Matt Murray called it a "force field."
That, the goalie was explaining to me, is the space that surrounds Erik Gudbranson on the ice. When you stand 6 feet 5, 217 pounds, it gives you immediate street cred in the battle areas of the NHL: The net front and in the corners. Gudbranson long ago earned that respect over his first seven-plus seasons in Vancouver and Florida.
But in Tuesday night's 5-3 win over the hated Capitals, just his seventh game with his new team, Gudbranson earned the undying love of his new team, and certainly of the 18,640 inside a delirious PPG Paints Arena and the hundreds of thousands watching at home.
And all it took was just one hit 2:10 into the first period. That's when Gudbranson reintroduced himself to Tom Wilson, public enemy No. 1 in this fair 'burgh and probably 29 other cities in the NHL. This wasn't some run of the mill body check, either. This was a slobber-knocker in the corner that sent the 6-4, 217-pound Wilson flying into the glass:
"He just happened to be there," Gudbranson explained. "If it was anyone else. I'd have done the exact same thing."
Of course, it wasn't anyone else. It was Wilson. This was the guy that concussed Brian Dumoulin with a questionable hit last spring, then ended Zach Aston-Reese's season with an illegal hit in that same second-round series. And it was Wilson who KO'd Jamie Oleksiak in the last meeting between these bitter Metro Division rivals on Dec. 20.
Was there any extra satisfaction from that hit?
"I think for the people of Pittsburgh, for sure," Gudbranson said with a smile. "But I knew if I could get a lick on him and just let him know I'm on the ice too, then at some point in the game ... it's something I wanted to do. It was a good hit, I guess."
No, it was a great hit in a first period that featured no shortage of physical play.
Not a minute later, Dumoulin went shoulder to shoulder on T.J. Oshie, giving the Wilson-apologist a skate to the face in the process:
Fortunately, Oshie was OK. Later in the first period, Wilson dropped Jack Johnson, the leading hitter on the team that leads the NHL in hits, with a clean check in open ice:
All the while, Gudbranson and Wilson exchanged not-so pleasantries throughout the game, and seemingly every TV timeout. After the Penguins overcame a two-goal deficit to take 3-2 lead, Wilson came back for more in the third. It was inevitable, really.
Just 4:02 into the final period, Murray froze the puck on a weak Evgeny Kuznetsov shot but, undeterred, Wilson skated into the crease plowing over Marcus Pettersson, all 177 pounds of him, and then tried to get a hold of Jake Guentzel, all 180 pounds of him. For a guy in Gudbranson's line of work, that's a huge no-no:
"He knows his role," Mike Sullivan said afterward. "He's a tough kid."
So, Gudbranson did what comes naturally to him. He stood up for his team, his teammates and, some would argue, a city that had allowed Wilson to live rent free in its collective psyche for too long.
"I just saw him trying to grab someone," he said when I'd asked. "He was literally the first guy in front of me. I just grabbed him."
When Gudbranson slammed Wilson down to the ice with all his weight behind it, you could almost hear a cathartic mix of cheers and relief emanating throughout the building. As he thrashed around on the ice, with linesmen Ryan Gibbons and Ryan Daisy on top of Gudbranson, Wilson tried to paw at the Penguins defenseman.
When he was able to get to his skates, Gudbranson tossed aside his gloves and unbuckled his helmet in the hopes of staging a rematch of their Oct. 26, 2017 fight in Vancouver. And if it weren't for Gibbons and Daisy, there would have been one.
"Yeah, there's two guys in between us," Gudbranson explained. "It's tough to start a fight when you start on the ground. Usually the refs are pretty good at breaking them up. They want to break stuff up like that before it gets going."
If only they just let it go ...
But Tuesday's game was case-in-point as to why Jim Rutherford felt compelled to acquire Gudbranson at the trade deadline. In hockey, it's called pushback. The 27-year-old has plenty of it.
Though he doesn't prefer to talk about fighting like, say, Ryan Reaves, the one that got away, it is a part of Gudbranson's repertoire. It had been missing since that night in D.C. before Christmas when Wilson pummeled Oleksiak. It was certainly missing when Evander Kane mocked the Penguins' bench. It was missing when Wayne Simmonds plowed Dumoulin and Kris Letang, who has now missed eight games, was injured trying to intervene.
