• Who: Penguins (17-17-7) vs. Blue Jackets (17-17-6) • What: NHL regular season, Game 42 • When: 7:08 p.m. • Where: PPG Paints Arena • Goaltenders: TristanJarry (8-6-3, .888 SV%) vs. ElvisMerzlikins (13-10-3, .888 SV%) • TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh, FanDuel Sports • Radio: Penguins Radio Network • Streaming: SNP360, ESPN+ • Boxscore: NHL.com • Medianotes: Penguins | Blue Jackets
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Marchenko scores. Ballgame. My God.
• Sid doesn't get a shot off. Rolls off his backhand.
• Fantilli left post.
• Rust's stopped by Elvis. Tried to go five-hole.
• Johnson's first for Columbus, and it's a GOAL. Easy one, too.
• End overtime. Shootout.
• Rust misses a completely vacated net with two ticks on the clock. Oh, wow. Deked all the way around Elvis and just couldn't put it home.
• Mega-huge defensive play by Sid in the attacking zone to prevent a clean 150-foot breakaway.
• O'Connor, making a rare appearance in OT, almost sneaks one by.
• Whoa! Huge save by Elvis on a Sid backhander right in front.
• Acciari reacts as if he's been high-sticked in the mouth. No call. Many boos.
• Sid's line starts, and Columbus wins the draw. If it's like the other night in Raleigh, that's game over already, right?
• End regulation. Handing those guys a point isn't what this is about.
• I mean ... what the hell? What'll it take?
• GOAL: Yep. There it is. Fantilli on the power-play redirect. It'd be unreal if it wasn't so predictably real. Assists: Johnson, Werenski. Time: 17:24, third period. Tie, 3-3
• Uh-oh ... Lizotte off for a whack with 3:51 left.
• Four minutes left. Lots between the lines.
• Monahan has an upper-body injury and won't be back tonight, the Blue Jackets just informed.
• GOAL: There's that obligatory GAG. Voronkov again. Right in front. He's got nine in his past seven games. Assists: Marchenko, Fantilli. Time: 12:05, third period. Penguins, 3-2
• That's six 20-goal seasons in the NHL for Rakell. The crown jewel of the Ron Hextall tenure.
• GOAL: Rakell again. But my goodness, what a setup by Sid. Banked the puck off the back of the Columbus net to himself to torment the defenseman, then fed out front for Rakell, who buried it. That's his 20th. Time: 10:09. Penguins, 3-1
Pittsburgh goal!
Scored by Rickard Rakell with 09:51 remaining in the 3rd period.
• Ten minutes left. Ton of time. Just an FYI: If the Blue Jackets were to win this in regulation, they'd pass the Penguins in the standings. Yet another indication of how obscenely airtight the entire East's become.
• Remarkable effort on that shift by the Glass line. Wow. Did everything but score. That's how you protect a lead. Play like that in the other team's end.
• No Monahan on the Columbus bench. No. 1 center.
• Oh, Rakell's robbed of another, not once but twice on a redirect, then a rebound.
• Full credit to Paul Steigerwald, upon walking past me during the intermission, for calling that Rakell goal. Like, completely called it, then looked my way down here after it went in.
• Jarry does well to prevent the trademark GAG with the right toe.
• GOAL: Rakell, and a sizzler of a wrister to the top right corner from the left dot. Not sure what Elvis was thinking, keeping his glove down, but man, you've still got to hit it, and Rakell did. His 19th. Assists: Karlsson and Grzelcyk. Time: :24, third period. Penguins, 2-1
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) January 8, 2025
• Third period underway.
• If anyone's curious, yes, Sid does come through the tunnel last when Geno's not around. He doesn't make someone else do it.
• Amazingly, Jarry's not the first to go on this kind of first-shot rampage. The most times any goaltender gave up one up on the first shot was seven by Tom Barrasso in 1997-98. Matt Murray was the only other goaltender to do so six times in 2018-19. Thanks to the NHL stats people for their cooperation on that.
• The Penguins are 6-0-3 when tied after two. Just saying.
• End second period. Shots 18-14 for Pittsburgh.
• Hard flurry by Columbus. Jarry looks cool in moving with it.
• Smooth track-back and stick-lift for Puljujarvi there. Changed possession.
• More big-ness from the new third line. Letang's dangerous with a long-range one-timer just because of all the bulk in Elvis' way.
• Never mind. Just came back. Probably a blade.
• I don't see Werenski on the Columbus bench. He's been dynamite for them.
• Home team's finally into this.
• Sid just won his 15,183rd faceoff, passing Patrice Bergeron for first in NHL history, at least since the league started such tracking in 1997-98.
15,183 FACEOFFS WON AND COUNTING! ✅
Sidney Crosby now holds the record for the most faceoff wins, passing Patrice Bergeron. pic.twitter.com/PnfdfOWqBF
• Now an even better one for the Puljujarvi line. Which I'm going to call the Puljujarvi line just because.
• Dogged shift for the fourth line. That's welcome.
