PENGUINS

"Man," Rickard Rakell would tell me, this with a small sigh that'd suggest he had something serious to share, "we needed this one."

Needed?

"Needed. Really needed."

Hm. He had me on this one.

I mean, the Penguins were minutes removed from absolutely annihilating the Islanders, 8-3, Monday night at UBS Arena, moving a point ahead of New York and back into second place in the Metro, and pushing the periphery of the Eastern Conference's eight-team playoff field -- the Senators, Red Wings and Flyers are all tied for ninth -- to four points away.

Sooooooo ... it's that this was the game of the year?

Nope. That wasn't it.

"These guys," Rakell would continue. "This place."

Oh, wow. Yeah, of course.

"It's felt for such a long time, no matter what we do against them, they'll beat us by a goal or in overtime or in a shootout. We need to get past things like this. We need that as a team."

The Senators, too, then, I suppose?

"Them, too. And we did that, too."

Just last week. In Ottawa, no less. And via shootout!

"One thing at a time. One step at a time. But to move forward, we've got to get past these."

Get past ... wouldn't quite describe this showing, though, would it?

In this one, needing not only these points but also the exorcism Rakell expressed, all the Penguins overcame was not having Evgeni Malkin or Blake Lizotte, getting Sidney Crosby back probably before he should've been back, Bryan Rust and Noel Acciari were badly banged up, there's been a hellish schedule of 19 games in 34 days since the Olympic break and, as if all that weren't enough, the Islanders stormed ahead, 3-1, in the opening half of the second period, all three of those goals put behind an erratic-again Arturs Silovs within a six-minute flurry.

That's a challenge under any circumstance. Doubly so when facing Ilya Sorokin, who'd have my vote for the Vezina Trophy this season. And triply so, from my perspective, when Dan Muse chose this day to change up his top three forward lines.

I'd ask the man afterward if he'd carried any concern about that into faceoff:

"Nope," he'd reply flatly. "We've mixed up with the lines before. I know there were some that were a little bit different, but we just felt like that was going to be the best thing here for tonight."

So, a colossal challenge? Anyone?

"For us?" Justin Brazeau would tell me. "We believe in each other. And we don't stop."

No, they don't:

Don't bypass that play button. It's all five goals from that second period. It's a beauty.

Rakell and Anthony Mantha would score twice each, all four of the electric variety. Elmer Soderblom had a goal and won a heavyweight fight with Scott Mayfield, who's been bullying the Penguins for half a decade. Brazeau dished out three primary assists. Ryan Shea, Avery Hayes and Rust also scored.

For crying out loud, Sorokin was pulled by Patrick Roy after the touchdown and extra point. He'd never given up more than six in his NHL career.

"You don't like to be embarrassed like this in front of your fans," Roy would say at the podium here. "We gave them 11 chances in the second period. Are you kidding me? That was one of our worst games defensively in a while."

All in the eye of the beholder.

"We've been in situations when we've been down before," Muse would say. "We have a lot of belief in this group that we could kind of settle things down and put together some shifts where momentum could start to come our way. And we did that."

"I think we just stayed patient, played our game, kept working no matter what," Soderblom would say. "And then, the goals started coming. We kept our cool and knew the result would come."

“It was a very important game for us, for our team," Mantha would say, "and I think everyone showed up."

Pretty much since the opener at Madison Square Garden, I'd say. Pushing through one obstacle after another. It began that they'd be some lottery-level loser. And then that their hot start was a fluke. And then that it was still just Sid and Geno. And then the early December nosedive. And then the shootouts. And then ... well, all the Islanders and Senators and other opponents who've given them fits forever.

And then?

OK, my friends, that's as far as I'll take it for now. There's a chance to do similar damage to the Detroit cause in less than 24 hours, then seven more. Nothing's done.

But my goodness ... the pins are falling. And hard.

GETTY

Anthony Mantha backhands a breakaway move through the Islanders' Ilya Sorokin in the second period.

• I've got a separate piece on Mantha and Brazeau.

• And yet another on Soderblom's near-Gordie.

• Sid looked fine. Hardly all the way himself, but still, two assists, three shots and seven shot attempts. No visible sign of his no-doubt-still-lingering injury.

• From the never-take-him-for-granted file: Sid's two assists made him the eighth in NHL history to achieve 1,100, the second to do so with one franchise. (Ray Bourque was the other, with the Bruins, but he'd finish with the Avalanche.) 

• Erik Karlsson didn't play the final six minutes of the game, but I wouldn't sweat that. They're all bruised to an extent, and nobody's logged the ice time he has. No point in playing him once up by a handful.

• Three goals on 14 shots ain't it. Muse got away with what I thought was a curious call to go with Silovs over Stuart Skinner, but Silovs didn't exactly reward the faith.

• I demand to see hands up for everyone who's ever doubted Rakell. Come on, don't be shy.

• Almost related, but who knew they taught U.S. Civil War history in Swedish schools?

Elmer's first helmet 🤩 pic.twitter.com/sX5RWPgVOL

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 31, 2026

• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. And, of course, my baseball coverage. Flying home after six days in New York of doing both.