Tuesday was only a start for Gudbranson, though, as the Penguins head down the home stretch and what's looking more and more likely, the playoffs. Surely, there'll be more and if recent history is any indication, it will be against the Capitals.
"That was a fun hockey game," Gudbranson said. "A really fun hockey game."
While Gudbranson might be elevated to folk hero status locally, he's already a star in the Penguins' dressing room. And that's where it matters most.
"You know when he's on the ice," Sidney Crosby was telling me. "He's physical. He's strong in front of the net. With his size, he uses it to his advantage. Tonight was a good example of that. He played a gritty game and for guys who haven't been a part of these games, they found out pretty quickly that it's amped up a little bit. It's a different feel out there, for sure."
Oh, the other thing about Gudbranson is that he's been quite good at using his hands to do things other than trying to throttle the Tom Wilsons of the NHL.
For whatever reasons, he failed to live up to his third overall selection in the 2010 draft. But whatever his advanced metrics with the Canucks suggested, he's been rock solid since arriving in Pittsburgh. Gudbranson points to the better puck support in Sullivan's system and the help of Pettersson, his partner on the Penguins' third defense pair. But the numbers don't lie. The guy who had a league-worst, minus-27 rating and a 43.45 Corsi For percentage this season with the Canucks, has been a plus-5 with a 57.20 CF% with the Penguins. And he's a force field, as Murray says:
"I think (Gudbranson) makes life easier for everybody," the goalie said. "Everyone's kind of scared to go around him. He's so big and strong and plays hard around the net. It's an underrated attribute for sure. He does it probably the best out of anybody."
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THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Evgeni Malkin
Penguins center
You record 1,000 points in your career, you get top billing here and in Taylor's Drive to the Net.
2. Erik Gudbranson
Penguins defenseman
Need I say more?
3. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
Two goals in just 1:01 and now fourth in the Art Ross race.
THE GOOD
This team, man.
After a flat start, the Penguins appeared to be well on their way to defeat after the Capitals took a 2-0 lead on a pair Jakub Vrana goals. But that's the thing about the Penguins, they can never be completely ruled out.
"We know we can score goals," said Murray. "We always say that, but we've just got to play the right way and not cheat to do it. When we do that, we play a hard game; hard to play against. We know we can score goals when we get the opportunity and we showed that tonight."
Indeed, the Penguins turned a two-goal deficit around in just 1:48 on goals from Guentzel and a pair from Crosby.
THE BAD
Murray's false start.
Vrana's first goal with 32 seconds remaining in the first period was a softy. Yes, it was the result of a Crosby giveaway in the neutral zone, but Murray has to make the stop on Vrana's wrist shot from atop the right circle. No screen, no nothing.
But as bad as that was, Vrana's second goal was worse or at least aesthetically worse. From damn near the half-wall, Vrana threw a 44-foot wrister on net that Murray got a blocker on. But instead of pushing the rebound aside, the puck went straight up ... before finally hitting the goalie's back and into the back of his net:
"Just a weird bounce," Murray said. "You just kind of move by it."
To his credit, he did move by it. The only other goal Murray allowed was John Carlson's power-play goal with just under six minutes to play that made things interesting until Jared McCann put the game away with his fourth empty net goal in 20 games with the Penguins.
Making his ninth straight start, Murray stopped 38 of 41 shots. He is now 6-1-2 since his last game off.
THE PLAY
Speaking of McCann, it was his hustle play that sparked the Penguins' comeback in the first place.
At 12:37 of the second, McCann caught Evgeny Kuznetsov sleeping at the wheel as the Capitals' center carried the puck out of his defensive zone. McCann picked Kuznetsov's pocket, creating a short 2-on-1 with Guentzel. While fending off Brooks Orpik, he backhanded a pass to Guentzel at the left side of the net for a layup:
That was Guentzel's 35th of the season and sixth goal in six games. With a dozen games remaining, you have to like his chances to get five more to reach 40.
"It was a huge goal," Sullivan said when I'd asked him about McCann's role in this stirring victory. "It was the turning point in the game, I think. The way we grabbed a hold of momentum after that, our bench got a foot taller after we score that goal. You could see it in our play, the energy that we came with the subsequent shift after that goal. It was a huge point in the game."
