DK: Loving the Penguins' fight, but that now includes the clock
Cody Glass couldn't have asked for more.
The pass from Bryan Rust penetrated the New Jersey defense, right boards to left dot, precisely to Glass, who put down one knee Sidney Crosby-style and ... CRACK!
As in, uh ... Glass off the glass.
"I'm not really sure what happened there," he'd tell me a lot later. "I got all of it. I know that. Might've been up a little on edge. Not sure. But I got."
Well, actually, the other guys got it ...
... then got a couple friendly caroms at the far end for the icebreaking goal of the Penguins' eventual 3-2 shootout loss to the Devils tonight at PPG Paints Arena.
"All the way around, all the way out of the zone and right back out to them," Glass would bemoan with a shake of his head. "With 17 seconds left in the period."
Mm-hm.
Worse, earlier that same shift, Rickard Rakell just had a goal of his own waved off for kicking it into the New Jersey net ... only to kick this one behind Alex Nedeljković:
"Crazy," Rakell would say.
The Penguins were the better team that period. The Devils got the lone goal.
This was midway through the second:
Sidney Crosby'd finish 14-5 on faceoffs, a wonderful figure even by his standard. But the one time he'd get completely cleaned wound up in the Pittsburgh net four seconds later, as Jack Hughes, New Jersey's resident star, pulled back to Jesper Bratt, maybe the NHL's most underappreciated player at any position, and those two made harmonic magic.
Anyone who can handle it, watch it again. The Penguins really didn't do anything wrong beyond Sid's rare faceoff loss. Bryan Rust saw Bratt skating away from the middle, so he peeled back and signaled with his right arm for someone else to pick him up. Sid heeded that signal and released Hughes, even if the center's always supposed to follow the other center after a faceoff loss. The resultant pass, the one-timer, the placement ... so smooth.
As Mike Sullivan would say, "The Jersey team is one of the faster teams in the league, in my opinion. They're quick. They've got a quick-strike offense, and they've got some game breakers."
All true. And yet, that'd be it, really.
The Penguins scored twice to tie, beginning with Rakell's team-leading 24th ...
... and the latter by Kevin Hayes while Sid was off the ice after a scary-looking collision that had him crouched in clearly significant pain while hurrying down the tunnel:
JUSTIN BERL / GETTY
There went the season, right?
Nope. Because, as sure as Sid would return a little later, to the relief of the crowd of 15,916 that'd stand and roar for a minute straight, the team got done what'd been the hardest part: A regulation rally from two down on an opponent 13 points ahead of them in the standings.
"I thought we played pretty solid again tonight. Last game was good, too," Sid would say, referring to the 3-0 shutout of the Predators here Saturday. "They're a dangerous team and I thought, for the most part, we did a pretty good job."
"Rough ending to the first period with them scoring the late goal and us getting one called back," Rakell would say. "But we stayed in the fight, and I thought we pushed hard the whole game. I think this was probably one of the better games against this team that we've struggled against in the past. Obviously, it hurts not getting the two points, but I thought we played hard."
"We'll take the point," Nedeljković would say, at least after expressing frustration with his continued shootout struggles. "It sucks not getting the other one, but we got to be happy with how we played tonight. Just move on and get ready for the next one."
The next two, actually, both on the road: Friday night in New York against the Rangers, Saturday night in Philadelphia against the Flyers, after which the NHL takes a two-week pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Look, I'll repeat this, as I feel like I've done every day since several players shared this with me in Salt Lake City: These are their playoffs. I appreciate that. I respect that.
That very night, they set a goal of getting through the four remaining pre-break games, as Bryan Rust worded it, "six, seven or eight of those points," and now they've got three of four, each of them earned through a dogged determination principally focused on defending. They dominated Nashville, and they were undaunted against New Jersey.
Go ahead and dump them. I mean it. Anyone doing so's almost certainly going to emerge looking a lot smarter than me. I've seen the math. I'm seeing the same standings:
NHL
I'm also liking what I'm seeing on the ice, and flat-out loving what's being spoken off it.
“I think the guys are competing," Sullivan would say. "We’re trying to stay in the fight here for a playoff spot. We know what we're up against. I think the guys have embraced the challenge. I think they're competing extremely hard. The new guys that have come in, I think they've fit in really well. So, we've won a couple of games here. We lose this one in a shootout. We got two left before the break. We've got an opportunity to try to put ourselves in the best possible position. So, we're just going to have to keep fighting.”
