NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- There are two disparate ways to view the Penguins' 2-1 shootout victory over the Predators on Thursday night. Neither is necessarily wrong.
A pessimist might see that the Penguins were held to just one goal for the third time in their last four games and that their lone goal, as usual, came from the efforts of their top-line. A pessimist might also say that the Penguins blew yet another late lead when Matt Murray let in another soft goal.
Hard to argue against that.
But in the spirit of the start of spring, let's take the optimistic, glass-half-full approach because the Penguins had nothing to apologize for Thursday. They snapped their three-game losing skid by pulling out of Bridgestone Arena with two richly earned points and moved into a second-place tie with the Islanders in the Metro Division, though New York still has a game in-hand. But play as they did here for 65 minutes, there's no reason why the Penguins shouldn't have home-ice advantage in the first round.
From start to damn-near finish the Penguins were the better team. They controlled possession and territory, winning the Corsi For battle by a convincing 56-44 percent at all strengths. They won in the faceoff circle by a 20-percent margin. And they won in the effort department, too.
Don't believe me? Did you see this rugby scrum early in the third period? That's Brian Dumoulin, Kris Letang and Murray going all out in front of the goal line to protect a one-goal lead.
"It's an indication of the commitment of the players," Mike Sullivan was beaming afterward. "They're playing hard. They know the stakes are high and they're doing everything to help this team win, to a man."
Indeed, the Penguins deserved the victory, just their seventh beyond regulation this season, but perhaps no one needed it more than Murray. Especially after Ryan Ellis' no-angle, seeing-eye shot somehow squeaked between Murray's elbow and his post with just over three minutes remaining in regulation:
“It was a bit of a knuckle-puck, and I just didn’t squeeze tight enough,” Murray said. “One that I gotta have for sure.”
But you know what? Other than that, Murray was outstanding again despite little margin for error. He stopped 28 of 29 shots over 65 minutes and then all three in the shootout. If he was rattled by Ellis' goal, it didn't show. Certainly could have fooled Ryan Johansen, Ellis and Brian Boyle, who he stopped in succession:
Murray, who has two Stanley Cup rings, is now the proud owner of one shootout win after coming up short in six previous attempts in his four-year career. Murray said his approach to overtime and shootouts is the same — it's always about stopping the next shot:
"I just try to stop every shot no matter what time of the game or what scenario it is," he said. "I just play hockey."
Murray is on a run where he's gone 7-2-4 with an outstanding .928 save percentage. But he's also coughed up tying goals in the final five minutes on four occasions, including the last two games. The one Justin Williams scored Tuesday night in Raleigh was just as egregious as Ellis'. Despite his goalie's penchant for brain cramps, Sullivan gave Murray a very public endorsement afterward, saying the goalie has been "playing terrific."
“He’s made some big saves," the coach said. "He’s so calm and confident in there. He looks so big in the net. I think he’s playing terrific. I think the goaltending position, that resilience, that applies to that position more than any ... he has that. He has that attribute instinctively. He’s playing really well for us right now.”
Whether that vote of confidence will give Murray a boost remains to be seen. But if the Penguins are to get where they want to go, they'll need to have more consistent goaltending, and they'll need to close out tight games in the playoffs.
Sidney Crosby joked that the Penguins have "had a lot of practice" lately in not competing start to finish. But he knows this: "You need to go through those situations in order to learn from them. It's better to learn from a win."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Bryan Rust
Penguins right winger
Scored his 18th goal of the season and he played a game-high 3:11 short-handed.
2. Matt Murray
Penguins goaltender
Made 28 saves to pick up the win. Other than that one goal, Murray was rock solid.
3. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
Sealed the deal with his shootout goal, his first of the season in the breakaway skills competition.
THE GOOD
It was Rust's third game back after missing nine games with a lower body injury and his second since being reunited with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel on the top line.
His goal at 5:57 of the second period gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead. It started after Murray got a piece of Craig Smith's shot on a 2-on-1 on one end and ended 20 seconds and 200 feet later when Rust put this backhander under Rinne:
Using his speed, Rust initially tried driving to the net but was rebuked by Rinne's poke-check. Crosby corralled the loose puck and fed Letang at the point where he fired a seam pass to Rust at the front of the net. From there, Rust beat Mattias Ekholm and then Rinne.
It was his 18th of the season, extending his career high for goals, and his first in over a month. With seven games to go, a 20-goal season is in sight. Rust called it a "big number" but after scoring just one goal in the first 29 games this season, even he wonders what could have been. Thirty?
"After the first 30 games, I would have been happy to get five," Rust was telling me. "That's how hockey goes. Just trying to keep getting the chances and eventually things will turn."
