Bunting, Core lead burgeoning Penguins back into playoff position

The Penguins' climb to get back into a playoff position at one point seemed insurmountable. They were done. Totally written off.

Nobody bothered to tell them that, though.

The Penguins' 5-4 win over the Lightning on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena gave them 83 points in the standings, tying them with the Flyers and Islanders but having the tiebreaker over the Flyers for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers' loss to the Blue Jackets later in the evening allowed the Penguins to remain a wild card team for the time being.

The win over the Lightning was the latest chapter of the Penguins' surge over the last two weeks, a run that has seen them go 6-0-2, grabbing 14 of a possible 16 points in the standings. The Penguins have gotten contributions throughout the lineup over these two weeks -- including depth scoring from the bottom six and the defensemen, and some stellar play from Alex Nedeljkovic. 

But on this afternoon, to complete that climb back into a playoff spot, it was the core and their big trade deadline acquisition that put them over the top. A goal from Sidney Crosby, another from Kris Letang, and a pair of goals from Evgeni Malkin got the Penguins up 4-1 through two periods. When the Lightning stormed back to tie the game in the third period, Michael Bunting got rewarded for what was undoubtedly his best game as a Penguin to score the game-winning goal.

It's been a great run for the Penguins. But the standings are still tight, and they're not yet close to actually clinching a spot. They know that they're only just getting started.

"We're in a good place right now," Nedeljkovic said. "Still got a long way to go. We can't be satisfied with what we've done so far. We have to keep pushing, keep working and focus on the next game."

That's been the mentality for the last couple of weeks, and it's finally paying off.

The Penguins got off to a great start in this game. They recorded the first seven shots, stymying the Lightning completely until nearly 12 minutes into the game, and even that was a 137-foot clearing attempt that just happened to go straight to Nedeljkovic. It only took two shots for the Penguins to solve Andrei Vasilevskiy, with Bryan Rust showing patience on a two-on-one with Crosby, drawing Vasilevskiy over to his side of the cage before setting up Crosby for the tap-in:

The Penguins outshot the Lightning 14-6 through the first 20 minutes, and things could have gotten out of hand early if it weren't for Vasilevskiy having a good game, for the most part.

Malkin doubled the lead in the second period when Bunting won a board battle and set up Erik Karlsson, who took a shot from the blue line that got deflected by Malkin:

Steven Stamkos got the Lightning on the board with a bomb of a shot from the left circle on the power play, but Letang answered just over two minutes later with a bit of a fortuitous bounce. Vasilevskiy got a piece of Letang's shot, but he lost track of the puck and it rolled between his legs and over the goal line:

Bunting and Malkin combined for a goal again that same period. Bunting again was aggressive on the forecheck and won a battle for the puck, and set up Malkin from behind the net. Malkin's first shot was stopped, then he buried his own rebound: 

Malkin's been streaky this season. He hasn't always been his best. But he's elevated his game and played a big role in this turnaround for the Penguins, and now has six goals and three assists in his last six games. When the crowd met the in-arena goal announcement with loud chant of "GE-NO! GE-NO!," his parents Vladimir and Natalia got emotional. The ABC broadcast showed the two dabbing tears from their seats:

Might be one of the coolest moments this season.

Things went awry in the third. Nicholas Paul scored the Lightning's second goal of the game when a loose puck hit the boards and bounced right to him when he was all alone on a rush. Shortly after, play was stopped when Lightning defenseman Haydn Fleury collided with referee Steve Kozari behind the play at center ice, when both turned into each other at the same time. Both were down on the ice for some time and needed to be tended to by medical staff. Fleury was able to skate off to the locker room with some assistance, but Kozari appeared to be knocked out and had to be stretchered off. The NHL released a statement afterward saying that Kozari is expected to make a full recovery and has the use of all of his extremities. But in the moment, it was a pretty scary situation and zapped a lot of energy out of the building. 

