Kovacevic: If these Penguins defend, as seen again, they'll beat anyone taken at PPG Paints Arena (DK's 10 Takes)

JEANINE LEECH / GETTY

Evgeni Malkin's mobbed after his last-minute goal Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The scoring, as Mike Sullivan's fond of emphasizing, will come.

And it'll come without anyone's urging, including his own.

And it'll come, on special occasions, with seriously dynamic, dramatic delivery:

That, of course, was Evgeni Malkin's decisive dagger with 34.7 ticks left in the Penguins' 2-1 takedown of the Stars on this Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, one that extended their winning streak to six, their broader surge to an NHL-best 13-2-2 since Nov. 9, their rise up the Metro from seventh place to second, and their rise up the overall standings to ... wow, fifth?

Crazy, right?

Well, maybe not. Because I'll also share that this stretch has been highlighted by victories over four of the league's current top seven teams -- Maple Leafs, Jets, Golden Knights and now the Stars -- that saw a total of five goals allowed. And that these past three victories, including the home-and-home weekend sweep of the Sabres, saw the league's No. 1 and 3 offenses, Buffalo and Dallas, held to a total of five goals. And that Buffalo's Tage Thompson, who'd rung up a five-goal gem a week ago, had no goals and an assist in the two games against the Penguins. And that Dallas' Jason Robertson, who's been the story of the year in hockey with a 23-goal breakout in his age 23 season, had no points, no shots, no nothing on this night.

Unless one wants to count his awful non-effort to slow Malkin on the winner.

"I thought both teams defended really hard," was how Mike Sullivan diplomatically worded it when asked if there'd been some plan to erase Robertson. "We were trying to make it as hard on them as they were trying to make it on us. I thought it was a pretty low-event game on both sides, so that could have been a part of it."

Could've been. Except that we're well past the coincidence stage. The team's goals-against average over the past month: 2.35.

I've been writing this for months, and I'm now atop a figurative Mount Washington with a figurative megaphone: If these Penguins defend, first and foremost, they'll beat anyone.

Case in point:

That was a third-period three-on-two for the Stars, or so Ty Dellandrea likely thought until his lateral feed for Mason Marchment was swiped away by a swooping Geno, who'd whiplash his own odd-man rush the other way.

"We get as excited about that as we do when he scores a goal," Sullivan would say with a broad smile, adding, "I just thought his commitment to play on both sides of the puck tonight was terrific, so we're thrilled that he got rewarded."

That's the approach, the connection between the defense and offense, that Sullivan preached to Geno in the summer months, and it couldn't be clearer he's more than embraced it. In addition to being back to a point-a-game pace -- nine goals, 20 assists in 29 games -- he's second on the team only to season-long linemate Jason Zucker with a 54.08% Corsi For percentage at five-on-five, a measurement of shot attempts by either team while he's on the ice.

Read that again. It's real.

And in a game like this, with the puck seemingly threaded to his blade for all 19 of his shifts ... yeah, "rewarded" sounded about right for that ending.

"I just think I think Geno, for the most part, has had a pretty consistent game all year long," Sullivan would say. "He's driving a lot of offense, both on the power play and five-on-five. And when he's at his best, he just commands the puck. I thought he had it an awful lot tonight."

He sure did: When he was on the ice, the Penguins generated 28 shot attempts to the Stars' 10, of which only one was a high-danger scoring chance.

Old Geno pouts or spaces out when he goes nine games without a goal, as he'd just done, whereas this Geno'll say, "I’m glad I broke my streak of great games and not scoring," and it was impossible to tell if he was kidding. "I’m still focused on my game. I know I have a couple chances, almost a breakaway in the first. I know it’s coming. Just be patient, and use my chance."

Which is where all of this needs to boomerang on a regular basis. Because someone will use that chance. Someone will score. There's just too much here, not least of which is a league-high 13 players with double-digit points. Heck, there's a current healthy scratch, Danton Heinen, who'd surprise no one if he scored 20 goals.

This was P.O Joseph's first of the season:

This was gorgeous on multiple levels, but none more than the pass Kasperi Kapanen saucered across to a demilitarized zone inside the Dallas blue line in anticipation of Joseph's arrival ... even though Joseph had just hopped over the bench on a change.

A couple of veteran observers in the press box affirmed my own feeling that it might've been the prettiest pass anyone's made in this place all season. Almost at a No. 66 level, and I don't often tread there.

"He's a really talented kid," Sullivan spoke of Kapanen when I broached this. "Just a terrific play."

"Incredible vision," Joseph would say of his first goal of the season, beaming at remembering it. "I know Kappy saw me coming in late. All I had to do was finish his beautiful play."

I spent time with Kapanen one-on-one, entirely on his pass:

"   "

"Sometimes you just see it," he'd explain before reverting to characteristic modesty. "P.O did a great job of moving into space there, and his shot was phenomenal."

I poked further, having noticed his unusually exuberant celebration for an assist.

