"Tonight Was Substantially More Fun Than The Other Night"

With a smile on his face, Bryan Rust perfectly assessed Pittsburgh's 11-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
"Tonight was substantially more fun than the other night," the winger said.

There was so much that happened in a game where all but two Penguins skaters recorded a point in an utterly dominant performance. But the biggest and most important takeaway is that overall, the group responded the right way after what Jeff Carter called "probably our worst performance of the year" on Friday in New York.
After the Penguins got thoroughly outplayed in every single facet of their 5-1 loss to the Rangers, a team they are battling with in the Metro Division standings, Mike Sullivan said they had to learn from that experience. He said the discussion the coaching staff had with the players over the past couple of days revolved around building a game that's going to give them the best chance to get consistent results.
Then, the Penguins had to put it behind them, look at the game right in front of them, and make sure they were in the right headspace to set themselves up for success. Sullivan said he was confident that this veteran group would come out with a spirited effort.
"Obviously, we've got a proud group, and no one was really thrilled with our last game," he said. "Knowing these guys the way I know them, I expected them to come out and play on their toes and respond, so to speak. I think there's a lot of positives we can take out of this one."
Some of those positives (and there are many) included:
- Pittsburgh spreading the wealth all over the scoresheet after dealing with a lack of secondary scoring in recent games. "Obviously, it's nice to score goals. It's good for a lot of our guys, it's good for their confidence," Sullivan said. They became the first team in the NHL this season to get 11 goals in a single contest while only giving up two, one coming on a 5-on-3 power play.
- Evgeni Malkin looking like vintage Geno, scoring a hat trick to give him 16 goals in 30 games since making his season debut in January following knee surgery. He's one of the few players that can take a game over, and the 35-year-old superstar proved yet again what a difference-maker he is after missing Friday's matchup with a non-COVID illness.
- Rickard Rakell getting his first goal as a Penguin and tacked on two assists while skating alongside Malkin for the first time since coming to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline. "I'm glad he could get that behind him and just move forward now," Sullivan said. "I thought he had a strong game. I think he's getting better with each game that he plays."
- The power play has gotten its groove back, as it went 3-for-6 in the game and is now 7-for-16 in the past four games after going through a little bit of a drought. "I thought they were terrific tonight," Sullivan said.
The list goes on, but as Sullivan and Rust cautioned, the Penguins can't get too high after a game like this - especially because nights like these don't happen too often.
"Whether it's a game like tonight or a game like the other night, whether it's super great or super ugly, I think we got to take our lessons from all of it, from the good and the bad," Rust said. "I think the more we can just learn those lessons and move forward and look towards the next one, I think that's what makes good teams good. I think we gotta do that again coming on Tuesday."
That's when the Rangers come to town for the third of four meetings between the teams. New York got an overtime win over Buffalo tonight to move within one point of the second-place Penguins in the standings. It's going to be another huge matchup, and the Penguins know they have to continue to respond the right way.
"Obviously, you're gonna have your ups and downs, and I think the last game in New York was really, really bad. We needed a response, and we did have it tonight, but I think the next game against New York is going to be a big test for us too and how we respond against them," Teddy Blueger said. "I think it's a good challenge… Tonight was good, but it doesn't mean anything if we can't respond again next game."
"I think we just got to take what we did well in this game and build off it," Rust added. "Take the confidence from this game and keep moving forward, because we got a game with them on Tuesday."