SUNRISE, Fla. -- Evan Rodrigues wasn't going to score. He made it to the NHL because of his feet, not his hands, and that career trajectory wasn't about to change over the course of a single half-rink breakaway with a world-class goaltender waiting at the far end.
Spoiler alert: It didn't.
And once it didn't, this was what boomeranged right back:
Yep. Panthers 5, Penguins 4, in overtime.
In the living moment on this Thursday night at FLA Live Arena, it had to be tough to take. The visitors turned a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead with less than seven minutes left in regulation ... then into a loss. No one skates away from that scenario with a smile, and this group didn't, either.
As Marcus Pettersson put it, "I mean, we've got to hold onto that lead."
At the same time, I'll counter with gusto that these guys need even more to hold onto the feeling of how fiercely competitive they were in claiming three of a possible four points on this Florida trip against two of the NHL's top teams ... possibly the top teams. And never mind doing so without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Mike Matheson, Zach Aston-Reese, a full game of Jake Guentzel and a half-game of Bryan Rust, who was hurt by a hard check in the second period of this one and didn't return.
Fact is, this was a hell of a way to open the 2021-22 NHL season, as Mike Sullivan spoke to his team in the locker room in his postgame address.
"I said to the guys that we love our compete right now," he recalled, utilizing the term 'compete' as a noun, as is becoming increasingly common in the hockey vernacular. "We're battling. It's not perfect by any stretch out there, but I love our attitude. There's areas, without a doubt, where we can improve. But we're playing against two really good teams down here, and I just thought our guys competed hard. It's something to build on."
I'll not only agree but also make three points of my own in support of the three points culled here in the Sunshine State:
1. They can 'beat any team'
The Lightning have won the past two Stanley Cups and, on this same Thursday night in Detroit, overcame three separate three-goal deficits to take down the Red Wings, 7-6, in overtime. Presumably because it might amuse them to do so.
And these Panthers ... suffice it to say I heard more people associated with the Penguins this week speak more glowingly about this opponent than the first. Sullivan spoke before faceoff, "I've been so impressed with this Florida team. They're a really balanced team. They got a great offensive attack. They have all the elements." Jeff Carter spoke afterward, "There's a lot of talent over there."
Which made Sullivan's remark Tuesday morning in Tampa that "We can beat any team in this league" seem equal parts prescient and powerful in hindsight. Because his context was minus the two superstars, not at full strength.
Carter had plenty more to say on this when I raised it with him:
"All in all, I think it's a great start for us," he began. "I thought we played really well in Tampa. Great effort by everybody. Tonight, we got behind. They came out hot right out of the gate, and that's to be expected. We kind of hung on there, and then we battled back. I thought the guys did a great job of doing that. Obviously, you'd like to hang on at the end there, but I think it's a good ... learning experience, building block, whatever you'd want to call it, at this point in the year."
After a wipe of his brow, he added, "At the end of the day, three out of four points against these teams is really good."
Look at it this way: A lot of potential bogeymen were slayed before the season really got rolling. No one has to worry or wonder about whatever dropoff there might've been following a few changes and a handful of injuries. There's big value in having immediate proof that they can do what they'd set out to do.
2. The additions are adding
Picture the anticipated outcomes down here, meaning a couple of lopsided losses, then picture where the fingers would've been pointed.
At the goaltending?
Well, yeah, that's possible if it'd been Tristan Jarry stinking up the place rather than performing well in Tampa.
To my mind, the focus would've been on the players Ron Hextall acquired over the summer, especially in light of Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev both taking instant starring roles for the Kraken, including both scoring in their inaugural victory last night in Nashville. We've have been talking about how Danton Heinen's no McCann, how Brock McGinn's no Tanev, how Brian Boyle's no Freddy Gaudreau and, of course, how no one in sight can replace Cody Ceci. (All right, so that last one would've been just me, but hey.)
Instead, Heinen scored the Penguins' icebreaker in both games so far while diligently covering the whole ice, McGinn's been energetic and he's been robbed of goals on superlative shots three times, Boyle put home a timely one in Tampa, and the third pairing of Mark Friedman and Chad Ruhwedel compensated well enough for the combined absence of Matheson and Ceci, if you will.
Add Carter into the equation -- he scored his 400th goal here, assisted on Heinen's in Tampa -- and it's been a bit of a vindication for Hextall after what I and doubtless many others saw as a lousy summer.
3. The standard's set
I've written about Sullivan's system not once but twice down here, so I'll simply summarize: This is how the Penguins need to play.
Not in an emergency, but always.
What's been most uplifting to see, speaking to this trip specifically, is that these players appear to genuinely enjoy this type of hockey. They're acting on the ice as if they're onto something special, even though, truth be told, the system's scarcely changed over Sullivan's tenure.
I asked Rodrigues about it after this game, and I appreciated the response:
"It's fast-paced, it's offensive ... it's not sitting back waiting for the other team to set up," he began. "I wouldn't say it's run-and-gun, but it's fast-paced. When the puck gets out of the zone, we turn it around, get right back after it. It's a fun way to play hockey. It's fun being hard-nosed, in their faces. When you have to sit back all game, it gets real boring."