"Yeah, assists are big, too," he'd allow with a soft smile. "I love whenever anybody scores. Especially for P.O, because he's been playing well."

Good for him, man. He's kept his chin up throughout.

He's defended, too, by the way, his possession metrics rating above any bottom-six forward. 

They all have. Even while doing all that other in-between stuff that actually allows the winning.

photoCaption-photoCredit

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

P.O Joseph and Jeff Carter celebrate the former's goal in the first period Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.

• Not to take anything from Joseph himself, as he's getting plainly, visibly better with each passing week. And the shot scorched over Jake Oettinger's left shoulder.

"I think P.O's gradually gotten better and better with each game he plays," Sullivan would say. "I just think his learning curve right now is steep. He's getting better right in front of our eyes."

The goal was Joseph's first in the NHL since Feb. 6, 2021, and it brought relief.

"I feel like a couple of guys have been teasing me about my shot," he'd say with a grin, "so it’s always a good feeling to prove them wrong a little bit."

• Fun hockey game, huh?

I wouldn't go so far as to put a playoff-like tag on it -- not nearly enough snarl -- but the airtight coverage by both teams sure made for a reasonable facsimile. And it didn't hurt that the Stars' collective passing is just so crisp, so big-time. The puck cracks off their blades when a pass is received, just how it should.

Kris Letang's second game back from his second stroke saw him log a game-high 27:10 of ice time. Insert shocked-face emoji here.

Tristan Jarry wasn't tested a ton among his 26 saves, but I'll reiterate that he's developed quite the callus in overcoming early goals, in this event Roope Hintz's fluky rebound finish 19 seconds after the opening faceoff.

"We didn't get discouraged," Jarry would say to that, in general.

Jarry's on a 9-0-2 roll, the longest points streak of any Pittsburgh goaltender since Marc-Andre Fleury's 11-0-1 way back in Feb.21-Mar. 25, 2012.

• There's nothing not to like about Rickard Rakell, but I especially like seeing him at that left half-wall on the power play. Stands tell, presents a big target for further distribution, also a threat to shoot. Like Phil Kessel but bigger.

Jan Rutta needs to conduct clinics on getting shots through to the net.

• The puck's just become a manhole cover for Brian Dumoulin anymore. He might've been the only downer all night from the Pittsburgh perspective.

• I'm not all that into milepost-type milestones, but Jake Guentzel's 400th NHL game on this night came complete with this crazy-impressive list crafted by the team:

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Pete DeBoer isn't in a great position to rip a sniper as valuable as Robertson, but he did offer this on how the Stars defended Malkin's goal: "Pretty good road period for 19-and-a-half minutes. We made a mistake at the end there."

DeBoer also didn't like the soft gap his defense pairing, Ryan Suter and Jani Hakanpää, presented to Zucker and Bryan Rust on the initial two-on-two zone entry.

“I thought we gave them too much room,” DeBoer would say. “That point in the game, you don’t want to give them the entry and allow them to get to that point.”

• This, too, from DeBoer: “I think it’s always a measuring stick when you play some of the elite teams in the league, and this is definitely one of them."

• Drawing 17,147 for a Monday nighter against a non-conference opponent doesn't happen in more than a handful of NHL markets. Anyone who doubts that Pittsburgh's a hockey town, in any context at all, has been spending far too much time in the 1970s lately.

Taylor Haase covers Pride Night, which the Penguins again conducted with customary class. (And for what little my fashion sense could ever be worth, the sweaters they wore in warmups are only about a billion times better than those faux-back robo-alternates.)

• Thanks for reading. I really enjoyed writing this one after a fun 10-minute walk home sorting it all out under the fashionable hoodie.

photoCaption-photoCredit

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Evgeni Malkin wears the Penguins' special Pride sweater in warmups Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.

THE ESSENTIALS

Boxscore
Live file
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics

THE HIGHLIGHTS

"     "

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
2. P.O Joseph, Penguins D
3. Roope Hintz, Stars C

THE INJURIES

Jeff Petry, defenseman, missed his first game since sustaining an apparent left wrist injury Saturday.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan's lines and defense pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker
-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn
-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Ryan Poehling-Teddy Blueger-Josh Archibald

Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-Jan Rutta
P.O Joseph-Chad Ruhwedel

And for DeBoer's Stars:

Jason Robertson-Roope Hintz-Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment-Tyler Seguin-Ty Dellandrea
Jamie Benn-Wyatt Johnston-Denis Gurianov
Joel Kiviranta-Radek Faksa-Luke Glendening

Miro Heiskanen-Nils Lundkvist
Ryan Suter-Colin Miller
Esa Lindell-Jani Hakanpää

THE SCHEDULE

There'll be an off-ice workout Tuesday in Cranberry and a practice there Wednesday, after which there's a two-game trip through Sunrise, Fla., and Raleigh, N.C. Taylor will have the practice, and Danny Shirey will have the trip.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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