And it was the kind of heads-up play that has quickly endeared the 22-year-old to Pittsburgh. He now has eight points (four goals) in the last six games.
THE CALL
After the Penguins knotted the game at 2-2 on successive goals from Guentzel and Crosby, Sullivan went for the jugular. Forget that whole two-defensemen thing. After his revamped power-play units showed precious little on their first two attempts against Washington's 21st-ranked penalty kill, Sullivan got the band back together, reuniting Crosby with Malkin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist and Justin Schultz on the top unit.
Obviously it was a bit of a gamble in a tied game, given the Penguins' propensity for giving up short-handed goals.
Instead, just 30 seconds after Nick Backstrom went off for tripping, Crosby rewarded Sullivan's faith. From the left circle, Malkin fed Kessel at the goal line to the left of Holtby. From there, Kessel found a seam in the defense, threading a perfect pass to Crosby at the right circle where the captain pushed a one-timer to the far side and past Holtby to give the Penguins a stunning 3-2 lead:
It was Crosby's 33rd of the season, and not bad for a guy who said he wasn't even aiming that shot above.
In the third period, Kessel tacked on another power play goal -- his second in four games -- to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead at 11:56. From the left side of the net, Kessel banged in the rebound of a Schultz shot. Malkin picked up the secondary assist for his milestone marker.
So, why the change of heart on the power play from Sullivan?
"We just believe in them and we know that they're capable of being so good," he explained. "And they score big goals at key times and they did it tonight for us."
It was just the second time in the last 12 games that the Penguins scored multiple goals on the advantage.
THE OTHER SIDE
Like the Bruins before them, the Capitals saw an extended winning streak come to an end this week at PPG Paints Arena.
Unfortunately for the Capitals, their seven-game run came to an end due to self-inflicted wounds, beginning with Kuznetsov's turnover to McCann.
"I thought we put together a good start to the game, and carrying the better part of the play," Todd Reirden said. "They are able to convert on a mistake by us and get some momentum, and we had a tough time of slowing it down throughout the second there. But it was a good start to the game. We just weren't able to finish it off."
In a game filled with stars and milestones, there was one sweet moment during the first TV timeout in the first period for Carl Hagelin, who received a standing ovation in his return to Pittsburgh.
"It was a good feeling," Hagelin said. "It was nice of the Pens to do that for me. I had three great years with some success and I appreciate everything they've done for me. The fans and the city have been great, but that's over now. Now I focus on the next game. Obviously, a tough one with a loss tonight."
Despite their defeat here, the Capitals remain on top of the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of the Islanders and four ahead of the Penguins, who remain in third place.
THE DATA
• Malkin became the fifth active player in the 1,000 point club along with Joe Thornton (1,468), Crosby (1,206), Ovechkin (1,200) and Patrick Marleau (1,164).
• Ovechkin reached his 1,200th point with the primary assist on Carlson's power-play goal.
• The Penguins improved to 10-1 in their third jerseys. Unfortunately, they will wear them only one more time: March 29 vs. the Predators.
• The Malkin line, with Teddy Blueger taking over at left wing, had the Penguins' best CF% at 5v5 with 50.00.
• Nick Bjugstad attempted a game-high and personal-high eight shots, all of them on goal.
THE INJURIES
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, missed his first game with a hip injury and is day-to-day.
• Kris Letang, defenseman, missed his eighth game with an upper body injury.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11. He’s on IR.
• Bryan Rust, forward, missed his seventh game with a lower-body injury.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his seventh game with an upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
McCann—Crosby—Guentzel
Blueger—Malkin—Kessel
Simon—Bjugstad—Hornqvist
Wilson—Cullen—Blandisi
Johnson—Schultz
Dumoulin—Trotman
Pettersson—Gudbranson
• And for Reirden's Capitals:
Ovechkin—Kuznetsov—Wilson
Vrana—Backstrom—Oshie
Hagelin—Eller—Connolly
Burakovsky—Dowd—Boyd
Kempny—Carlson
Orlov—Niskanen
Orpik—Jensen
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have an off day today as they travel to Buffalo where they'll take on the Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday night. Matt Sunday and I will have your coverage beginning with Thursday's morning skates.
THE COVERAGE
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MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Capitals, PPG Paints Arena, March 12, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS