WHAT HAPPENED
The Penguins won their second straight game out of the All-Star break with a 2-0 victory over Ottawa on Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre.
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and eighth of his career, passing Johan Hedberg for the sixth-most in Penguins history. Jeff Carter (13) and Bryan Rust (16) scored for Pittsburgh.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
Pittsburgh's first game out of the All-Star break wasn't their prettiest performance. This one was the opposite. As DeSmith said afterward, the Penguins went in and played their game to a T tonight.
"I thought it was a complete effort on both sides of the puck," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we were hard to play against. I thought we forced Ottawa to have to work really hard to get the looks. And when we defend collectively as a group of five, I think we can be a stingy defensive team. We can also create our offense off our defense."
They Penguins had plenty of energy right from the start, which resulted in an incredibly fast-paced opening frame, and they only got better as the night went along. Pittsburgh's best period was their last, as they spent the majority of it in Ottawa's end, stringing together several long offensive-zone sequences and outshooting the Senators 19-5.
Overall, they put 44 pucks on Matt Murray, playing against his former team for the first time since being traded to Ottawa in October of 2020. He had a rough first half of the season that included a stint with Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Belleville, but Murray has since bounced back, entering this game with a 5-0-2 record in his last seven games with a .944 save percentage and continuing his excellent play.
"Obviously, we have a lot of respect for Matt and how capable he is," Sullivan said. "He's a real solid goaltender and was a huge part of the Stanley Cups that we enjoyed during that time here. I thought Matt looked really strong."
But it was DeSmith who came away with the well-deserved shutout. His best sequence came in the second period, where he first stopped a shorthanded breakaway from Dylan Gambrell right before denying a chance in close from Nick Paul, allowing Carter to go the other way to make it 1-0 Penguins.
"He made two or three real good saves throughout the course of the game that we needed, quite frankly," Sullivan said. "That's what goalies do to help their teams win. And I thought Casey did that tonight. He's played a lot of good hockey for us here over the last few years since he's been a Pittsburgh Penguin. We know what he's capable of. It's games like this."
Like Murray, DeSmith also struggled throughout the opening half, which cumulated with him getting pulled for the second time in as many appearances on Jan. 21 at Columbus. But after working hard with goalie coach Andy Chiodo - and switching his pads - DeSmith got back on track with a 3-2 shootout win against Detroit on Jan. 28 and built on that with tonight's effort.
"Every solid outing, good game, builds a little bit more confidence," DeSmith said. "I'm just fortunate enough to get in the net tonight. Hopefully get in the net a little bit more going forward, and continue to build."
OTHER THOUGHTS, MUSINGS AND OBSERVATIONS
- 500 will have to wait
Sidney Crosby may not have gotten his 500th career goal tonight, but the captain was still tremendous on both sides of the puck, as were his wingers.
Crosby's dream was always to be a goalie, and he lived that out for a moment by coming up with a stack-the-pads block down by the blue paint as the clock ticked down to the final seconds, allowing Rust to go the other way and ice the win with an empty-netter.
"He defends hard," Sullivan said. "That's one of the reasons why we use that line in 5-on-6 scenarios. They just play the game the right way, they're willing to block shots, and he leads the charge for us. He didn't score tonight, but he certainly played the game in such a way that that helped us win."
Rust did get in the goal column, scoring an empty-netter for the second straight contest, giving him goals in four straight and 16 tallies in just 26 games after missing time due to injuries and COVID.
Guentzel earned the secondary assist to extend his point streak to five games (2G-7A-9PTS). Dating back to Nov. 13, he's been held off the scoresheet in just four of his 30 games and points in all but one of his 21 road games.
"Their line, I thought, was tough to handle all night long," Sullivan said.
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February 11, 2022 at 10:27AM
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