• GOAL: Bunting, power play. And of all the assists Sid's ever registered, that was ... one of them. Totally fanned on a one-time feed, but that seemed to throw everyone off except Bunting, who just waited for it. His 13th. Other assist: Karlsson. Time: :51, second period. Tie, 1-1
• End period. Mercifully. Shots 7-3. There'll still be 1:09 left on the power play.
• Voronkov's off for a hook with :52 left.
• Pass, pass, pass ... just get to intermission already.
• Third shot. Woo. Two minutes left.
• Man, Karlsson's just all over the attacking zone tonight. In the good way.
• Couple of quality bottom-six shifts now. Still not shooting anywhere near enough. Passing up every chance, actually.
• Jarry with a giveaway to the side of his net, and Johnson mishandles what would've been an easy putback. Remember that.
• There's at least some skating being done by the Penguins now, but nothing approximating what's being done by the Columbus top line. They look pretty dynamic.
• One shot through 10 minutes. Good Lord.
• Confirmed now: Sixth first-shot goal against Jarry, eighth overall.
• Lousy overall start, really. Exactly what I'd been talking about leading up to his. You look across the ice, you see these guys, and you just fall asleep. Can't do that.
• Now Provorov's allowed to glide right through the hashes for a shot. Jarry save.
• The unofficial consensus in the press box at the moment is that this was Jarry's sixth goal allowed on the first shot this season.
• GOAL: Voronkov from Marchencko and Monahan. Way too easy. Tic-tac-toe on the Columbus power play. First shot, of course. Time: 3:20, first period. Blue Jackets, 1-0
• Karlsson's off for interference. Got in LaBanc's way at blue line. Eh.
• Super-slow start for both teams. Barely breathing. Weird.
• Faceoff: Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, Sid vs. Monahan, 7:08 p.m., PPG Paints Arena
• And for Dean Evason's visitors:
Dmitri Voronkov-Sean Monahan-Kirill Marchenko James van Riemsdyk-Cole Sillinger-Kent Johnson Zach Aston-Reese-Adam Fantilli-Mathieu Olivier Mikael Pyythia-Sean Kuraly-Kevin LaBanc
Zach Werenski-Dante Fabbro Denton Mateychuk-Ivan Provorov Jack Johnson-Jake Christiansen
• Mike Sullivan's Geno-free lines, pairings:
Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust Michael Bunting-Cody Glass-Anthony Beauvillier Drew O'Connor-Kevin Hayes-Jesse Puljujarvi Matt Nieto-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson Owen Pickering-P.O Joseph
• That's now official: Malkin's out tonight with an upper-body injury, per the team. That ends his iron-man streak at 209 games.
• No Evgeni Malkin in warmups. That'd be his first game missed in forever. He did partake in the morning skate up in Cranberry.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
3:44 am - 01.07.2025UptownFinal: Blue Jackets 4, Penguins 3
• Who: Penguins (17-17-7) vs. Blue Jackets (17-17-6)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 42
• When: 7:08 p.m.
• Where: PPG Paints Arena
• Goaltenders: Tristan Jarry (8-6-3, .888 SV%) vs. Elvis Merzlikins (13-10-3, .888 SV%)
• TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh, FanDuel Sports
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Streaming: SNP360, ESPN+
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Blue Jackets
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Marchenko scores. Ballgame. My God.
• Sid doesn't get a shot off. Rolls off his backhand.
• Fantilli left post.
• Rust's stopped by Elvis. Tried to go five-hole.
• Johnson's first for Columbus, and it's a GOAL. Easy one, too.
• End overtime. Shootout.
• Rust misses a completely vacated net with two ticks on the clock. Oh, wow. Deked all the way around Elvis and just couldn't put it home.
• Mega-huge defensive play by Sid in the attacking zone to prevent a clean 150-foot breakaway.
• O'Connor, making a rare appearance in OT, almost sneaks one by.
• Whoa! Huge save by Elvis on a Sid backhander right in front.
• Acciari reacts as if he's been high-sticked in the mouth. No call. Many boos.
• Sid's line starts, and Columbus wins the draw. If it's like the other night in Raleigh, that's game over already, right?
• End regulation. Handing those guys a point isn't what this is about.
• I mean ... what the hell? What'll it take?
• GOAL: Yep. There it is. Fantilli on the power-play redirect. It'd be unreal if it wasn't so predictably real. Assists: Johnson, Werenski. Time: 17:24, third period. Tie, 3-3
• Uh-oh ... Lizotte off for a whack with 3:51 left.
• Four minutes left. Lots between the lines.
• Monahan has an upper-body injury and won't be back tonight, the Blue Jackets just informed.
• GOAL: There's that obligatory GAG. Voronkov again. Right in front. He's got nine in his past seven games. Assists: Marchenko, Fantilli. Time: 12:05, third period. Penguins, 3-2
• That's six 20-goal seasons in the NHL for Rakell. The crown jewel of the Ron Hextall tenure.
