NEW YORK -- Bryan Rust, facing the inside of the rink, had two Rangers facing him right back. And they were fast approaching as he surveyed the ice, then slipped the puck to Sidney Crosby at the New York blue line ... who fed further to Jake Guentzel, who fed back to Sid now flying toward the net.
And those two players who'd pursued Rust?
Let's just say there were flying, too, if only in the floating sense:
One of those players was Adam Fox, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, the other Kaapo Kakko, a second-year winger who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Both have a ton of talent. Both totally blew it on this sequence.
If Sid scores there, it's all tied up early in the third period.
As he'd acknowledge later, "If we get one there, it's maybe a different game."
But he didn't. And it wasn't, with the Penguins falling, 5-2, in Game 2 of this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
And yet ... look, take this from the guy who'd forecast that this might unfold into a farce, but I'm just not feeling that anymore. Nor anything like it.
Some of that's tangible.
Through eight-plus periods, including the Game 1 triple-overtime victory Tuesday, the Penguins own marked advantages in:
• Shots: 124-108
• Shot attempts: 188-147
• Scoring chances: 111-72
• High-danger chances: 55-23
• Faceoffs: 85-75
That, my friends, ain't close. And highlight the three in the middle, which paint a picture of overwhelming puck possession.
Now, go right ahead and roll the eyes at the analytics, but they're undefeated over stretches that aren't this small and, even over this one, the series is tied at 1-1 with the shift back to Pittsburgh for Game 3 Saturday night and home-ice advantage already having been clinched the instant John Marino's point shot changed directions off Evgeni Malkin's shaft.
That's three back home, two more here.
And it says here that, the longer this series stretches, the more it favors the Penguins. Because all these foundational pieces they're building up, some of which have been a surprise to me, will only get stronger.
Not buying it?
Allow me, please, to share a handful of those, in descending order:
5. The crowd factor
It's difficult to describe how into-it the Garden's been. I suppose I could share that, during a timeout in this game, I observed a dude screaming the lyrics to Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' into the ear of the poor lady who'd accompanied him. ("STREET LIGHTS! PEOPLE! WHOA-OH-OH!") Or that the fans were so ravenous about the refereeing that they booed a call on New York's Ryan Strome for ... flipping the puck over the glass, which is, uh, automatic.
Maybe it's the faith they've got in their terrific team. Maybe it's two years of pandemic limitations emerging in a torrent of emotion. But it's been surreal.
In turn, I'm not exaggerating when I posit that there's been an uncanny correlation between when they've shown energy and when their home team's matched it. As if the crowd's got to come first. Which is ... unusual. But also unmistakable.
As Sid put it when I brought this up:
"Obviously, it's the playoffs, and there are going to be swings in momentum," he replied. "But I thought, in both games, as the games went on, we probably got better."
No probably about it. I asked Danny Shirey, our new full-time hockey reporter, if analytics would support that take, and he fired this back to illustrate the Penguins' percentage of five-on-five scoring chances through these two games by period:
• First period: 42.9%
• Second period: 63.6%
• Third period: 70.4%
Anyway, back to the captain ...
"So I think our starts are just, you know, they're still lacking a bit," Sid continued. "We've got to find a way to come up out of the gates a little better, and, hopefully, being at home will do that for us."
One would think so. I can't envision PPG Paints Arena having an atmosphere like this -- New Yorkers are wired a lot differently than we are, in general, and that's a good thing -- but I can see it being as pumped as it's been in a long, long time, given recent playoff flops.
4. 'The special teams'
That came right from Mike Sullivan's mouth, not in an upbeat way, when asked what the Penguins can improve. And he's not wrong: The power play's 1 for 7 to date, with the lone goal a five-on-three tap-in in Game 1. Whereas the Rangers are 2 for 5, including a Strome goal in this one and, maybe more disturbing, just way, way, way too much ice being conceded.
