Penguins/Predators Recap: Pens shutout Nashville 3-0

The new-look Penguins earn a 3-0 win at home

Pregame

It’s a new look Penguins team with Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor traded away. Two newcomers from the trade are in the lineup in a hurry and Phillip Tomasino replaces Jesse Puljuarvi.

First period

The “player scores a goal against former team” trope finally goes in the Penguins’ favor to open the scoring. Erik Karlsson does well to hold the zone on the power play and then eventually sets up the former Predator Tomasino to sling a puck in. 1-0 Pens exactly halfway through the first period.

Shots are 9-9 a piece.

Second period

Pittsburgh gets the game’s second goal too, Rickard Rakell makes a nice cross-ice pass to Sidney Crosby. The captain scores in his fourth game straight to push the Pens out to a 2-0 lead.

Third period

Alex Nedeljkovic stops all nine shots he sees in the third to go with all 25 he sees all night to earn the shutout. Bryan Rust tacks on his 20th goal of the season into an empty net to seal the deal for the Pens to skate away with the victory.

Some thoughts

• Considering Vincent Desharnais and Danton Heinen had to travel just to meet the team and only had a warmups, both were impressive enough. Desharnais skated 16:17 and was credited with two hits, four blocked shots and a giveaway. Heinen played 12:42 and had three shots and two hits. Not bad since they both had to catch up to even get to town on time.
• Tomasino was floundering a bit considering he registered zero shots on goal in four out of his last six games prior to tonight from January 17-27. That resulted in a healthy scratch last game and while it may be seen as a punishment or punitive to a player, sometimes it can serve as a necessary reset. Credit to the Pens for getting him right back in the lineup after one game. Credit to Tomasino for finding a way to make an impact on the scoresheet with his opportunity.
• One player who needs no reset is Crosby, now up to four games in a row with a goal, and goals in five of the last six. For as much as this team will rise or at least tread water down the stretch, it will probably be due to Crosby’s influence.
• Rust now has six 20-goal seasons. That ties Ron Francis in Penguin history for 20-goal campaigns. Only seven players have more — the four Mount Rushmore guys (87, 71, 66, 68) and Rick Kehoe, Jean Pronovost and Jake Guentzel. Not bad company at all for Rust in franchise lore.
• For season milestones, Karlsson’s two assists tonight pushed him to 30 on the season. He leads all active NHL defensemen with 12 seasons of 30+ assists.
• Here’s Alex Nedeljkovic’s stat line since Tristan Jarry got waived: 6-2-0 (starting six of eight games), 1.84 GAA, .940 save%, the shutout tonight, plus a goal and an assist. Not bad. Nedeljkovic was rocky against Anaheim a few games ago, but by and large the team has placed as much trust in him as he’s earned these days.
• The Bob Grove stat of the night has to do with shutouts. The Pens had gone 88 games without a shutout, their longest streak in more than 34 years from 11/16/89 to 12/26/90 over 101 games. Pittsburgh’s last shutout was almost a full calendar year ago on 2/6/24 vs. Winnipeg (a 3-0 win, Jarry made 23 saves).
• Even going back to the win against Utah, several Pens players talked about their focus in making a push in the four games leading up to their 4 Nations break, mostly because that’s the way hockey players deep in the trenches have to think. Tonight was a good start on that. They’re six points back of the playoff line (though everyone ahead of them has games in hand). The hole they are in is insurmountable but the team is focused on making a dent in their predicament over the next week before they take a break. Next week they’ll play New Jersey, the Rangers and Philadelphia. We’ll see what they can do. Most likely it won’t be much, but as an effort like tonight proved, they won’t be going down without a fight.

Pittsburgh gets a few days off and sees the Devils on Tuesday night.