The Penguins embarked on a new streak on Tuesday night: One win.
In their last game at PPG Paints Arena for another 20 days, the Penguins certainly sent the crowd home happy with their 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers.
But if we're being brutally honest, in many ways, it may have been their least impressive victory since their turnaround began in earnest in early December, if not this season.
The Penguins were out-shot 37-31 and their possession numbers were even worse (the Panthers held a 60-40 Corsi For percentage advantage, if you must know). Really, if not for the combination of Matt Murray being so good early and Roberto Luongo being not-so good, it's likely a different outcome and the Penguins are looking at their first two-game losing streak in over a month.
"It certainly isn't the type of game that we want to play," Mike Sullivan said afterward.
No, it wasn't.
Despite their best efforts, the Penguins can't always dictate the terms of how a game is going to be played. You have to win different ways in the NHL and the Penguins certainly went a little out of their comfort zone to pick up points Nos. 53 and 54 to pull to within two points of the division-leading Capitals.
In addition to winning when not at their best, the Penguins showed something that should serve them well down the road: They're not going to get pushed around.
Though fighting is dying a slow death, it still happens, on some teams more than others. The Penguins' average of 0.12 fights per game this season had been the fourth-lowest in the NHL but somewhat fittingly on "70's Night," Pittsburgh channeled its inner Battleship Kelly and Bryan Watson.
You won't find the names of Zach Aston-Reese and Marcus Pettersson anywhere among the game's official three stars, but their pugilistic contributions were certainly appreciated by their teammates.
As Sullivan was saying earlier Tuesday, his team is not the biggest or strongest. Their strength lies in their skill and speed. And with Jamie Oleksiak sitting out for the fifth time in six games, those disadvantages were only magnified.
The Panthers, a team that is at risk of fading from playoff contention, grew more than a little frustrated after the opportunistic Penguins jumped out to a 4-0 lead barely half-way into Tuesday night's game.
Predictably, that frustration finally boiled over with a little more than three minutes remaining in the second period when McKenzie Weegar threw one of Florida's 37 hits on Riley Sheahan in the Penguins' defensive zone and then wanted a piece of someone, anyone.
Marcus Pettersson obliged him, too. All 177 pounds soaking wet of him. Even more predictably, the Swedish defenseman ate about four hard lefts from Weegar:
"That guy was just looking for something," Pettersson was telling me with a small cut below his nose. "I didn't plan on dropping my gloves to begin with, but thought I kind of had to. That's the way it goes.
"I didn't want to back out either. I wanted to stand up for myself."
Though Weegar clearly won the fight, Pettersson showed some serious guts by taking on a guy 25 pounds heavier. Pettersson won his team’s respect too, if he hadn't already with his strong play since coming over from Anaheim on Dec. 3 for Daniel Sprong.
"Everybody was happy for me the way I stuck up for myself and the team," Petterssson said of his reception at the bench, where he got a pat on the rear from Evgeni Malkin before making his way down the tunnel for repairs. "They all acknowledged that, so it was great to see."
But the Pettersson fight was only the undercard for the main event which went down at the 5:49 mark of the third period.
After an Aston-Reese hit — called an interference penalty — shook up Frank Vatrano, the 24-year-old was a marked man. Just moments after he stepped out of the box, Colton Sceviour sought out some payback.
Now, unlike Pettersson, Aston-Reese is somewhat schooled in fighting.
Though he would hardly be called an enforcer, it is a part of his repertoire. Going back to his days with Lincoln in the USHL, he's had 16 fights in his career, including his first in the NHL just 12 days ago in St. Louis when he took on the Blues' Joel Edmundson. It's one of the reasons why the organization was so high on signing him as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2017.
The kid from Staten Island is tough. Ask Sceviour:
It appeared that the Panthers' veteran got in one shot but Aston-Reese got in two, including the last one that dropped Sceviour.
"We were just trying to play the game hard," Sullivan was saying. "Zach, obviously, had compete. I thought he had a physical game. He was finishing checks and that's when Zach's at his best."
Obviously, the Penguins would rather not see anyone injured, especially Aston-Reese, who has been a significant factor in the team's turnaround. It's unclear if he suffered a facial injury -- you might recall that Tom Wilson's illegal hit last spring broke his jaw, requiring surgery -- or if he injured his right hand on Sceviour's head. Neither is good as Sullivan said he expects Aston-Reese to be out for "a little bit."