The Lightning tied the game not long after. Anthony Duclair cut through the slot and beat Nedeljkovic with a wrist shot, and then Stamkos capitalized again on a power play with 9:15 left in regulation.

Bunting was already having an exceptional game, already his best as a Penguin. Burying a shot off of an absurd Malkin pass with 5:28 remaining to retake the lead was just the cherry on top:

"Honestly, we had so many chances there," Bunting said of the goal. "(Rickard Rakell) had an open net, and it bounced over. I could just tell that we were gaining momentum. I wanted to get myself in front, and G made a really nice little tip over. I was able to put it in."

Monday will mark a full month since the Penguins made the trade that sent Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes, bringing Bunting back along with picks and prospects. At the time, it sure seemed like the Penguins were punting on the remainder of the season. Not quite a full sell, but definitely retooling with the aim of giving things a better go next year. Few people imagined Bunting having this kind of impact this season. Saturday was Bunting's 16th game as a Penguin, and he has 13 points -- five goals and eight assists. Though he initially started out as Crosby's left wing, Bunting has since meshed well with Malkin and continues to build chemistry with him.

"He's playing well," Sullivan said. "I think he's played well with Geno on that line in particular. He's starting to understand Geno's game. I think Raks is playing much better. Geno, I think is gaining confidence with the success that the line is having. But I think Bunts has been a big part of that. He goes to the net, he's in the battle areas, he drags those guys into the fight. That was one of our hopes when we put him there, and he certainly is doing it."

The Penguins still had quite a bit of work to do to hold on for the rest of the game. The Lightning were pushing. They pulled Vasilevskiy for the extra attacker, and after Marcus Pettersson took a delay of game penalty with 1:36 left, it gave the Lightning a six-on-four advantage. The Lightning recorded seven rapid-fire shot attempts over those next 1:36. One hit a teammate, and the next was blocked by Letang. Jack St. Ivany blocked three in a span of 14 seconds, then a Stamkos shot was forced wide of the net.

Only one shot made its way to Nedeljkovic, a Taylor Raddysh slapshot with five seconds remaining. Nedeljkovic stopped it and dove to clear the puck away from the net.

"Chaotic's a great word," Nedeljkovic said of those last moments. "We did an incredible job blocking shots. I didn't see a lot of their shots. I think that's a testament to the (Lightning) guys getting in lanes and making it difficult for me, but also our penalty-killers, especially at the end, They're stepping up when we needed it and blocking shots, making it difficult on them to create offense."

When the Penguins held on and that final buzzer sounded, they were in a playoff position. Given where they once were in the standings, and even how low things seemed a month ago around the time of the trade deadline, it's been an incredible turnaround that might have saved the season. The Penguins might make the playoffs after all.

Bunting deserves a lot of credit for what he's done since the trade, and especially tonight. He's not Guentzel, he's not trying to be a Guentzel replacement. But he might have been just what the Penguins needed. His energy, his attitude, his ability to "drag guys into the fight" has helped change the Penguins for the better.

And it's only fitting that in this game -- one of the biggest games so far this season for the Penguins -- the core of Crosby, Malkin and Letang stepped up.

"It's probably appropriate, just given their legacy that they built here in Pittsburgh," Sullivan said of those three. "They've shown time and time again how competitive they are. When the stakes get high, they play their best. It's hard to win Stanley Cups if your best players don't have those attributes. These guys have shown that time and time again. Tonight's just another example of it."

The locker room was as lively as any other afternoon, Saturday win. Guys had their families around, with their young kids able to stay for the full game and have fun in the locker room after. But there didn't seem to be any added celebration or satisfaction over the Penguins' current position in the standings. Sure, it might feel nice to look at the standings and see how far they've come. But they know they've got a ways to go still.

"What we have to do hasn't changed for a while now," Crosby said. "Our game has been pretty good and we've just got to continue to go a game at a time here. That's served us really well, and I think that approach got us to this point and given us success. We've just got to continue to play the same way, and I think that's a good thing for us. We don't have to change a whole lot, we just got to keep going."