"Biggest win of the year."
Lars Eller finally had a bit of a breather late on this Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. The cameras and microphones had backed off. The locker room was almost barren. Seated at his stall, still in his sweat-soaked undergarments, he'd bent over to unlace his skates when he let out a small sigh and ... those five words above in my direction.
I was eager to hear more.
"Look at where we've been," he'd proceed without any prodding. Dude never needs a push to talk about anything that's team-wide. "It's been a struggle. Things haven't gone our way. We haven't always gotten rewarded even when they have. And now, with this break coming up ..."
Yeah. Let's press pause there.
These Penguins did prevail, pushing past the Canadiens, 3-2, on an overtime bar-down beauty by Marcus Pettersson, a spectacular connection between Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel to tie in the third period and, wonderfully enough, Eller burying one of his own -- and I mean burying -- on the celebrated occasion of his 1,000th NHL game.
And with that, they entered their annual bye week -- seven full days off -- with a riveting reminder of ... well, if I'm being blunt, why they'll still feel so disappointing, even deflating all too often.
As in, not this:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 28, 2024
Don't bypass that. Turn the sound up. Hear the 18,377 on hand raising their own volume through every stride of that rush. And by the time Pettersson whips his wrister behind Jake Allen, I'd swear, the roof was raised, as well.
Biggest win. Biggest noise in that building all winter. And a blast of a storyline, to boot, with Pettersson having been the roster's premier performer all season aside from the captain, and this being just his second goal.
I had to ask: Did he realize that exactly everyone in here, probably including Allen, thought he'd pass on that two-on-one with Rickard Rakell?
"Yeah, I think so," he'd characteristically reply with a little laugh. "But no, I saw it was Mike Matheson, and he likes to pump-fake, to bait the puck-carrier into passing."
That's Matheson, his recent teammate, of course. A fellow cerebral type, too. He was Montreal's lone man back.
"So when he kind of peels over," Pettersson continued, "I saw a chance to shoot, and I took it."
Sure did. Almost as if he spotted something from Allen, who'd been brilliant for long stretches.
"Yeah, a little bit. I tried to go high short-side. Luckily, it went in."
Awesome.
Which should then, on a grading curve, would make this twice as awesome:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 28, 2024
And because it's twice as awesome, I'll share a second angle:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 28, 2024
Anyone care to spare an adjective?
That made it 2-2 midway through the third period, while also reminding all concerned that the Penguins, the city, the sport as a whole are beyond blessed to be witnessing a talent of this magnitude for two decades now.
"One of the better ones that we've seen in a while,” Mike Sullivan would marvel, referring to Sid's stack of plays. “He just has eyes in the back of his head. I don't know how he knows Jake's there or saw him. We just grow accustomed to it."
But not really.
“Incredible,” Bryan Rust gushed. “The chemistry those two have is … "
He didn't have an adjective, either.
Guentzel was asked when he noticed that puck was coming his way, and he replied, "When it hit my tape. Right on my tape. Nothing else I can do. Just don’t miss."
Forgive me, though, for appreciating this the most:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 28, 2024
I'm a total sap for magical moments in sports. And having been an admirer of Eller's career dating way back to a Danish writer sharing details of his life with me on a bus ride up a Russian mountainside to cover bobsled at the 2014 Olympics -- this actually happened -- to know that Eller scored in his very first NHL game with the Blues, and now in his 1,000th, and this following his teammates showing beforehand how passionately they feel about his on-and-off-the-ice leadership after only 46 games in Pittsburgh ... well, there goes the adjective supply again.
But hey, how about that rebound?
Know in basketball how they'll call a soft rebound a putback?
This was a bury-back:
"No, that was follow-through all the way," he'd elaborate of his emphatic finish off Valterri Puustinen's rebound. "I was getting all of that one, for sure."
He had a suite stuffed with family and friends, including some from his days with the Capitals and these Canadiens. He looked up their way after the goal and saw them flipping out.
"I loved it."
A hat trick of awesomeness, right?
And yet, to hear pretty much everyone in this environment tell it, not nearly as awesome as the timing of these two particular points.
Partly because of this lingering ugliness:
NHL
Partly because they'd lost 7 of 10 this month before this January finale.
Partly because that damned power play's dug into another 1-for-29 ditch.
But also partly because, regardless of who would or wouldn't acknowledge it from the inside, there's been this mounting black-hole feel around the entire operation. And I dare say that, if it'd been allowed to drag on through this break, then had to resume with two of their first three post-break games being against a 30-12-5 Winnipeg team that's been among the NHL's best ... the circumstances alone would've come with a black-hole undercurrent.
I'm not suggesting that won't still occur. It just might. With Kyle Dubas seemingly paralyzed to make even the most minor of moves, with Sullivan and Todd Reirden seemingly flailing on power-play solutions, with the bottom-six forwards not named Lars seemingly stealing our oxygen, with Erik Karlsson seemingly hellbent on passing the puck to the wrong-colored sweaters, with Ryan Graves seemingly collapsing to the ice at the first sign of trouble ... it'd be insane to see any single outcome as a pivoting point.
But it does, for better or worse, buy time.
And doubts about the players' willingness to compete for Sullivan gets blown up not only by the Penguins bombarding the Canadiens with 86 shot attempts to Montreal's 48 -- stunningly, the visitors were tasked with blocking 26 shots to the home team's four -- but also the effort in both of these weekend games:
"Big," came the reply from Rust when I asked how big this one might've been. "The way this weekend went, it's big. Really hard-fought point last night."
That's the 3-2 shootout loss to the Panthers, one in which another third-period rally was required to force an extra session.
"Fought back in this one, too," Rust continued. "We were able to get the extra point in overtime. I think that's huge for us."
So did Eller, and his stance came across as far more stark than any of his teammates.
"We've got the group. We've got the people," he'd tell me with the same conviction that's always his undercurrent. "We show that we can do it. There are times we go out there and do it. We can get a little rest now and come back ready for a hard 2 1/2 months."
All three men who scored on this night are ready. They've been ready all along. As have a handful of others.
The leaders are clear. The followers not so much.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Marcus Pettersson, Penguins D
2. Lars Eller, Penguins C
3. Juraj Slafkovsky, Canadiens LW
THE IN-GAME INJURIES
• Penguins: None
• Canadiens: None.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor-Evgeni Malkin-Colin White
Rickard Rakell-Lars Eller-Valtteri Puustinen
Jansen Harkins-Noel Acciari-Jeff Carter
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Ryan Graves-Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph-Chad Ruhwedel
And for Marty St. Louis' Canadiens:
Cole Caufield-Nick Suzuki-Josh Anderson
Juraj Slafkovsky-Sean Monahan-Joel Armia
Tanner Pearson-Jake Evans-Jesse Ylonen
Michael Pezzetta-Lucas Condotta-Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Mike Matheson-Kaiden Guhle
Jayden Struble-David Savard
Jordan Harris-Johnathan Kovacevic
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins don't play again until Feb. 6 when the Jets skate into this place. That's a 10-day gap for the team's bye and the NHL's All-Star break. The next practice will be Sunday, 4 p.m., at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, Pa.
THE FEED
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