Penguins/Canucks Recap: Pens thankful to hold on for win against Vancouver

Pittsburgh jumps out to a big lead and…well this time they didn’t blow it

Pregame

A bunch of changes for the Penguins in the lineup tonight; Philip Tomasino makes his Penguin debut, Blake Lizotte is back from the injured reserve and Owen Pickering’s illness spares Matt Grzelcyk from being a healthy scratch.

The visiting Canucks are rolling with the following lines.

First period

Pittsburgh scores first and on their first shot of the game. Ryan Shea shoots intentionally wide and Lizotte is able to make an instant impact coming back from IR to get enough of puck after it bounces off the end board to sneak by Arturs Silovs. 1-0 Pens early.

It’s not long before Vancouver ties it up. Aatu Raty sticks with it after his first shot is blocked. Tristan Jarry lost the path of it somewhere along the way as Raty flicks it by him. 1-1 game.

Pittsburgh is able to get a response goal to go back ahead. A Canuck gets a piece of Bryan Rust’s pass but can’t knock it completely off course. It ends up with Rickard Rakell, who makes a nice move to shoot back across Silovs to the far side. 2-1 Pens.

A power play goal pushes the Pens out even further. Evgeni Malkin has plenty of time and gets the puck in to Kevin Hayes in front of the net. Hayes uses his reach to bend and knock a puck in. 3-1 game.

Not content with their first three-goal first period of the season, the Pens add a fourth goal. Erik Karlsson makes a vintage Erik Karlsson play to snap a great pass up the middle of the ice to Sidney Crosby. Crosby drives ahead quickly, putting Quinn Hughes in a tough spot. Tougher still when Crosby lays over a perfect pass for Rust who quickly slings it in. 4-1 and the Pens are…rolling? What year is this?

Shots are 10-10 but it’s been almost all Pittsburgh in this one. Just like old times.

Second period

The Pens run the last goal back with another one scored by Rust, assists to Crosby and Karlsson. It’s timed well, just 3:40 into the period to deflate the Canucks even further. This one is more about Rust, who cuts over from left to right and unleashes a long-range shot on Silovs. Not the best night for the Vancouver backup goalie, but the Pens would be the last to look a bad goalie gift horse in the mouth at this point of the season. 5-1.

Exactly 10 minutes later, the Canucks get one goal back. It’s Pius Suter from distance with some traffic in front.

The Pens get up still in control with 20 to go.

Third period

Forty seconds into the period, Quinn Hughes single-handledly makes it interesting. Hughes breaks up a play in the zone, rushes the puck himself all the way up the ice, finds some room and Marcus Pettersson can’t completely block the shot. But Pettersson’s attempt at it changes the angle and velocity of it enough to handcuff Jarry. 5-3 game.

Jack St. Ivany takes a penalty and the pressure amps up a little. Lizotte fights through Vancouver for a shorthanded breakaway but his shot trickles just wide of the net.

Pittsburgh gets two late power plays, they don’t come that close to scoring but it serves to kill more time off the clock. Vancouver pulls their goalie with about 2:30 to play. Elias Pettersson cashes in with 1:46 to play. 5-4 game.

Within 20 seconds the Canucks get the puck back in the Pens’ zone and pull the goalie again. Fortunately for Pittsburgh they get this one to the finish line to break their three-game losing streak.

Some thoughts

• Where has this Erik Karlsson been all fall? Can this guy show up more often? Karlsson was snapping pucks around brilliantly, it’s been a long time since his offensive game was on display like it was tonight. It’s been a compounding fall for him in the early part of the season, he looked like a different player once again.
• Tonight was the 18th straight game Drew O’Connor’s played without scoring a goal. His drought goes back to Oct. 18th. He had a couple good looks at the net but couldn’t hit the back of it. Hopefully the quantity of looks will mean eventually he breaks through but it’s not great right now. Luckily for O’Connor the team has had enough bigger and more pressing problems to barely even notice he hasn’t scored in forever.
• Fairly quiet Pittsburgh debut for Tomasino. About the only times he was noticeable were two instances in the first period where he was crushed (or nearly crushed) by big open ice hits. 1 SOG (but four attempts), one blocked shot in 18:05 of ice time.
• Big win or not, everyone will pick nits with lineup decisions and scratching Jesse Puljujarvi for 30-somethings in Matt Nieto, Noel Acciari AND Kevin Hayes won’t be a popular one. Nevermind that Hayes scored on the power play and Nieto+Acciari can figure into the penalty kill. The Pens may think that Puljujarvi is never moving the needle that much or Nieto/Hayes deserve some chances to play themselves into form after stints on the IR, but if the Pens want to play with an eye toward getting younger, they’re going to have to get younger.
• That said, maybe veteran forwards in the bottom-six was a function to help the young defense (even though Pickering was a late scratch, he was intended to join St. Ivany and Shea in the lineup, which makes 3/6 NHL defenders fairly inexperienced). It’s doubtful many will keep too open a mind at this point but ideally some of the older forwards fade out the lineup sooner than later.
• Jarry’s performance didn’t inspire a lot of confidence but a win is a win at this point for him.
• No shots on goal for Crosby or Kris Letang. Only one for Malkin and Rakell too. Then you get to Bryan Rust with seven SOG, representing 30% of the whole team’s 23 shots in the game.
• Nice to see the Pens could score a lot of goals and coast to a win. A nice, warm slice of nostalgia just in time for the holidays. Sure it still had some drama and uneasiness along the way, but that is unavoidable these days.

But it’s still going to be an active few days ahead with games on Friday and Saturday night. See you then!