As big as the goal, Rust was just as good on special teams. He played a game-high 3:11 short-handed and was part of a PK unit that went 3-for-3 against the Predators. The Penguins are now 5-for-5 through the first two games of their four-game road trip.
THE BAD
Much like the Penguins' performance itself, Phil Kessel's night was both good and bad. But in a bottom-line business, Kessel's job is to put the puck in the net. He didn't do it at 5v5 for the 25th straight game, though he certainly had this great chance on a partial break early in the first period:
It was Kessel's trademark crow-hop on the rush down the right side and he even put the shot where he wanted, high to the far side, but Pekka Rinne got just a piece of it with his stick handle. That was just the first of three great looks that Kessel had in the opening two periods. Later, he was also stopped in the shootout for the second game in a row. Kessel had one shot on goal and five attempts as the second line had a lowly CF% of 35.29 with one scoring chance for and two against.
THE PLAY
Little known fact: The greatest player of his generation has been sort of "meh" in shootouts. By comparison, he's no Artemi Panarin, the active leader with a 63.2 success rate. Crosby entered the night with a career shootout percentage of 43.5 and had been 0-for-4 this season.
Crosby changed that narrative on the Penguins' second attempt after Rinne denied Kessel:
Crosby, who had once beaten Rinne on his backhand on a breakaway in Game 4 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, simplified things Thursday. The captain skated straight down the ice and snapped off a shot that beat the Nashville goalie through the five hole.
With the Penguins needing two points, the captain came through.
"That's what he does for us," Sullivan said.
THE CALL
With his team clinging to a 1-0 third-period lead, Sullivan went for the jugular at the 8:07 mark after Rocco Grimaldi was whistled for high-sticking on Bjugstad.
Sullivan sent out his No. 1 unit with Crosby, Hornqvist, Guentzel, Kessel and Letang. You'll note that there wasn't a second defenseman and it nearly backfired on Sullivan.
Crosby lost the puck as he entered the offensive zone resulting in a partial breakaway the other way for Viktor Arvidsson. With Letang giving chase and visions of the Penguins' league-leading 15 short-handed goals-against dancing in everyone's heads, Arvidsson fired an 18-footer that went wide left on Murray:
The play was eerily similar to Sebastian Aho's breakaway in overtime Tuesday as Letang again gave another small slash, though there was no penalty called here. No misconduct either. Had the Penguins required a third attempt in the shootout, Letang would have been it.
THE OTHER SIDE
Peter Laviolette scrambled his bottom three lines during the third period and it paid off with 13 shots and, finally, Ellis' goal at 16:09. But it wasn't enough as the Predators lost for just the second time in six shootouts this season. It also snapped Nashville's three-game winning streak.
"You have to remember that it's a good team, who we played against," said Rinne, who made 32 saves. "They were good too, and they had some chances and it was back and forth, both teams playing well defensively. So I would say it was, all in all, a good game."
Nashville's 30th-ranked power play was particularly brutal. Despite the presence of Wayne Simmonds, who was bumped down to the fourth line and was nearly invisible, the Predators went 0-for-3 with just two shots.
By stealing a point on Murray's gaffe, the Predators kept pace in the Central where they trail the Jets by two points, 92-90. They will face the Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday.
THE DATA
• The third line of Dominik Simon, Nick Bjugstad and Patric Hornqvist did not score but was the Penguins' most effective trio. And it wasn't even close. They had an 80.81 CF% at 5v5.
• In his NHL debut, Adam Johnson played 3:59, just :50 of it after the second period. But he was noticeable, which is more than some others on that line have been. On his first shift, Johnson had a shot and a hit.
• Johansen was "credited" with five giveaways.
• Matt Cullen and Crosby each won 83 percent of their faceoffs.
• The Penguins have now had shootouts in two consecutive games after going 44 games without one.
THE INJURIES
• Evgeni Malkin, center, missed his third game and is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, missed his sixth game with a hip injury and is now out 'longer term.'
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, is still out with a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11. He took part in Thursday's morning skate and appears close to returning.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his 12th game with an upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel - Crosby - Rust
McCann - Blueger - Kessel
Simon - Bjugstad - Hornqvist
Johnson - Cullen - Wilson
Dumoulin - Letang
Johnson - Schultz
Pettersson - Gudbranson
• This is what Laviolette finished with:
Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Granlund - Turris - Smith
Sissons - Bonino - Grimaldi
Boyle - Jarnkrok - Simmonds
Josi - Ellis
Ekholm - Subban
Irwin - Weber
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins cancelled Friday's planned practice at Dallas' American Airlines Center where they'll face the Stars on Saturday night. DK will have your coverage deep in the heart of Texas.
THE COVERAGE
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