PITTSBURGH — Matt Grzelyck has been waiting six months to score a goal for his new team. His first one was as big as any on the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, pulling them even late in an eventual 3-2 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Kings at PPG Paints Arena.
His shot was sure. His celebration was raw. His rewards were due, as no player in the NHL had produced more points without a goal.
But how about that pass from Sidney Crosby?
MATT GRZELCYK, THE MAN 🙌 pic.twitter.com/8dHhYhyoGv
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 18, 2024
Good gravy. Or maybe sweet sauce is more appropriate.
“He’s probably the only man in the rink that can make that play,” coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday night after arguably the Penguins’ most impressive victory among a 7-2-1 run.
“It’s a backhand, sauce, lands right on the tape. There aren’t a lot of guys that can make that play.”
Sullivan added that he thinks “it’s only a matter of time” before Crosby scores a goal, something that hasn’t happened over the past 10 games.
That the Penguins would alter the course of their season during a stretch when their captain hasn’t tallied is almost as improbable as them holding a playoff position given they owned the NHL’s third-worst points percentage entering the day before Thanksgiving. Yet roughly a week before the league’s Christmas break, here are the Penguins in the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card slot.
Nobody outside the organization saw this coming. Probably many within it wouldn’t have dared predict such a swift turnaround.
Doesn’t matter.
With 40 percent of the regular season complete, the Penguins have transformed into a playoffs contender. They’ve done so mostly without their iconic center tandem chipping in — at least in terms of goals.
Only Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, have scored more points as teammates than Crosby and Malkin’s combined 2,949 in regular-season games for the Penguins. Still, even with his second-period goal against the Kings, Malkin has scored only twice and produced just six points in 10 games. Crosby has 10 points in as many games, but half of those came in wins at the Montreal Canadiens and at home against the Vancouver Canucks.
This is no suggestion Crosby and Malkin are not the Penguins’ best players. They are the leading scorers, not to mention the pair for whom opposing coaches design plans.
They’re no longer 50-goal threats. They’re also probably not going to finish the season with a combined 37 goals (their pace through 33 games).
Malkin has never scored fewer than 27 when he’s played at least 70 games. Crosby’s low for a similar season is 29.
Indeed, they’re in their late 30s, and Father Time comes every athlete eventually. He’s rarely tried to catch a duo like the Penguins’ Two-Headed Monster, though.
Malkin crashed to the net to get a stick on a Michael Bunting shot early in the second period on Tuesday night and showed he’ll gladly get dirty to get one by a goalie. More of that from Malkin, and the goals will come in bunches.
MALKAMANIA IS RUNNING WILD IN PITTSBURGH! 💪 pic.twitter.com/mzAsepkVkS
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 18, 2024
Sullivan correctly noted Crosby probably could have turned a hat trick in the third period. Puck luck was not with him. The Kings, a reputable defensive team with Anze Kopitar, one of the better defending centers of his generation, had no answer for Crosby other than relying on the hockey gods.
Crosby attempted 12 shots. He placed six of those on Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper.
The Penguins arrived at the final period trailing 2-1, but it was clear from the first shift of Crosby’s line that he was intent on at least salvaging a point from this game. He was dominant enough over those final 20 minutes to win the game outright.
So likely nobody in the area, including the Kings, was surprised he played a pivotal role in the Penguins’ equalizer.
“Every player goes through times when for some reason or the other the puck’s just not going in the net,” said Bryan Rust, one of Crosby’s wingers. “He is who he is for a reason and he’s scored a lot of goals, and he knows what it takes, and he’s been getting a whole heck of a lot of chances here. He’s going to score sooner or later.”
Seems like it.
Feels like when Crosby does dent the dam, he won’t need long to break it, either.
“He’s so close to scoring,” Sullivan said. “We’re hoping when he breaks through here it’ll come in bunches for him.”
Where might these upstart Penguins find themselves in the Eastern Conference playoff race when their franchise icon finds his goal-scoring swagger? Nobody knows the answer, but the Penguins must be thought of differently now than they did a month ago.
Some quick observations from this win over the Kings:
What in the neutral zone?
The Penguins haven’t become the New Jersey Devils of the late 1990s and early 2000s in the natural zone. They have drastically improved in that area, and against the Kings they were again sound.
Before this run of success, the Penguins had a couple of days in a row to practice — something they hadn’t enjoyed since training camp. During those sessions, Sullivan and his assistants stressed the need for more attention to detail specifically in the neutral zone. The message: Play as quickly as possible. Don’t let teams get into a forecheck.
“I think our forwards have done a really good job of filling three lanes and not really worrying about what position you’re in — just get there as quick as you can,” Grzelcyk said.
Defensemen have benefited.
“It’s been great, it’s just opened a lot of the ice and teams aren’t allowed to get a change — they’re having to go back on pucks more than usual,” Grzelcyk said. “We have to just stick with that.”
Evidence is always the best way to convince players — especially skilled ones — to go against their instincts. Sullivan and his staff have the past three weeks’ worth of video to offer to the Penguins’ best forwards for why a quicker, simpler approach in the neutral zone is the ticket to prosperity.
In lieu of Pettersson
The Penguins recalled Nathan Clurman to replace injured defenseman Marcus Pettersson (week-to-week, lower body) on the roster. Clurman did not play against the Kings, but the defensemen who did play combined to minimize the absence of Pettersson — arguably the Penguins’ best defender.
Owen Pickering and Crosby had their wires crossed on the sequence to allow the Kings’ opening goal. Erik Karlsson had a couple of terrible turnovers on a third-period power play with the score tied.
Otherwise, the Penguins’ defense corps was a strength against the Kings.
“Pick’s 20 years old and he’s playing 20 minutes… we think he’s competing hard, not perfect, but he’s battling out there,” Sullivan said. “Ryan Shea played a solid game for us; (Ryan Graves) played within himself. When we do it that way, by committee so to speak, I think our team play can insulate those guys a little bit. And then when I think when Karl and Kris play the way they’re capable of playing, they make the game so much easier for those guys out there.”
Kris Letang and Karlsson combined for 48:51 of ice time. One of them was on the ice for 79 percent of the game.
This unit will go as goes Letang and Karlsson, and they’re showing better form lately.
Bunting at his best
Michael Bunting, a professed pro wrestling fan, returned to the dressing room after the win to check out WWE’s Bron Breakker’s intercontinental championship title. It was WWE Night, and Breakker met with a few players after spending most of the game greeting fans, posing for pictures, and signing autographs.
A couple legends. pic.twitter.com/9X79il5ETT
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 18, 2024
Perhaps it’s Bunting who should be doing the signing?
He was fantastic against the Kings. He placed four of his six attempted shots on net, set up Malkin’s goal and assisted on Rickard Rakell’s overtime winner. He wasn’t credited with a hit, but he dragged the Penguins into the fight with each shift.
Although Bunting was so bad early this season he earned a healthy scratch, he has been really good over the last 10 games. It’s not just his three goals and nine points; he’s engaged to the point of becoming a nuisance for opponents, which is the best version of Bunting.
He’s a streaky offensive contributor. His other attributes — physicality, grit and grime — needn’t be, and haven’t been the past few weeks.
This version of Bunting is crucial to the Penguins’ playoff push and probably has a future with the franchise.
(Top photo of Sidney Crosby: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
