PHILADELPHIA -- It wasn't a wrist shot. Or a snap shot.
With the former, the shooter pulls the puck back onto the blade, then winds up in a lacrosse-like way to whip it forward. With the latter, the puck's a bit away from the blade, and the blade gets dragged along the ice while making its motion toward baseball-like contact.
This, my friends, was neither:
This was Brian Boyle beating Carter Hart for the Penguins' final goal in a 6-2 flattening of the Flyers on this Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center. And this, for the record, was the kind of shot a shooter attempts at a morning skate. Or after a practice. In front of an empty net. With no one else around to impress except the shooter himself. The way someone might if trying to knock a beer can off the bar.
It's a harmless-looking ... scoop of the puck, for lack of a better term, and the main aim's to produce the always welcome ping of pipe.
Which, to Boyle's credit, he achieved.
And which, to Zach Aston-Reese's credit, he appeared to acknowledge in following Boyle around up there with a knowing grin.
So, on this occasion in which I could've asked bona fide reporter-ish questions in the interview room afterward, like about a winning streak that's now at 10, or two more goals for absolutely ablaze Bryan Rust, or two others by Jake Guentzel, or another beauty by Evan Rodrigues, or Kris Letang assisting on all three goals in taking a 3-0 lead ... my curiosity had been mostly piqued by Boyle's ping.
So I asked.
"It's a wrist shot," he'd reply, almost under his breath.
I made a skeptical face, and he, in turn, broke into a smile.
"Hey, goalies are good. You've got to find different ways to shoot."
They're fun, man. These guys are fun. And infinitely more important, they're having fun.
A streak's a streak. Even lousy teams like these Flyers can have a winning streak. But the separator comes with consistency, and that, as I've always seen it, comes with finding ways to enjoy the good times and endure the bad. So this streak, even if it's the fifth-longest in the franchise's 55 seasons and the NHL's longest this season, will only find real significance if it's founded on real stuff.
I'm here to attest, this team's got a ton of that.
In descending order, then, here are 10 things I'm legit loving about this streak so far:
10. That fun thing.
Having spent this entire week around the group at home and on the road, at least as much as NHL protocol permits, I'm seeing players who enjoy each other's company, who support each other on the ice and who don't take everything excessively seriously. Boyle's part of that. So's Jeff Carter. And Mike Matheson. And Jason Zucker. And Evgeni Malkin, though he's yet to suit up. And even a newcomer such as Kasper Bjorkqvist's made an immediate impression in this way, a telling sign that it's kosher for rookies to pipe up, which isn't always the case in the hockey culture.
"It's a great environment," as Brock McGinn put it.
9. They're on the same page.
I'm also seeing and hearing players speak using the same pet phrases Mike Sullivan prefers. You know, "playing the game the right way," "paying attention to detail," "managing the puck" and all that.
Show me a team setting where this is taking place, and I'll show anyone a team that's performing with faith in the coach's system, not just following instructions and assignments.
That's how this happens:
Stripped down, the Sullivan system can be gauged by counting sticks. If the other team's got possession, Sullivan wants not one, not even two, but as many as three sticks in that spot working to get it back. Presuming the opponent in a vulnerable position, of course.
And notice, in those sequences above, all from this game, how it's all four forward lines doing likewise.
8. Analytics are their friend.
The reason that any team can have a winning streak is that key individual numbers can spike. Most prominent in hockey when that occurs, a shooting percentage or a save percentage can go through the roof.
Well, the Penguins do have a 12.86 shooting percentage during the streak, second in the NHL in that span only to the Avalanche's 13.85. But what keeps that from having a fluky feel is that it's been so, so many forwards contributing to the 45 goals they've scored: Guentzel's got eight, Rust and Rodrigues seven each, Carter and McGinn with four each, Sidney Crosby and Danton Heinen with three each.
The team's save percentage of .924 ranks seventh in the NHL during the streak, and this offers a sharper contrast. For example, the Canucks had been terrible before going 8-1-1 over the past month under new coach Bruce Boudreau, who's getting all the credit. But the actual underpinning's been Thatcher Demko's unsustainable .945 save percentage. As soon as that balloon pops, it says here, Vancouver will vanish again, as the Canucks have been winning despite being the league's seventh-lowest scoring team over the past month.
What the Penguins are getting is real. From Tristan Jarry and everyone in front of him. Offense. Defense. Goaltending. Special teams.
Digging into the advanced analytics, their 54.89 Corsi For percentage at five-on-five -- utilizing shot attempts to gauge possession -- ranks fourth in the NHL over these 10 games. The Canucks rank ... 21st.
7. All that forward depth.
It's referenced above but, to add, when a roster's still missing the equivalent of a full NHL line in Malkin, Carter and Zucker, and its current fourth line of Boyle, Bjorkqvist and Dominik Simon keep delivering quality 200-foot play, we're talking about a team that's 5 1/2 lines deep, if one counts Drew O'Connor and Radim Zohorna.
