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The Capitals pull away in the second period and soundly defeat the Penguins by a 8-3 final score
Pregame
The Penguins honor Mike Lange with a pre-game video tribute.
Pittsburgh gets Evgeni Malkin back, Sidney Crosby is giving it a go but Bryan Rust is sick and unable to play.
The visiting Washington Capitals have this lineup.
First period
The game starts and ABC is...in a commercial break following their previous DET/MIN game ending late in overtime. Great job guys.
The Pens play sloppy too, turning the puck over to make Matt’s Grzelcyk’s change bad timing. The Caps come up the ice, Erik Karlsson is just standing there. Alex Nedeljkovic slides almost completely into the corner for unknown reasons and Ethen Frank kicks a goal in past impromptu goalie Kris Letang. Good gracious what a mess.
The refs review the play and deem Frank’s kick to be legal.
A little later Vincent Desharnais and Pierre-Luc Dubois get tangled up behind the play and go to the box. Nothing comes of it.
Penguin pressure forces Lars Eller to take a hooking penalty, lots of zone time and shot attempts but they can’t score. Kevin Hayes slams a shot from right in front solidly off the post in the closest chance.
Malkin gets grabbed by Jakub Chychrun to earn another Pittsburgh power play. The first group spins their wheels but the second unit strikes when Malkin makes a great pass for Kris Letang to hammer home. 1-1 game.
The Pens end the period with the last 20 shot attempts, aided by having the two power plays. Pretty good start aside from the atrocious rush that led to the goal against. Total shots are 9-4 PIT, score tied at one a piece.
Second period
It’s a nightmare of a five-goal against period for the Pens.
It starts with Martin Fehervery on a rush. Letang pushes up to force something not there, P.O. Joseph lets the pass go through him, Nedeljkovic gets beat short-side low. 2-1 Caps.
The rare moment of sun comes when Rickard Rakell one touches a pass up for Crosby to get in alone. In classic fashion, Crosby uncorks a backhander that beats goaltender Logan Thompson like a rented mule. 2-2 game.
It doesn’t last long, the Caps pull ahead when Chychrun turns Desharnais inside out and fires one by Nedeljkovic. 3-2.
Washington gets another one, traffic in front allows Chychrun the opportunity for his second of the game and 16th of the season. 4-2.
The wheels are officially off when the Caps strike just eight seconds after that goal with another. The Pens’ defense parts very easily and Alaksei Protas zooms in and ends Nedeljkovic’s night early.
Joel Blomqvist is in the game, he doesn’t fare much better giving up a goal a few minutes later when Grzelcyk just stands and watches Tom Wilson tip a shot from in front. 6-2.
Well that was a shame. The Pens were doing so well early, the stronger of the two teams for a while. But when it gets bad, it gets really bad.
Third period
Pittsburgh gets into penalty trouble, Desharnais goes back to the box and then Kris Letang joins him on a double-minor for high-sticking. That gives a seemingly endless amount of power play time for the Caps to setup a shooting gallery. Alex Ovechkin was almost invisible in the first two periods but steps up to fire a bunch of shots. Blomqvist stops all that Noel Acciari doesn’t, with some help from a post once. Somehow, Pittsburgh survives without yielding another goal.
A while later Malkin goes to the box and the Caps keep their foot to the gas with the big dogs on the ice. Desharnais fails to clear the puck when he has the chance and a few passes later it’s Dylan Strome’s turn to tack one on the board. 7-2
The Pens get a garbage time goal, Caps with a poor change leaves Philip Tomasino with some space. He makes the most of it with a nice shot, Thompson kicks a rebound out to where Danton Heinen can return to sender with his first goal back as a Penguin. 7-3.
Washington gets one more for the road, Brandon Duhaime races down the ice to catch up to a puck that trickles in just slow enough where Blomqvist is handcuffed. Duhaime pounces on it and fires it in. 8-3.
Luckily the clock runs out before any more damage can be done.
Some thoughts
- The Penguins didn’t deserve to get bailed out from Frank’s early goal with how sloppy that every player was out there, but boy that kicking motion not being over-turned was an unexpected decision. Rickard Rakell didn’t get the same grace recently, but that call on the ice was no-goal. The burden to reverse a call is and should be high but it’s just as much of a gray area call where one never knows what the refs might see or enforce on any given play.
- The list of players with a bad game was a long one, perhaps no one making mistakes ending up in the back of the net more frequently than Desharnais today. Showed some of his limitations with his skating and puck moving ability and at this level a good team is going to expose and pick on those vulnerabilities.
- Malkin was the best Penguin player in this game, which isn’t much but it’s something. Back for his first game in almost a month since getting hurt on January 25th, Geno had a lot of jump in his skating.
- More an observation than a critique but even without the services of Bryan Rust today the Pens chose to have Hayes on the top power play, not Malkin.
- For a few games the Pens had gotten away with not really missing Marcus Pettersson. The absence was felt big time today, the team finally looked like they sent their one capable defensive defenseman away for a first round pick on this day.