"There are a number of things that we've got to get better at," Sullivan said. "We're not winning many faceoffs, so they're getting a lot of zone time. We're not getting clears. We've got to do a better job with our pressure when we have an opportunity. They've just spent too much time in our end."
Yep. But both appear easily fixable.
The Penguins' power play's generated 14 shots and 21 shot attempts in those seven power plays, plus lots of good looks. They won't beat Shesterkin from the flanks, but they can -- and have -- continue to flick the puck through and work low. More east-west. They've got to get him moving, as they did in part of Game 1.
The PK's an even easier fix: Brian Boyle needs to sit.
Not to pick on one guy, but the passivity's largely been rooted in his position at the top/middle of the box, coupled with his propensity to drop to one knee for a block as a default mode. The Rangers do feed the flanks, often from an umbrella formation, and that renders Boyle moot in this setting.
Additionally, get more mileage out of the more mobile killers, notably Teddy Blueger, Bryan Rust and Brock McGinn, to eat up that space. Jeff Carter, too, but for the long stick.
3. The opposing goaltender
Shesterkin's been exceptional, as everyone would expect of the heavy Vezina Trophy favorite, stopping 119 of 125 shots. But he's also been blessed by the hockey gods to have a half-dozen pucks clang off the pipes behind him, including a long-range Drew O'Connor wrister in this one. And even when he's been beaten, such as a Kasperi Kapanen blast from the right dot that squirted through, it's rolled from harm's way in a hurry without help.
It actually is possibly to be both good and lucky.
And a low-grade method actor ...
... who somehow summoned the valor to pop back up as soon as he'd fooled the referees into calling a roughing minor on Carter, and then, a handful of minutes later, allowing me to put my years of journalism training into motion:
The Rangers gather at center ice in a memorial vigil to Igor. Joined by Igor. pic.twitter.com/hmtavAnsGk
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) May 6, 2022
Hey, don't shoot the messenger. There's already been one (temporary) fatality here.
But I digress.
At the same time, the Penguins have beaten him six times already, and they've done so principally at or near the crease. And, on top of that, by being persistent.
Such as this multiple-man rush into the New York zone, started by Sid, extended by Marcus Pettersson, and finished by Jake:
One didn't succeed, neither did the next, but the third worked. It was a wave.
So was this beauty from Sid, even if it was a one-man wave:
Seriously, that's a freaking one-on-four through the neutral zone. And he'd started back in the Pittsburgh left circle.
Never, ever take him for granted.
Repeating here: Shesterkin was exceptional. And never better than the opening five minutes of the third, including the right leg pad on Sid I described in the lede.
"He made three or four real good saves early in the third, for sure," New York's coach, Gerard Gallant, would say. "So that was huge for us because that was probably the worst four or five minutes we had in the whole game. That was big,"
No doubt, but I've got four more videos I could share of the puck behind Shesterkin. One gets the point: It's possible. And he isn't close to being in anyone's head.
2. Their own goaltending (!)
This accounted for maybe 90% of my reasoning for picking the Rangers in five before this series. With Tristan Jarry, I felt, there'd be a chance to nullify all those odd-man rushes the Penguins had given up in the four regular-season meetings. Without him ... I'd put little faith in Casey DeSmith, and I'd be lying if I suggested I'd had much more in an ice-cold Louis Domingue.
But there was Domingue out there, after stopping all 17 shots in relief in Game 1, stopping ... 35 of 40 in this one. Which I realize doesn't sound all that awesome. But two of the goals against him were on deflections, and two others were friendly fire off Mike Matheson's legs:
That's the polar opposite of the luck Shesterkin's seen.
No, Domingue was "solid" and "competed" and "made some big saves" and "gave us a chance," as Sullivan replied to my question on the subject.
Regardless of who goes in Game 3 -- and with neither Jarry nor DeSmith having formally returned to skating yet, it'll be Domingue -- this doesn't feel anywhere near as foreboding as it did a week ago.
Plus, just picture how the home crowd's going to get behind this guy.
