fired a wrister from the high slot that beat DeSmith under his right arm to give Minnesota an early lead:
It was the only goal that DeSmith might have wanted back but, if you look, you see the problem came when Derek Grant curled back to the bench for a line change as the Wild entered the zone. That's not exactly a good idea when shorthanded. It turned a 5-on-4 advantage into a de facto 5-on-3 as Jake Guentzel couldn't get on the ice sooner. That's all on Grant, who, with Rust out, was back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 17.
Dec. 17 was also the last time that the Penguins' third-ranked PK unit had yielded a power play goal. That goal was scored by Anaheim's Adam Henrique at 2:07 of the second period with, yep, Grant on the ice for that one.
THE PLAY
Crosby's power-play goal. I dig into that in Drive to the Net.
THE CALL
No sooner had Luke Kunin raised his hands after deflecting a puck past DeSmith at 13:49 of the second period, Wes McAuley demonstrably waved it off 20 feet to the right:
For reasons unknown, McAuley went to the scorer's table to call Toronto to corroborate his on-ice call. After a brief review, it was determined that Kunin did hit the puck with a high stick and it was ruled no goal.
Only goals scored in the final two minutes are subject to league review. Coaches can challenge goals for goalie interference or off-sides.
THE OTHER SIDE
No one is happier than the Wild to not have to face DeSmith again this season. After making 40 saves against them on Dec. 20, DeSmith stopped 31 more on Monday.
And as they did two weeks ago in Pittsburgh when they also out-shot and out-chanced the Penguins, the Wild believed they deserved a better fate.
"It's really frustrating for us as a group," said Zach Parise, who made things interesting with his goal at 15:55 of the third, but DeSmith was able to lock it down the rest of the way. "You can probably recycle the same stuff we've said postgame for the last two, three weeks. Just we're not converting. That's the story right now."
The Wild have now lost six of seven, though their only win came against the Central Division-leading Jets. The Penguins will host Winnipeg on Friday night.
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to practice Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York, where they’ll take on the Rangers the next night.
THE COVERAGE
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