See everyone at the Garden. Or not.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
9:03 am - 02.05.2025UptownDK: Loving the Penguins' fight, but that now includes the clock
Cody Glass couldn't have asked for more.
The pass from Bryan Rust penetrated the New Jersey defense, right boards to left dot, precisely to Glass, who put down one knee Sidney Crosby-style and ... CRACK!
As in, uh ... Glass off the glass.
"I'm not really sure what happened there," he'd tell me a lot later. "I got all of it. I know that. Might've been up a little on edge. Not sure. But I got."
Well, actually, the other guys got it ...
... then got a couple friendly caroms at the far end for the icebreaking goal of the Penguins' eventual 3-2 shootout loss to the Devils tonight at PPG Paints Arena.
"All the way around, all the way out of the zone and right back out to them," Glass would bemoan with a shake of his head. "With 17 seconds left in the period."
Mm-hm.
Worse, earlier that same shift, Rickard Rakell just had a goal of his own waved off for kicking it into the New Jersey net ... only to kick this one behind Alex Nedeljković:
"Crazy," Rakell would say.
The Penguins were the better team that period. The Devils got the lone goal.
This was midway through the second:
Sidney Crosby'd finish 14-5 on faceoffs, a wonderful figure even by his standard. But the one time he'd get completely cleaned wound up in the Pittsburgh net four seconds later, as Jack Hughes, New Jersey's resident star, pulled back to Jesper Bratt, maybe the NHL's most underappreciated player at any position, and those two made harmonic magic.
Anyone who can handle it, watch it again. The Penguins really didn't do anything wrong beyond Sid's rare faceoff loss. Bryan Rust saw Bratt skating away from the middle, so he peeled back and signaled with his right arm for someone else to pick him up. Sid heeded that signal and released Hughes, even if the center's always supposed to follow the other center after a faceoff loss. The resultant pass, the one-timer, the placement ... so smooth.
As Mike Sullivan would say, "The Jersey team is one of the faster teams in the league, in my opinion. They're quick. They've got a quick-strike offense, and they've got some game breakers."
All true. And yet, that'd be it, really.
The Penguins scored twice to tie, beginning with Rakell's team-leading 24th ...
... and the latter by Kevin Hayes while Sid was off the ice after a scary-looking collision that had him crouched in clearly significant pain while hurrying down the tunnel:
JUSTIN BERL / GETTY
There went the season, right?
Nope. Because, as sure as Sid would return a little later, to the relief of the crowd of 15,916 that'd stand and roar for a minute straight, the team got done what'd been the hardest part: A regulation rally from two down on an opponent 13 points ahead of them in the standings.
"I thought we played pretty solid again tonight. Last game was good, too," Sid would say, referring to the 3-0 shutout of the Predators here Saturday. "They're a dangerous team and I thought, for the most part, we did a pretty good job."
"Rough ending to the first period with them scoring the late goal and us getting one called back," Rakell would say. "But we stayed in the fight, and I thought we pushed hard the whole game. I think this was probably one of the better games against this team that we've struggled against in the past. Obviously, it hurts not getting the two points, but I thought we played hard."
"We'll take the point," Nedeljković would say, at least after expressing frustration with his continued shootout struggles. "It sucks not getting the other one, but we got to be happy with how we played tonight. Just move on and get ready for the next one."
The next two, actually, both on the road: Friday night in New York against the Rangers, Saturday night in Philadelphia against the Flyers, after which the NHL takes a two-week pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Look, I'll repeat this, as I feel like I've done every day since several players shared this with me in Salt Lake City: These are their playoffs. I appreciate that. I respect that.
That very night, they set a goal of getting through the four remaining pre-break games, as Bryan Rust worded it, "six, seven or eight of those points," and now they've got three of four, each of them earned through a dogged determination principally focused on defending. They dominated Nashville, and they were undaunted against New Jersey.
Go ahead and dump them. I mean it. Anyone doing so's almost certainly going to emerge looking a lot smarter than me. I've seen the math. I'm seeing the same standings:
NHL
I'm also liking what I'm seeing on the ice, and flat-out loving what's being spoken off it.
“I think the guys are competing," Sullivan would say. "We’re trying to stay in the fight here for a playoff spot. We know what we're up against. I think the guys have embraced the challenge. I think they're competing extremely hard. The new guys that have come in, I think they've fit in really well. So, we've won a couple of games here. We lose this one in a shootout. We got two left before the break. We've got an opportunity to try to put ourselves in the best possible position. So, we're just going to have to keep fighting.”
See everyone at the Garden. Or not.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
We’d love to have you!