Coming out of the bye week/All-Star break, the Penguins felt like they had a huge opportunity to come together as a team and start putting their best game on the ice more consistently as they fight for a playoff spot. They certainly did that on Tuesday with a 3-0 victory over Winnipeg.
“We know that we have games in hand on a lot of teams in front of us, and we got to win as many games as we can,” Bryan Rust said. “I thought we played with urgency all night long. Obviously, that first game out of the break, there was a little bit of sloppiness at times. Not totally unexpected. Just gotta clean up those little areas, and I think we’ll be good.”
Tristan Jarry made 24 saves for his league-leading sixth shutout of the year, improving to 5-0 against the Jets in his career.
"When you get time off, you obviously have to use it to your advantage,” he said. “I think being prepared and ready for when you come back - a lot of the guys, we all did the right thing, and I think that gave us the upper hand tonight."
After Kris Letang opened the scoring in the first period, there was a scary sequence early in the second period. Brenden Dillon caught Noel Acciari with an illegal check to the head, sending both the Penguins forward and his helmet flying.
Acciari, who was bleeding, was tended to by two Pittsburgh medical staff members and surrounded by a few teammates, who eventually helped him off the ice. The Penguins announced later in the period that Acciari would not return.
"He's doing okay but being evaluated right now,” said Head Coach Mike Sullivan when asked for Acciari’s status, and his opinion on the hit. “We'll allow the league to go through their process like they always do. At the end of the day, our opinions don't really matter. Our major concern is Noel and his health, and he seems to be doing okay."
Dillon was assessed a match penalty – “imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner” – which resulted in his immediate removal from the game. He is automatically suspended from further competition until Commissioner Gary Bettman has ruled on the issue.
Per NHL rules, the Penguins would be on the power play for five minutes regardless of how many goals they scored – and they ended up with two.
"You never want to see a guy go down like that. That's not a great hit,” Jake Guentzel said. “For us to get two goals, that's the best way to get back at them."
Late in their game against Florida on Jan. 26 – their second to last before the break – the coaching staff had re-distributed the power-play personnel. For tonight’s game, Pittsburgh went with the following groups of five:
Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, Reilly Smith
Erik Karlsson, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, Rickard Rakell, Lars Eller
“We've got a lot of new faces on this team this year and we anticipated some adjustment processes both five-on-five and special teams,” Mike Sullivan said. “So, we felt like we've tried to exercise a certain amount of patience to try to help the group work through things. … and at some point, that change is necessary in order to try to get more favorable results. And so that's where we're at right now, and that's why we're we've made the decisions that we've made.”
They got excellent results tonight, with both units finding the back of the net.
“We have so many capable players that can play on a lot of top units everywhere in the league,” Letang said. “It's just a question of finding some chemistry, maybe going back to playing a little bit more simple, shooting more pucks. So like you said, was spread the wealth and we get rewarded.”
After Carter was denied on a re-direct attempt on a pass from Rakell, the veteran presence corralled a shot that had eyes while serving as the net-front presence, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead with 1:42 remaining. Then, with 12 seconds remaining, Rust buried one.
“It’s big to get a little bit of confidence there,” Rust said. “That also was a huge part of why we won this game. All of it together was nice.”
Any time the Penguins got on their heels – there were a couple of sequences throughout the game where the Jets had some offensive zone time – Jarry was there. So was the Penguins video staff, as video coach Madison Nikkel and assistant video coach C.J. D’Alimonte chipped in with a successful coach’s challenge for offside after Mark Scheifele appeared to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-1.
“I thought he was solid, in the third period in particular, when Winnipeg was pushing,” Sullivan said. “Give them credit. They were a good team. They got some pretty dynamic offensive people, and I thought he made a couple of sneaky good saves.”
The Penguins have two days of practice before traveling to Minnesota to play the Wild on Friday before a rematch with the Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday.
"It's important that we stay in the moment and we don't get ahead of ourselves and we focus on the one game in hand, that one right in front of us," Sullivan said. "That's what we're going to do. But it's also important that we understand where we're at, and we know what the big picture is, so that we have a certain perspective on one where we're gonna go. If we're going to ultimately make the playoffs and give ourselves an opportunity to contend for a Stanley Cup, we can't let any opportunity slip by."