But as "'70s Night" at PPG Paints Arena proved, fights still happen, still have consequences and the Penguins -- even without Oleksiak -- can still handle themselves.
"We've got a lot of toughness on this team," Pettersson was saying. "Toughness comes in different varieties as well. Blocking shots, working our asses off. It comes in different shapes and I think we showed that."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Matt Murray
Penguins goaltender
Made 36 saves and extended his personal career-high winning streak to eight games. Has allowed two or fewer goals in the last seven.
2. Bryan Rust
Penguins right winger
Snapped a six-game mini-slump with a pair of goals, giving him 100 points in his career. He's now scored 10 of his 11 goals since Dec. 12.
3. Zach Aston-Reese
Penguins right winger
Penguins need to get this guy back in the lineup soon.
THE INJURIES
• Patric Hornqvist, right winger, left the game in the first period after taking a puck to the face and did not return. He was still being evaluated. Hornqvist has had no luck with injuries this season. In addition to missing nine games with a shoulder injury and a concussion, he's also taken a puck to the head in a warmup, that required stitches, and in practice.
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, left the game late in the third period with an undisclosed injury believed to be suffered in his fight.
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, is out until mid-February with a fractured leg suffered Oct. 13 at Montreal. Schultz has begun skating on his own and is considered week-to-week.
THE GOOD
Apparently, shorthanded goals come in bunches for the Penguins. Before Tuesday, the only two they'd scored came in back-to-back games on Dec. 14 and 15 (Aston-Reese vs. the Bruins and Matt Cullen vs. the Kings).
Now they can add two more to their mantle.
Bryan Rust scored his second goal of the game and third shorthanded of his career at 3:04 of the second when Brian Dumoulin broke up the Panthers' breakout and chipped a puck up to Cullen at the offensive blue line, creating a 2-on-2 chance. Inexplicably, Keith Yandle sat back giving the 42-year-old Cullen time and space to find Rust driving to the net past Jonathan Huberdeau, who provided minimal defense. Rust, who scored earlier at even strength on his backhand, deked Roberto Luongo with his forehand this time to make it 3-0:
"We're just trying to skate a little more, trying to be a little more aggressive up ice and I guess that's just a product of that," Rust was telling me of his team's recent success on the PK.
Nearly six minutes later, Riley Sheahan picked Yandle's pocket in the neutral zone to create another opportunity. With Aston-Reese driving the center of the ice to create a screen, Sheahan fired under the glove of Luongo, who was pulled after giving up his fourth goal on just 16 shots:
It was a strong bounce-back performance for the Penguins' PK, which went 4-for-4 against the Panthers after basically giving up three power play goals to the Blackhawks on Sunday.
Also credit Sullivan -- who scored 16 shorthanded goals in his own playing career -- and his staff for doing their homework. The Panthers had the NHL's third-ranked power play but Florida had also yielded seven shorthanded goals. After Rust and Sheahan scored Tuesday, they now are tied with the Bruins for the league "lead."
"It was just game-planning for what we were going to see against their power play and their breakout in particular," Sullivan explained.
Tuesday marked the first time in nearly three years that the Penguins scored two shorties in one game. Tom Kuhnhackl and Nick Bonino last did it, scoring 24 seconds apart in the second period vs. Buffalo on March 29, 2016.
THE BAD
Before Tuesday, only the Bruins (nine) had allowed more shorthanded goals than the Penguins (eight) this season.
But, man, the Penguins tried to give up Nos. 9, 10 and 11 on Tuesday. The Penguins' sixth-ranked power play surrendered three quality chances to the Panthers, who were denied each time by Murray.
The Penguins last allowed a shorthanded goal to the Islanders' Brock Nelson on Dec. 6, a span of 15 games. The shorthanded chances for Troy Brouwer, Sceviour and Aleksander Barkov, who attempted a between-the-legs move down four goals, were all the result of what Sullivan calls a lack of a "defensive conscience."
It was the second straight rough night for the Penguins' power play, which has now gone 0-for-7 after converting on eight of their previous 13 in the four games prior.
THE PLAY
The Penguins' second goal was the result of a pair of heads-up plays from one of their more cerebral players.
Rust got the goal at 3:03 of the first period but it was all Jake Guentzel's doing.
