I'll start with an apology.
Only it won't be my own ... just yet.
See, very early in the Penguins' eventual 3-2 overtime victory over the Rangers on a Kris Letang strike Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena, Rickard Rakell ripped this one-timer past Jaroslav Halak to convert a five-on-three power play:
Not bad, right?
Apparently, it depends on the perspective.
I showed Rakell a still photo of his goal, snapped by the team, plainly illustrating that the puck had arrived on his blade completely on edge:

PENGUINS
Rickard Rakell shoots a puck on edge to score at five-on-three Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
To which Rakell laughed and initially replied with a raise of the eyebrow, "I always like to shoot those. Because if I don't know where it's going, then he doesn't know where it's going." Meaning Halak, of course.
Rakell then added, "And Sid came over to apologize. For the pass."
For real?
"For real."
Oh, for crying out loud. I mean, look, the replay shows that Sidney Crosby's rush to get Rakell the puck after it'd just come across from Evgeni Malkin did, in fact, force an unwanted saucer on the return. And that did, in fact, make the shot more difficult than it needed to be. But ... yeah, that's so Sid.
Tell you what, my friends: I'm done with the criticism for a while. I'm done with the expansion draft debacle, with Brock McGinn's pointless streak, with Kasperi Kapanen's pointless brand of hockey, with the power play's plodding ways, with Tristan Jarry's health/durability, with Brian Dumoulin's splattering all over the rink, with Jeff Carter's line not registering a single freaking shot on goal these past two games -- hey, I'll pledge to start after this paragraph, OK? -- and even with this team's massive, maddening inconsistencies as a whole.
For real.
I'll even go so far as to say I'm sorry. And mean it.
Because for all else that's gone awry over the better part of the past three months, from absentee ownership to gross mismanagement of assets to curious coaching priorities to a few of the players themselves, the one constant throughout's been that ... well, for lack of a more precise way to word it, they're still the Penguins until they aren't.
And the Penguins, as has been true for almost two decades now, are Sid, Geno and Letang, plus the culture they've long since cultivated, plus the other primary participants in the process, most of whom have owed sizable percentages of their paychecks to those three in some form or other. And for as long as the Core three can keep coming, as they very much have, there's no downplaying, let alone dismissing the franchise they still symbolize.
No, the franchise they still carry.
This stuff gets taken for granted, but ...
Sid's 35, he's yet to miss a game all season, he's on a 99-point pace with 29 goals and 51 assists, and less than 24 hours after blistering a beauty to beat the Flyers, he set up the first and third goals of this one.
Which is to say, with the highest praise of all, that he's still Sid.
Geno's 36, and even in a game where he could've done quite a bit more to prevent New York's first goal -- simply standing next to Barclay Goodrow somehow didn't get it done -- he was nothing less than the premier performer on either side, in my view. Beyond his own two assists because, not pictured in any highlight of the Penguins' second goal by Jason Zucker ...
... it was Geno buzzing over all 200 feet who brought that puck to the New York zone. He didn't get an assist or even a plus, as his effort had already sent him to the bench.
And not pictured in any highlight of the Penguins' overtime goal, it was Geno bearing down on Artemi Panarin with this manic forecheck who drew the Panarin trip and decisive power play:
He. Was. Brilliant. And all that amid an infuriating interlude that saw the Rangers’ Vince Trocheck cheap-shot him from behind to lead to a tying goal.
Letang's 35, and despite a barrage of bad news off the ice, he's got his chin up now, he's just turned in maybe his three strongest games of the season, he's put forth 31 points in 48 games, and he punctuated this one in style:
Third OT goal of the season, one shy of the NHL record for a defenseman.
But it's also about the collective impact they've still got, and let me share, please, how the above goal shows that.
Based on conversations I had in the locker room, the Penguins' big four -- Core plus Jake Guentzel -- emerged in a box formation for the purpose of feeling out the Rangers' formation. If the penalty-kill was to be an inverted pyramid, as predicted, they'd morph that box into a diamond formation, leaving it to Letang to slide in one direction or another until there'd be an opening. That's why Sid and Geno look as if they're feeding Letang at the All-Star Skills competition. They'll go where he goes.
Ultimately, it's Geno who correctly reads that Goodrow bit too far his way, and Letang pounces.
So, was this the work of Todd Reirden, the assistant coach responsible for the power play and the man at the whiteboard in the timeout that preceded this?
Eh.
I asked Letang directly:
Ha! It's always them, for better or worse, when it comes to the power play.
