Shinny Happy Penguins Beat Flyers 7-6
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Sidney Crosby was absolutely dominant this afternoon against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. With a goal and three assists, the Captain did what he does best, and drug his team into the fight.
First, let’s recap the goals… all thirteen of them.
PIT 0-1: Two minutes and 11 seconds into the game, Lars Eller turns the puck over to Travis Sanheim. Olle Lycksell collects the loose puck and bumps it back to Scott Laughton, who beats Tristan Jarry blocker side. Sanheim may have tipped Laughton’s shot.
PIT 1-1: Look out, here comes Sidney Crosby. He enters the zone and fires a shot that’s blockered aside by Cal Petersen. The puck rims around the boards, and Kris Letang pinches perfectly to keep the puck in the zone. He finds Rickard Rakell, who dusts the puck off and hits Bryan Rust’s stick in a fantastic shot-pass. Petersen kicks it out, and Crosby collects the change.
PIT 2-1: Crosby and Rust tag-team Sean Walker and Morgan Frost in a strong display of forechecking. Crosby comes away with the puck, and finds Marcus Pettersson at the blue line. Rust cuts across the ice, presenting his stick, and Pettersson hits it. Perfect deflection. That’s 17 goals on the season for #17.
PIT 2-2: Owen Tippett finds Tyson Foerster— Erik Karlsson attempted to block Tippett’s pass— all alone in front of the net. Foerster collects the puck, goes forehand-backhand, and tucks it in. Jarry bit on the first move and was caught swimming.
PIT 3-2: The powerplay was bipolar this afternoon. On their second attempt— their first was an abbreviated one— they were snapping it around, and moving well with and without the puck. Crosby bumps to Karlsson, who cycles left and draws Laughton with him. Karlsson passes to a wide open Rust who walks right down 5th Ave and rifles one in to beat Petersen blocker side.
PIT 4-2: Once again on the powerplay, Reilly Smith dumps the puck down the boards to new Penguin Emil Bemström, who is somehow all alone behind the defense. Flyers defenseman Cam York catches a piece of Bemström’s shot, which then rides up Petersen’s stick and in over the pads.
PIT 4-3: Right off a clean face off win by new captain Sean Couturier, Sanheim steps up and fires one in from above the circle to beat Jarry glove side. The puck may have taken a slight deflection off Smith’s shinpad on its way in.
PIT 4-4: Ah, a tale of two powerplays. On this one, Karlsson and Rakell allow Laughton to enter the zone unimpeded, who drops it for Noah Cates. Rakell pressures Cates, and Cates wraps around behind the goal. Rakell goes diving through the crease, and bumps into Jarry. Cates tries to put it home on the wraparound, and the puck deflects off of Jarry right to Laughton, who easily shoots it into the empty net. Karlsson appears to think Cates scored on the initial attempt, and gives up on the play. Bad look all around. This is Philadelphia’s 14th shorthanded goal this season— and their second against Pittsburgh, both courtesy of Scott Laughton.
PIT 5-4: After an incredible keep in by Valtteri Puustinen, the puck finds its way to Evgeni Malkin. Malkin bumps forward to Drew O’Connor, who fires it past Petersen short side. Credit to O’Connor for taking advantage, but man, what a bad goal for Petersen to give up. Not that I’m complaining.
PIT 6-4: Pettersson fires it deep to Crosby. Crosby circles behind the goal, right hand on his stick, left arm fending off Marc Staal. The Captain one hands the puck right onto Rakell’s stick, who puts it right over Petersen’s right shoulder for his first goal in 16 games.
PIT 6-5: This one was rough to watch. And you could just feel it coming, too. It was just a perfect storm, an awful combination of an ill-timed change, poor back checking from Jansen Harkins, and ineffective defense from PO Joseph who failed to hinder Lycksell’s entrance into the zone. Cam York received Lycksell’s pass, and fired one over Tristan Jarry’s right shoulder, who barely reacts.
PIT 7-5: I’m not even sure how to describe this one. After a board battle, the Penguins manage to escape their zone, and Crosby picks the puck up around center ice. He enters the attacking zone, and finds the trailing Rakell, whose shot is fought off by Petersen. Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler tries to clear the puck, and it bounces right to Letang who fires a knuckle puck that seems to change directions two or three times before ending up in the back of the Petersen’s net.
PIT 7-6: On the powerplay, Laughton fires a cross-ice pass to find Couturier alone at the right side of the net. Couturier bumps it to Foerster, who fires it into the empty cage from right below the left dot. Alex Ovechkin who? After pushing right to defend the initial pass to Couturier, there was very little that Jarry could do. He also may have bumped into Eller, who was the lone penalty killer who hadn’t taken himself out of the play.
Here are some takeaways:
This was Crosby’s 39th career four point game, and his second of the season. The first was a 5-3 victory over Columbus on 11/14/2023, in which he had three goals and an assist. He was originally credited with a five point game, but a fourth assist was taken away in a stat correction on Letang’s goal.
Man, the Penguins and Flyers have had some offensively driven battles over the years. Today’s game was the highest-scoring since the 2012 playoffs, when the Penguins beat the Flyers 10-3 on 4/19/2012. If you don’t count the postseason, today’s was the highest-scoring affair since 2/7/2001, when the Penguins beat the Flyers 9-4. The highest-scoring battle of PA of all time came all the way back on 3/22/1984, when the Flyers routed the Penguins 13-4.
The Penguins and Flyers have also had some physically brutal battles over the years. Today was one of them. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale ran down the tunnel after taking a hard, open ice hit from Jansen Harkins, and did not return. Bryan Rust left the game after a hit from Scott Laughton shortly before O’Connor’s goal, and did not return. Even Flyers rookie Tyson Foerster left after blocking a friendly fire shot from Owen Tippett— he, however, returned and scored the Flyers sixth goal of the game.
Goaltending was terrible today, on both sides. Cal Petersen posted a .781 SV%, and allowed seven goals on 32 shots. Tristan Jarry allowed six goals on 21 shots, and finished with a .714 SV%. So, yes, this game featured a lot of goals… but that shouldn’t be entirely credited to the offenses.
Tristan Jarry has been good this year. You can argue that he deserved to have an off day, after posting games— like last Sunday’s against the Los Angeles Kings, for example, where he allowed only two goals on 34 shots with a .941SV%, but still lost because the offense only managed to score once— seemingly all year. However, in a must-win game, today’s wasn’t a showing you wanted to see from your starting goaltender. But it was a relief to see the offense manage to gut out a win, despite Jarry’s best efforts.
Jarry has bailed the offense out for most of this year. It was nice to see them show up for once. Sure, Petersen had a bad day. But how many times have the Penguins gotten goalied this year? A game where the Penguins scored seven goals— two of which came on the powerplay— was a sight for sore eyes.
The powerplay today was a strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They went two for four, although the first powerplay was an abridged one. Their goals came on back-to-back powerplays, just over two minutes apart. They also allowed a short-handed goal. And on their third attempt, they had absolutely nothing until Bemström made it happen himself. So, maybe they’ve turned a corner. But I don’t think so.
After their first allowed goal, the Penguins needed their Captain to drag them back into the fight. Like TNT’s Paul Bissonnette remarked about Sidney Crosby after the first period, “They fell down one-nothing, and it’s always him with the answer.” Right before Bissonnette’s comment, though, NHL on TNT Host Liam McHugh said what we’ve all been thinking: “Behold the greatness of Sidney Crosby.”
