Casey DeSmith peered through his mask as the Predators' Yakov Trenin magnetized three Penguins toward him into the low slot. The eyes never once peeled away even as he tracked Trenin across the perimeter arc of his crease, right to left, then left to right.
Poised but aggressive. Same as DeSmith's always telling me he hopes to have as an approach.
So when he made the left-pad save on Trenin's low wrister, it might've seemed the show was over.
It'd be no more than a prequel:
Oh, man. Roll the credits.
The rebound popped right to Nashville's razor-sharp rookie, Tanner Jeannot, and DeSmith, his pads already planted, was forced to do a violent push-off with his right skate blade to rush that same left pad cross to ... wow, barely ward off Jeannot's backhander.
That's quite the balancing act, between the poise aggressiveness, as I'd bring up with DeSmith yet again afterward.
"That's just the nature of the way the Predators play," he'd reply. "They do a good job of getting pucks to the net-front, getting guys to the net-front."
Yep. Which is why the most thrilling among his 33 saves in the Penguins' 3-2 overtime victory on this Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena, a performance that might've been his season's best, came right there in the blue paint.
"I just tried to get whatever I could over there," DeSmith recalled. "Thankfully, it wasn't lifted into the upper half of the net, or I wouldn't have had it.
But he did. He adjusted his approach, in general. And on that sequence, he dug deep. Found a little extra.
And man, they all need to do that now.
Honestly, I'm not sure what more to say about this one than that the outcome was welcome, regardless of the modus operandi. It followed a four-game losing streak, one that sandwiched an equally deflating-on-its-own-merit third straight loss to the Rangers, the team they'll likely see in the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs. And within all that, pretty much the entire roster, save a few still-fresh fourth-liners, appeared to be functioning on fumes.
For that matter, the same applied for the better part of a couple periods on this day, only with the added and unwanted element of the Predators being exceptionally snarly. Still, they somehow entered the second intermission tied, 1-1, thanks to DeSmith and Sidney Crosby's early strike.
At which point, collectively, all of the Penguins found a little extra.
Evgeni Malkin's rockheaded high-sticking double-minor at the end of the second -- more on that below -- prompted a key penalty-kill to open the third. Teddy Blueger and DeSmith shined there.
The Predators took the lead, anyway, at 4:30, with Nick Cousins pouncing on a Mike Matheson giveaway, but Jason Zucker countered at 8:53:
And Sid finished a fine feed from Rickard Rakell at 2:21 of OT:
In essence, and per the advanced analytics, the whole affair could be painted like this, with Pittsburgh being up and Nashville being down:
I asked the captain if this might be what it takes to emerge from the Penguins' recent malaise and maybe rise up over these final eight regular-season games:
"Well, I think the main things for us are just competing and not beating ourselves," he'd reply. "It's about making sure that, when we play teams, they expect a team that's going to be in their face. And that they're not going to get easy ones that we give them. Sometimes, it's easier said than done. But we really have to make sure, especially this time of year, that we're limiting our mistakes. A big part of that is just playing in their face and not giving up room out there, but the other side of this is just mental, too, just that that compete level."
Sound familiar?
It sure should, given that it's been the Mike Sullivan mantra since the morning he arrived.
I asked the head coach about this, too, and his reply came across as mostly relieved that the first two points of April had finally been picked up.
"Well, it's obviously a huge win," he'd say. "You know, when you lose a few games in a row -- and I just said this to the players -- sometimes you feel like you're never going to win again. And it's the same feeling when you win a bunch of games in a row, we went on that stretch earlier in the year where I think we went, like, 17-3, and we felt like we were never going to lose again."
It was 17-2-2, but the point stands.
"And the reality is, there's a fine line," he'd continue. "And we just got to believe in what we're doing here and pay attention to the details and believe in one another and believe in ourselves. And that was that some of the conversations that we've we've had as of late. You know, this is a proud group. And when you go through a stretch, where you lose a few games, everybody feels it. So it's an important win for us. I thought, in that third period, we really dug deep."
Right. Found a little extra. Fought a little harder. Fought literally, in the case of Matheson dropping the gloves to go with Jeannot, the NHL's leader with 13 fights, because Jeannot had just flattened defense partner Kris Letang.
Go ahead and laugh off the old-school intangibles, but that's when the home team finally woke up -- midway through the second -- and I've been around this game long enough to never believe that's a coincidence.
I'm not suggesting that's the answer. Nor that DeSmith's the answer. Nor that Crosby's three-point output needs to be the norm.
But I'm most definitely suggesting that this team, which has looked so fatigued and so ... frail of late, would benefit from an Olympic-sized break right about now. And since that's not about to occur, and since meaningful player personnel moves are now next to impossible, I'm further suggesting summoning up any and all reserve energy for what's to come.
I don't know. Rest a couple sets of older legs every night. Rotate the entire defense, not just Marcus Pettersson. Use DeSmith over Tristan Jarry a bit more. I'm almost kidding, but try secretly lobbying for Malkin to get suspended for that high-sticking.
Look, no one wants to hear this, but the standings mean nothing to the Penguins right now. Heck, if they drop into a wild-card position, that'll mean they miss the Rangers, by far their worst regular-season matchup in the first round, and I'd prefer the Hurricanes, even the Panthers over that.