It won't last forever, what these three have represented in these parts. Might not seem that way now, but it won't.
In that spirit, then, here's my own focus from this point forward: These Penguins are 34-22-10 for 78 points, good for seventh inside the Eastern Conference's existing eight-team playoff picture. The Islanders are two points behind, but the Penguins have two games in hand. The Panthers, more pertinently, are five points behind. The Capitals are seven points behind, the Senators eight, the Sabres and Red Wings nine.
They're making the playoffs, all right?
With that scenario, they're also 7-1-1 in their past nine. Winning despite it all and, at times like this, winning while actually faring well. While almost all of us, myself included, have complained ad nauseam about pretty much everything.
I'm done. We'll see if they're done, but people have long gone broke betting against this bunch.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Evgeni Malkin chases down the Rangers' Artemi Panarin in overtime Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
• Geno wasn't around afterward to comment on the Trocheck hit or anything else. But others had plenty to say, and Danny Shirey covers that in Freeze Frame.
• The third period wasn't anywhere near as much about the Penguins letting up, I thought, as it was about the Rangers stepping up. Danny covers the New York forecheck.
• Much of the discussion on the Pittsburgh side was about the discipline shown in what could've become an emotional cauldron, between both referees, Chris Rooney and Dan O'Rourke, failing to do their jobs, and worse, the Rangers rolling right down the rink to score on an odd-man break.
Instead all of them, even Geno, kept cool.
"That's what we gotta do," Sid would say on the subject. "I think we understand what's at stake. I think Geno did a great job just continuing to battle, fought through it, didn't get rattled by it. It was a physical game. Some big hits both ways. It had a playoff feel, so hopefully that's something that brings out the best in us. And I thought it did - for the most part - today."
• Not to be ignored: Dmitry Kulikov, who was having a superlative day, his best since the trade, was felled by a Patrick Kane shot midway through the second period, declared after the game by Mike Sullivan to have a lower-body injury. We'll learn its severity Tuesday. If he can't go, the obvious replacement's P.O Joseph.
• Rakell left briefly after blocking a shot but came back. I asked afterward how he's doing, and he shrugged it off.
• I asked Zucker if, given all the ups and downs this team has, it might not be better off facing rivals like the Rangers:
He's awesome. Don't skip that. Press play.
• Zucker’s got 24 goals for the season now, 11 of those in the past 14 games alone. To think, he was only recently seen by some as a potential buyout candidate.
• Best crowd of the year. Bar none. And not just because they booed Jacob Trouba with every touch.
"These are fun games to play," Letang would say. "There's a lot of energy in the building, it's a rival, we lost against them in the playoffs last year, so there's a lot of emotion. And usually, that's the type of game we want to play."
• Alex Nylander has found a home. Make it so.
• Jarry held his own. Credit where due on those 27 saves. Still sluggish in some movements, but he stayed out there.
• Don't want to hear that the Rangers didn't use Igor Shesterkin. Halak was very good with his own 33 saves.
• I can't resist:
I mean ... it's not scapegoating if it's accurate: https://t.co/QYWaUbe7U0
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) March 13, 2023
• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. I'll make the trip later this week to New York for the other two meetings with the Rangers but, in the interim, I'll begin building my thesis on why all of their goaltenders seem to lose their minds -- and occasionally their balance -- in our city:
Oops pic.twitter.com/27Hvvkmblq
— Pittsburgh Clothing Company (@PGHClothingCo) March 12, 2023
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Kris Letang, Penguins D
2. Jason Zucker, Penguins LW
3. Chris Kreider, Rangers LW
THE INJURIES
• Dmitry Kulikov, defenseman, was hurt blocking a shot in the second period, left the game and didn't return. There'll be an update on his status Tuesday.
• Ryan Poehling, left winger, has a lingering upper-body injury and is on LTIR.
• Nick Bonino, center, has a lacerated kidney.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Alex Nylander
Drew O'Connor-Mikael Granlund-Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen-Jeff Carter-Josh Archibald
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-Jeff Petry
Dmitry Kulikov-Jan Rutta
And for Gerard Gallant's Rangers:
Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Vlad Tarasenko
Chris Kreider-Vince Trocheck-Kaapo Kakko
Alexis Lafreniere-Filip Chytl-Patrick Kane
Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Tyler Motte
K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Niko Mikkola-Adam Fox
Ben Harpur-Braden Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
The team's off Monday, then it's a game against the Canadiens the next night, 7:08 p.m., at PPG Paints Arena.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.