Crosby threw a soft pass to Guentzel at the offensive blueline that Ekblad anticipated but Guentzel got a stick on it before it reached the Panthers' defenseman. With one hand on his stick, Guentzel chipped it through Aaron Ekblad's legs to set up a 2-on-1 break. Yandle raced out to play Guentzel, who sold the shot. With his head up, Guentzel threw a pass to Rust, who did the rest:
While Guentzel has staked his reputation as a goal-scorer, the Penguins' $30 million (young) man is developing into a complete player.
"He passes the puck as well as he can finish," Sullivan said. "I think that's why he's developed that chemistry with Sid. The play he made earlier in the game with Rusty is just an indication of his passing ability."
THE CALL
The Panthers' night went from bad to worse with 10:33 remaining in the second period. That's when, after giving up their second shorthanded goal, it appeared that Ekblad put Florida on the board with a power play goal. It was a nice one, too, as Ekblad blasted a one-timer from the left circle that beat Murray high to the glove side.
However, the Penguins challenged that the Panthers entered the zone offsides. In fact, they did. As Henrik Borgstrom lugged the puck across the blueline, Vatrano was straddling the line but his back skate was in the air.
Although it was a close call, Toronto quickly overturned the on-ice call.
Well, at least they got that one right.
At 19:16 of the second, Barkov tipped an Ekblad point shot that beat Murray to the high blocker. Again, Sullivan challenged the goal, this time on the grounds of goaltender interference. But Murray stood no chance after Jared McCann threw his backside into the side of the goalie's head:
I asked Murray if he was surprised that the goal was upheld after what appeared to be a textbook case of interference.
"I was, yeah, but what are you going to do?" Murray said.
For a league that believed it solved the question of "what is goalie interference?" last spring by having the league office review each call from Toronto, the interpretation of the rule is still ambiguous.
Sullivan, with a little help from video coach Andy Saucier upstairs, is now 5-for-9 this season on coach's challenges.
THE OTHER SIDE
The Panthers locker room could not have seemed more dejected after this loss. The atmosphere was comparable to that of a funeral. The players who did speak afterwards sounded absolutely miserable. Most bolted for the showers immediately, while others sat in their stalls, untying their skates at a snails pace, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else.
The loss brought the Panthers' record to 17-17-7, now 5-4-1 in their previous 10 games, and losers of three straight.
Not much went right for the Panthers on Tuesday. For the seventh straight game, their opponent scored the first goal. The power play not only went 0-for-4, it allowed two goals. Starting goaltender Luongo was yanked after allowing four goals on 16 shots.
Who did head coach Bob Boughner bench for nearly the entire second half of the game? Some of the Panthers' best players -- defenseman Yandle, and forwards Huberdeau and Mike Hoffman.
"They weren't ready to play," Boughner said of his decision to bench the three players. "They didn't execute. They cost us a couple goals, didn't work hard enough, all of the above."
Yikes.
Hoffman, the Panthers' leading goal-scorer with 20 goals this season, only recorded 8:10 of ice time. He was on the ice for four Panthers shot attempts during 5-on-5 play, only one of which was his own, and 10 attempts against. His Corsi For percentage of 28.57 was the worst on the team, 34.08 percent lower than the team average when he was not on the ice.
The Panthers' stars had poor performances in the game, yes. But so did just about the entire team. Sceviour said after the game that the benching of the Panthers' big name players falls partly on the shoulders of the rest of the team. The best players need more support.
"Those guys win us most of our games," said Sceviour. "The amount of things they do for us night in and night out, they take a lot of pressure, good and bad. You feel like you almost let them down, because they're allowed to have off days. They're allowed to make mistakes. It seems like when they make mistakes, we can't pick them up."
Tuesday was the first game of a five-game road trip for the Panthers. If they are to turn things around, they'll have to capitalize on opportunities in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal over the next seven days before returning home to Sunrise. -- Taylor Haase
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will travel to Anaheim today where they will practice on Thursday and face the Ducks the following night in the first of a season-long, 11-day, five-game road trip that will also stop in Los Angeles, San Jose, Arizona and Vegas. Following their bye-week and the All-Star break, the Penguins will not play at home again until Jan. 28 vs. the Devils.
THE COVERAGE
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MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Panthers, PPG Paints Arena, Jan. 8, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS