Pregame
It’s red alert time for the Penguins, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin start a game on the same line since November 2024. Pittsburgh opts for Sergei Murashov to start in goal.
Los Angeles is working with this lineup for the night.
First period
The Penguins get on the board 1:48 into the game, the new second line has a dogged shift hounding the puck in the offensive zone. Eventually Declan Carlile puts a puck on net that Tommy Novak collects, spins around and tosses past Darcy Kuemper. 1-0 Pens early on.
Second goal, similar to the first. Novak finds a puck in front of the net, this time following a drive made by Ben Kindel and Novak pots his seventh tally of the season. 2-0.
The Kings are able to answer, Corey Perry bats a puck out of mid-air from in front of the net. 2-1.
The Pens get their first power play of the night, and lo and behold, the second group translates it into a goal. It takes a while to figure out that Egor Chinakhov’s top shelf shot actually went in, but it did! 3-1.
Shots end up 9-7 LA after the first period. Pittsburgh only had one shot in the last 11 minutes of the period. That shot was Chinakhov’s goal, which always helps. 3-1 edge after 20.
Second period
LA gets a power play goal of their own with Sam Girard in the box. Alex Laferriere brings it up to 3-2.
Sidney Crosby moves past Kings icon Marcel Dionne in points by..just standing there and letting Evgeni Malkin’s shot go off him and into the goal. 4-2 Pens.
Shots in the period are 11-6 LA, the Pens are living opportunistically and so far up on the scoreboard by a 4-2 score.
Third period
Crosby gets called for a penalty early in the third, LA negates the advantage when Artemi Panarin slashes a Penguin. Both cycle out.
LA pulls the goalie when time draws near. Malkin chips the puck to Crosby and he fights his way through the ice despite getting hooked and still finds a way to poke the puck into the net. 5-2.
That’s it for this one.
Some thoughts
- Switching Malkin and Novak in the top-6 was a subtle change, and perhaps a weird one since Novak was already finding ways to produce points. It ended up being a really nice touch, since Novak kept right at it with two goals on a new line and the Malkin+Crosby combo also produced two goals (albeit one an empty net). That’s the type of coaching move that hasn’t quite led to great results so far but certainly did tonight.
- Have to feel really good for Murashov on a night like this, in only his second appearance since October 17th. There was good reason for that since Arturs Silovs has been really good lately, and this isn’t exactly the team you’d want to throw a 22-year old goalie out there to hope for the best. Murashov allowed 14 goals in his last three starts, great to see him put up a 26 save on 28 shot performance to keep that down and earn his first win of the night.
- Despite the positive result, the Pens weren’t really great wire-to-wire. They found a way to score a bunch and make it irrelevant, but it’s kinda ironic they skate to a fairly convincing score with the final without truly carrying play or being all that strong consistently, especially when some of their recent losses they played really well for the most part and then got let down by major mistakes. Hey, when you break a long losing streak there’s nothing the matter.
- Great to see Chinakhov score a goal on a nice shot. He hasn’t done that much this year, and I know some are saying (not without cause) that he’s been better than his statline might show, but at some point for a player that talented and with that kind of shot and who is now making $6.25 million bucks, it’s about putting the puck in the net. That hasn’t happened enough, and considering some lingering injury issues combined with some bad luck of disallowed goals and posts hit, there’s a reason enough for it, but at the end of the day that’s a guy who needs to hit the net. Goals can come in spurts and hopefully he gets on a heater here soon.
- It was a good night for the old guys: Malkin had three assists. Letang pitched in two assists. Sid had his two goals. Karlsson with a nice assist. I’d imagine the Pens are usually gonna win when 87-71-58 all have multi-point nights and that formula held true for one more night.
The Pens can’t really catch their breath just yet, another game tomorrow night in nearby Anaheim.