Not to stretch this too far, but that's the bottom-end depth of a championship team. It really is. Think back to third and fourth lines from when the Penguins have won it all, then consider that this healthy roster's fourth line is Teddy Blueger, McGinn and Aston-Reese, who have five goals, nine points and 49 shots over the past month.
6. Underappreciated defensive depth.
Letang's earning all the accolades, and appropriately so, but tell me right here and now which defensive pairing's the weak link.
Anyone?
Didn't think so.
Brian Dumoulin started slowly this season but, as this game again illustrated with some of his most active movement, his skating's back to form, and he's again made a strong partner for Letang. Marcus Pettersson and John Marino were challenged by management this past summer to be a sound second pairing, and they've been that. Mike Matheson might've just had his three best games in black and gold. And Chad Ruhwedel, for all my personal pining over long-lost Cody Ceci, has made a reliable replacement in his first sustained top-six NHL duty.
Both ends, too. All these guys.
5. Hello, power play!
The Penguins had been rock bottom in the NHL in this critical category just a few weeks ago, but they're 8 for 28 during the streak for a 28.6% success rate that's 10th in the league.
In no small part due to what might be the league's No. 1-ranked breakout story ...
4. Engine, engine ...
Running out of words for Rodrigues:
That was his 15th goal. In the team's 33rd game. And I can't emphasize this enough: As soon as he was able to settle that soft saucer from Kasperi Kapanen, there was never a doubt he'd finish. But even then, I wasn't expecting the old Doug Weight 'Leaning Tower' move.
3. Yes, goaltending.
Not much that Jarry does between now and Game 1 will wipe away Long Island. But some will.
There's now an intensity on the ice that belies his standard chill away from competition. A clear and necessary separation. He's had arguably one subpar game all season -- that across-the-board debacle in D.C. -- and his next costly mental lapse, at least by my count, will be his first.
So sure, it's neat to see him having an amicable chat in warmups on this night with longtime bud Carter Hart ...
GETTY
The Flyers' Carter Hart and Tristan Jarry share a laugh in warmups.
... then coming up with acrobatics like this in the last couple minutes of a laugher:
And note that James vanRiemsdyk ran Jarry over milliseconds beforehand.
We'll see. But to date, the script's been as close to pristine as anyone could've conceived: He's got a .933 save percentage and a 1.90 goals-against average, both second in the NHL among goaltenders with 25-plus starts. And the only one ahead of him is the Maple Leafs' Jack Campbell, whom Jarry beat head-to-head two months ago in Toronto. With a shutout, no less.
2. The No. 1 line.
Sid's looking like Sid again.
Guentzel's got at least a point in each of the past 16 games in which he's played, including 14 goals within that. Overall, his 18 goals lead the team.
And all Rust's done by returning from injury to lead the league in scoring since the calendar flipped is squeeze onto Mario Lemieux-topped lists like this:
NHL
It's not the best line in hockey. There are at least two better, one in Boston and the other in Denver, and there might be more. But it's got to be right up there.
"We're all playing at a high level right now, and we're excited to get going," Guentzel said after this game, referring no doubt to the extensive time all three have missed this season. "When we're getting the bounces in the offensive zone, I think that's when we're at our best. We're finding each other. It’s been fun."
1. The great 58.
With all due stick taps to all of the above, only one player on the Penguins has had the capability, the confidence and, oh, my, the composure to conduct the defense and the offense. And Letang's been superlative at both.
I could show his goal-line feed on Guentzel's first goal ...
... or gush over his team-high 26 assists, including 14 during the streak, but none of that comes close to encapsulating what he's brought.
I'll turn instead to Guentzel, whom I asked about this after the game.
"I mean, he's driving a lot of this for us," he began. "You can see on the play he makes to Rusty in the first goal, he finds a way to kind of to hold the forward there and find Rusty on the back door."
That's this one:
Not to be confused with this one a few minutes later:
"He's just a tremendous player," Guentzel continued. "And with his eye, a high IQ and just the way he views the game ... yeah, it's it's pretty cool to see."
I asked Sullivan, too, and this is where I'm going to have to insist to anyone who typically bypasses the video clips on these columns ... don't do it with this one:
The money line: "He's an elite player, and he's playing elite hockey for us right now."
That. Exactly that.
I also tried Letang on the subject of Letang, and he began laughing before I'd even finished the freaking question:
"I don't know. I've been here for a long time," came the reply. "I don't know if, in 2012, I was like done."
Ouch.
"But like I've said in the past, when a team is having a lot of success, usually individual success comes. I think it's teamwork. And you know, a lot of guys are benefiting from the fact that we're playing well as a team. See Rusty and that first line on the board every night? It's easy, it's easier to play when everybody's going like this."
Didn't answer at all.
That's OK. All in good fun.
• Thanks, as always, for reading. The final five games of this trip will be covered by Dave Molinari, beginning this weekend in Dallas. Me, I'll be driving down I-95 to Baltimore to cover a certain football game.