Or just keep digging.
NHL
• Two goals and an assist brought Sid to 1,400 points in his 1,100th game.
And by the way, while the hockey world seems to have finally looked away, all he's produced since missing the season's opening month to wrist surgery and a symptomatic bout with COVID is 28 goals and 47 assists over 61 games. That's an average of 1.23 points per game that, among all NHL players with 60-plus games, ranks 13th.
Never take him for granted, Pittsburgh.
• Further visual evidence:
• Think Zucker's breathing a sigh of relief after that?
• Kind of an odd quirk to Sid's three-point output was that Rakell also recorded a point on all three of the Penguins' goals, all coming on assists ... even though they never once were sent over the boards together. Rakell stayed with Malkin's line all game at even-strength, and he isn't on the top power play, so all of these convergences were overlapping coincidences.
Taylor Haase has that angle, but I'll add here that I'd need to see a ton more to be convinced Rakell should replace Bryan Rust. And it's getting dark outside.
• Matheson had that aforementioned giveaway, but he was second only to Crosby in this one. By any measure. Dude's just flying right now. Doesn't look stoppable.
• Who needs Nostradamus ...
Minute to go. Matheson's got GWG written all over him. But then, so does the captain. We'll see.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 10, 2022
... when one can just follow some random sage up in the press box?
• Now to the Malkin thing: He absolutely merits a suspension for ramming the shaft of his stick into the mouth of the Predators' Mark Borowiecki, and I'll be disappointed if he doesn't get one, if only because it sets a dangerous precedent for all players.
There's nothing ambiguous about this:
Borowiecki appeared to spit out multiple teeth as he skated off the ice, and he didn't return for the third. That won't help Malkin's case. Neither will that slash to the midsection right before it, because that demonstrates intent, which the NHL's Department of Player Safety invariably identifies in those post-suspension explanatory videos.
Neither John Hynes nor any Nashville player was quoted on the matter afterward, and all Sullivan would offer was, "Well, you know, it's an emotional game out there. It's physical. And sometimes that stuff happens, you know, especially on the net-fronts and in those areas where where that took place. Obviously, we don't want our best players in the penalty box, but these are competitive guys. And you know, they push back. ... One of the things that we love about Geno is how competitive he is. ... Those things happen."
He's protecting a star player. He knows those things shouldn't happen.
• It also shouldn't happen that the on-ice officials -- and all four are empowered to call majors -- miss an obvious five-minute call and, worse, assign a slashing minor to the Predators that reduced their power play to a mere two minutes.
The referees were Brian Pochmara and Dan O'Rourke, and the linesmen were Steve Barton and Bryan Pancich. All four were embarrassing, even the linesmen in a terribly missed icing call in the third period that had Bryan Rust -- who'd clearly overtaken a Nashville player in a footrace -- and the Penguins' bench erupting.
Bad officials don't favor one team over another. They're just bad officials.
• It's not enough to shower the PK with praise for keeping Nashville at 0 for 5 with just five shots. Not when Blueger was out there short-handed for 3:04 and the Predators registered only two shot attempts -- one actual shot -- in all that time. He also won a critical defensive-zone draw when the Penguins were down two men for 35 seconds, basically killing that off right there.
"Our power play has to do a better job of getting us on the board, but I've got to give Pittsburgh's penalty-kill a lot of credit," Nashville winger Nick Cousins would say. "They did a good job at denying entries and made it tough on us."
• I'm serious about this DeSmith/Jarry concept. There are three games left this week, leading into a four-day break next week. I'd play DeSmith in the two road games -- Tuesday against the Islanders, Saturday against the Bruins -- and Jarry in the middle game at home Thursday against the Islanders. That'd give Jarry one game in an 11-day span, with plenty of time after that to ramp up for playoffs.
And he isn't the only one I'd look to rest.
• I'll flip the switch again to cover the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 136th home opener Tuesday afternoon at PNC Park.
Thanks for reading, as always!
JUSTIN BERL / GETTY
The Penguins celebrate Sidney Crosby's overtime goal.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins C
2. Casey DeSmith, Penguins G
3. Rickard Rakell, Penguins RW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brock McGinn, left winger, is rehabbing from an injured right wrist suffered on March 11. He has resumed practicing with full contact.
• Nathan Beaulieu, defenseman, was injured before he was acquired from the Jets at the trade deadline and is expected to remain out for the rest of the regular season. He isn't in Pittsburgh yet.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Rakell
Rodrigues-Carter-Kapanen
Boyle-Blueger-Heinen
Matheson-Letang
Dumoulin-Marino
Pettersson-Ruhwedel
And for Hynes' Predators:
Forsberg-Johansen-Tomasino
Tolvanen-Granlund-Duchene
Trenin-Sissons-Jeannot
Cousins-Kunin-Luff
Josi-Lauzon
Ekholm-Carrier
Borowiecki-Benning
THE SCHEDULE
The team's off Monday, traveling to Elmont, N.Y., for a 7:38 p.m. faceoff the next night against the Islanders. A win will put the Penguins into the playoffs for a 16th consecutive season, extending the longest such active streak in any major professional sport. Taylor's making the trip.
THE CONTENT
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