1. The top line
Say what one will about the Penguins' lack of scoring depth -- and I'll get to that in a moment -- but the Rangers haven't had an answer for Sid, Jake and Rust, despite Gallant having had the last change on home ice. In this game, those three accounted for both of the games and exactly half of the Penguins' 30 shots at five-on-five. They had two goals in Game 1, as well, within a mindblowing 30 scoring chances they generated.
Not a misprint.
And while they were on the ice for those 30 chances, the Rangers had ... two.
Let's not pretend it'd be automatic that Sid, Jake and Rust would do this after all three had fallen silent in the previous three playoffs. No one could've presumed this. It's been a blessing on many levels, and this, coupled with New York having had defensive deficiencies all through the regular season, presents the No. 1 reason there's more hope now than beforehand.
Now, all that said ...
As Danton Heinen put it after this one, "It's great that those guys are going like they are, but we've all got to do our part."
Yep. And this is where I address the stuff I don't think will get fixed.
The secondary scoring's not coming. Not from this group. I've liked Heinen's game a fair amount, and his line, along with a still-vibrant Malkin and a resurgent Kapanen, topped the Penguins for possession in Game 2. But there's been next to nothing from the bottom six, lowlighted by whatever's left of Carter -- his legs look so heavy he'd have to pay extra tolls to cross the George Washington Bridge -- and there's no reversal in sight.
Don't get me started again, by the way, on how all this needed to be addressed over the long winter with a steady influx of fresh legs from Wilkes-Barre. Or anywhere.
The elite defending that's needed to shut down an opponent of the Rangers' pedigree isn't coming, either. Although the Penguins' defensemen have put forth a far-better-than-the-norm effort and emphasis into clearing the crease, it's just not a strength.
And besides, when a 50-goal scorer like Chris Kreider can wave a magic wand for a deflection from this far out ...
... I mean, whose assignment would that be?
I asked this of Pettersson, who was on for that minus, if he needed to stray into the high slot or if that ran counter to the team's system.
"Sometimes you have to," he replied. "I think, on that one, maybe I could have followed him a little bit. The puck was on the ice, and he's a good he's good in front of the net. At that same time, I think they had a couple of guys back door, too. So I kind of made a read, and maybe it was the wrong one on this one. But we've got to get to his stick."
They've been OK at this. Not more. Not less.
Overall, there isn't a soul inside or outside the Penguins' universe who wouldn't have leaped at a split of the two games here, if they'd known they'd be down to their third-string goaltender and missing two top-six forwards and a top-pairing defenseman.
This just might be a lot more fun than any of us had thought.
Especially if Shesterkin's really as dead as he wanted us to believe for a dozen seconds or so.
GETTY
The Rangers' Igor Shesterkin lies on the ice, feigning injury, in front of Jeff Carter.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Madison Square Garden:
1. Artemi Panarin, Rangers LW
2. Igor Shesterkin, Rangers G
3. Frank Vatrano, Rangers RW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brian Dumoulin, defenseman, missed Game 2 because of a lower-body injury. Sullivan offered no details or timetable afterward.
• Tristan Jarry, goaltender, is out with a broken bone in his foot. His status is day-to-day, though he's yet to resume formally skating. He did make a brief, barely-budging appearance on skates here early in the morning.
• Casey DeSmith, goaltender, exited Game 1 with what Sullivan described as a "lower-body injury." His status is day-to-day, though he's yet to resume skating.
• Rickard Rakell, forward, exited Game 1 after a hit to the head by the Rangers' Ryan Lindgren. His status is day-to-day, though he's yet to resume skating.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Kapanen
McGinn-Carter-Rodrigues
Boyle-Blueger-O'Connor
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
And for Gallant's Rangers:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Vatrano
Panarin-Strome-Copp
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Hunt-Rooney-Reaves
Braun-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Nemeth-Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
The series moves back home, where the Penguins are scheduled to practice Friday, noon, at PPG Paints Arena. Game 3 faces off Saturday, 7:10 p.m., at PPG Paints Arena.
THE CONTENT
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