Good stuff, huh?
Almost as good as his retelling of what happened on the unfortunate breakaway at the end when I asked what he was hoping to hit there against Sergei Bobrovsky.
"Five-hole," Rodrigues replied. "There was a lot of five-hole in pre-scout. I think there were three or four of us today who all tried it ... and clearly, it's something he worked on over the summer."
He broke up the room with that. Laughed a little himself, too.
Healthy reaction to a healther-than-expected result.
GETTY
The Panthers mob Carter Verhaeghe after his overtime goal Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla.
• Blowing the two-goal lead was partly due to a difficult-to-justify call and to the Penguins getting uncharacteristically passive after that.
The call was that of referee Kelly Sutherland, who'd worked hard to climb the back of the Pittsburgh net in search of the puck during a chaotic scramble to the right of Casey DeSmith's crease, but who didn't see the puck, as his body language plainly shows:
The NHL's rulebook calls for the ref to blow the whistle once he loses sight of the puck. And that applies only to the ref who's closest. That's Sutherland. And Sutherland lost sight, as he's looking well away from the puck even as it's on Ekblad's blade. But Sutherland, who's using both hands to do his Spider-Man thing atop the cage, never moves his whistle -- which is affixed to his right hand -- to his mouth.
Sullivan seldom comments on officiating, but he bit off the following on this: "I don't know how they kept sight of the puck. And my question to them was: When you lose sight of the puck, you're supposed to blow the whistle. They said they saw the puck. I don't know how they saw the puck. They had 10 people in the crease."
Strange night for the stripes. They seemed hellbent on calling everything ... then totally whiffed on obvious infractions in both directions.
• In a way, Carter's 400th was fitting in that he simply shot the puck when others would've passed:
Banked it Ekblad's unwilling blade, then up over an unsuspecting Bob for a 2-2 tie in the second period.
"I was going to Rusty. He was driving back door," Carter recalled. "I've scored a lot of those goals. You put it on net, a lot of times something happens. Take 'em any way they can come. Hopefully, I can hang around to score a lot more."
The man was big-time moved by this. Easy to see. Not sure I was expecting that given his perpetually strong presence, but then, that's some special company:
PENGUINS
What a player. And again, what a find.
Much more of my thoughts on Carter in the podcast below.
• It was encouraging to see Rust hanging around out by the team bus in the lot afterward. Not going to play doctor here, but whatever the impact of the MacKenzie Weegar hit, it evidently didn't require any extraordinary care.
• Sullivan called it "a high-event game for both sides," and he wasn't kidding. The Penguins generated 77 shot attempts to the Panthers' 62, including 17 high-danger chances to the Panthers' 12.
Oh, and to those five-hole attempts Rodrigues referenced, the Penguins also had five clean or partial breaks on Bobrovsky, with him stopping all five of those, four at the five-hole.
Wouldn't be a great day to be an advance scout inside PPG Paints Arena offices today.
• I enjoy watching Aleksander Barkov play more than I'm comfortable confessing. His touches on the puck are beyond belief at times.
• It's criminal that he's playing here. Or that this team's playing here. Attendance was announced at 14,308, but it looked to be closer to 10,000 for a home opener against a marquee team that always brings about half that many on its own. To boot, it was just so lifeless. Even in OT.
Tampa's in Florida, too, but never confuse these markets. This one blew it big-time by leaving downtown Miami long ago in search of some strange middle ground between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, hoping to attract customers from either direction but instead attracting them from neither. Same stupid mistake the Coyotes made in leaving downtown Phoenix and still haven't fixed.
People would walk on hot coal to attend games for a team like this in Quebec City. (And not just to stay warm!)
• Boyle's a neat story, and the goal in Tampa only augmented it, but he's still skating through spaghetti, as he did through all of camp. He had a rough night here at five-on-five with the Panthers generating all seven of the shots taken while he was on the ice. He was far better short-handed, part of the Penguins' 6-for-6 performance on the PK while logging 3:51 of four-on-five ice time.
I'm not burying him. Just being real.
• I had little use for DeSmith's performance. Stopped what I thought he'd stop. Gave up what I thought he'd gave up, including Carter Verhaeghe's roofed wrister in OT. He's not big by 2021 goaltending standards, and teams will pounce on that at every opportunity.
Infinitely more important, Sullivan gave an "I thought he was solid" that ... didn't exactly come across as convincing. Sullivan's suggested a couple times now in recent weeks that DeSmith hasn't been at his best.
• Be very certain it'll be Jarry vs. Marc-Andre Fleury for the home opener against the Blackhawks Saturday night. That won't draw any local interest, I'm sure.
• I've got a bunch more hockey leading off the week's Friday Insider.
• Flying home Friday. Thanks for reading all the coverage Taylor Haase and I offered from down here. She and Dave Molinari will have the home opener while I dive right back into football for the weekend.