• GOAL: Rakell again. But my goodness, what a setup by Sid. Banked the puck off the back of the Columbus net to himself to torment the defenseman, then fed out front for Rakell, who buried it. That's his 20th. Time: 10:09. Penguins, 3-1
• Ten minutes left. Ton of time. Just an FYI: If the Blue Jackets were to win this in regulation, they'd pass the Penguins in the standings. Yet another indication of how obscenely airtight the entire East's become.
• Remarkable effort on that shift by the Glass line. Wow. Did everything but score. That's how you protect a lead. Play like that in the other team's end.
• No Monahan on the Columbus bench. No. 1 center.
• Oh, Rakell's robbed of another, not once but twice on a redirect, then a rebound.
• Full credit to Paul Steigerwald, upon walking past me during the intermission, for calling that Rakell goal. Like, completely called it, then looked my way down here after it went in.
• Jarry does well to prevent the trademark GAG with the right toe.
• GOAL: Rakell, and a sizzler of a wrister to the top right corner from the left dot. Not sure what Elvis was thinking, keeping his glove down, but man, you've still got to hit it, and Rakell did. His 19th. Assists: Karlsson and Grzelcyk. Time: :24, third period. Penguins, 2-1
• Third period underway.
• If anyone's curious, yes, Sid does come through the tunnel last when Geno's not around. He doesn't make someone else do it.
• Amazingly, Jarry's not the first to go on this kind of first-shot rampage. The most times any goaltender gave up one up on the first shot was seven by Tom Barrasso in 1997-98. Matt Murray was the only other goaltender to do so six times in 2018-19. Thanks to the NHL stats people for their cooperation on that.
• The Penguins are 6-0-3 when tied after two. Just saying.
• End second period. Shots 18-14 for Pittsburgh.
• Hard flurry by Columbus. Jarry looks cool in moving with it.
• Smooth track-back and stick-lift for Puljujarvi there. Changed possession.
• More big-ness from the new third line. Letang's dangerous with a long-range one-timer just because of all the bulk in Elvis' way.
• Never mind. Just came back. Probably a blade.
• I don't see Werenski on the Columbus bench. He's been dynamite for them.
• Home team's finally into this.
• Sid just won his 15,183rd faceoff, passing Patrice Bergeron for first in NHL history, at least since the league started such tracking in 1997-98.
• Now an even better one for the Puljujarvi line. Which I'm going to call the Puljujarvi line just because.
• Dogged shift for the fourth line. That's welcome.
• GOAL: Bunting, power play. And of all the assists Sid's ever registered, that was ... one of them. Totally fanned on a one-time feed, but that seemed to throw everyone off except Bunting, who just waited for it. His 13th. Other assist: Karlsson. Time: :51, second period. Tie, 1-1
• Second period underway.
• End period. Mercifully. Shots 7-3. There'll still be 1:09 left on the power play.
• Voronkov's off for a hook with :52 left.
• Pass, pass, pass ... just get to intermission already.
• Third shot. Woo. Two minutes left.
• Man, Karlsson's just all over the attacking zone tonight. In the good way.
• Couple of quality bottom-six shifts now. Still not shooting anywhere near enough. Passing up every chance, actually.
• Jarry with a giveaway to the side of his net, and Johnson mishandles what would've been an easy putback. Remember that.
• There's at least some skating being done by the Penguins now, but nothing approximating what's being done by the Columbus top line. They look pretty dynamic.
• One shot through 10 minutes. Good Lord.
• Confirmed now: Sixth first-shot goal against Jarry, eighth overall.
• Lousy overall start, really. Exactly what I'd been talking about leading up to his. You look across the ice, you see these guys, and you just fall asleep. Can't do that.
• Now Provorov's allowed to glide right through the hashes for a shot. Jarry save.
• The unofficial consensus in the press box at the moment is that this was Jarry's sixth goal allowed on the first shot this season.
• GOAL: Voronkov from Marchencko and Monahan. Way too easy. Tic-tac-toe on the Columbus power play. First shot, of course. Time: 3:20, first period. Blue Jackets, 1-0
• Karlsson's off for interference. Got in LaBanc's way at blue line. Eh.
• Super-slow start for both teams. Barely breathing. Weird.
• Faceoff: Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, Sid vs. Monahan, 7:08 p.m., PPG Paints Arena
• And for Dean Evason's visitors:
Dmitri Voronkov-Sean Monahan-Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk-Cole Sillinger-Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese-Adam Fantilli-Mathieu Olivier
Mikael Pyythia-Sean Kuraly-Kevin LaBanc
Zach Werenski-Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk-Ivan Provorov
Jack Johnson-Jake Christiansen
• Mike Sullivan's Geno-free lines, pairings:
Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting-Cody Glass-Anthony Beauvillier
Drew O'Connor-Kevin Hayes-Jesse Puljujarvi
Matt Nieto-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson
Owen Pickering-P.O Joseph
• That's now official: Malkin's out tonight with an upper-body injury, per the team. That ends his iron-man streak at 209 games.
• No Evgeni Malkin in warmups. That'd be his first game missed in forever. He did partake in the morning skate up in Cranberry.
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