- Nice to see Crosby willing to compete and play in this game, less than 100% and about 36 hours after the 4 Nations ended. He deserved to get rewarded with a goal, and points in six-straight games (which isn’t an official streak since he missed two of the team’s games before the break).
- Rakell is up to a six-game point streak though. Very nice look for him to keep it going.
- Teams are always hesitant to pull when there’s another game the next day, but Sullivan didn’t have a choice but to lift Nedeljkovic after giving up five goals on 14 shots. Nedeljkovic was 5-2-1 with a .934 save% in his last eight games entering today but he came back to Earth in a major way.
- We can put a helicopter on another planet but can’t generate a consistently working microphone for NHL referees to announce penalties on the ice.
- Eight Washington goals but no points for the Great 8. Very quiet game for him outside of the power plays in the third period. But that’s about the only aspect that wasn’t going the Caps’ way today.
Well, that’s over. The Pens are right back at it tomorrow afternoon against the Rangers.
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Two goals from Ryan Shea aren’t enough for the Penguins to win
Pregame
The Penguins flip left wings on the second and third lines from yesterday’s game, insert Ryan Shea for Vincent Deshairnais after the latter’s very bad no good day and go with Joel Blomqvist in the net.
Today's lineup vs. the Rangerspic.twitter.com/7pY5KpxT2o
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 23, 2025First period
The Penguins are digging early. Nice early work from Danton Heinen and Evgeni Malkin around the net, routing out the puck. Eventually Cody Glass fans on a shot and Malkin is able to lean and poke it in. Pittsburgh was harder on pucks and wanted it more early to win battles like the ones in this sequence.
Matt Rempe tries to run Matt Grzelcyk through the boards but somehow is given a two-minute penalty after video review. If that kind of hit from that kind of player isn’t dealt with harshly then what are we even doing. Grzelcyk would not return to the game.
The Rangers find an equalizer before the intermission. The Pens’ have to back off on the PK for the zone entry and Joel Blomqvist can’t stop a Will Cuylle shot from the left side. Probably one the netminder would want back, and it wouldn’t be the last. 1-1.
Good first for the Pens, they outshoot NYR 12-5 and generally controlled play. Troublingly, that advantage in play did not result in a lead after 20 minutes.
Second period
It’s all Pittsburgh all the time, plenty of zone time, puck control, o-zone passes looking for that lead. Thanks to some nice saves from Igor Shesterkin, it doesn’t happen in this period. The Pens outshoot NYR by a 19-4 margin in the second, but it’s the Rangers who score the only goal when P.O. Joseph falls and J.T Miller races around him. Miller looks off the pass and fires a shot right by the ear of Blomqvist. 2-1 NYR.
Cruel period for the Pens. That go-ahead goal was this close, but they just couldn’t find it, and then in typical 2024-25 Pittsburgh fashion find a way to fall behind despite playing so well for 90% of the time.
Third period
The Pens open the third strong and it turns into the Ryan Shea game for about three minutes. Shea scores twice to push Pittsburgh to a 3-2 lead. The first one comes with traffic in front but is a nice shot from the middle of the ice around the tops of the circles.
The second Shea goal was a lucky break and gave short-lived hope that the Pens were being rewarded for their efforts of out-playing the Rangers to this point. Shea tossed a shot to the net that was headed well wide before it hit K’Andre Miller on the back. That deflection caused the puck to skip right into the net. 3-2 Pens.
The Rangers find an answer less than a minute later to tie the game back up. Jimmy Vesey eludes the defending of Joseph and fires a hard shot in. If you want to play winning hockey either the defender or goalie has to get a piece of this.
A bit later a similar play happens from the middle of the ice. This time it’s Shea who can’t sweep the puck away from Adam Fox. Fox does well to keep control of it and fires a shot that leaks through Blomqvist. Ouch. 4-3 NYR.
Pittsburgh’s push for a late-game goal doesn’t work out. Miller scores an empty netter for his second goal of the game with a handful of seconds left to seal the Ranger victory.
Some thoughts
- One of the more amazing stats this season is that the Penguins are just 4-13-3 in games when tied after the first period, adding a loss with today’s result. They’re a much better 8-11-4 when trailing after one! Somehow, someway when this team is even they always find a way to fall apart later on in games. Being behind is somehow preferable to shift the mentality into chase mode a little earlier.
- A big reason for that is the combined second period scores of Pens’ game this year is 56-70 in favor of the opposition. It’s 54-62 in the third (once taking away empty net goals). That second period has been the house of horrors for Pittsburgh this year, as it also was today the middle period was the only one where Pittsburgh got out-scored (again removing ENG).
- The power play going 0/3 is a hard one to swallow today too. They got plenty of zone time but only three total shots on goal. It felt close to breaking through but never could quite get there.
- It’s a shame the result soured Shea’s game. Playing his first game since Jan. 27th and only his third in calendar 2025, Shea managed to go from one to three career NHL goals. He’s been on the outside looking in for much of the season, playing only 23 of the team’s 58 games so far. Big day for him personally to stay in consideration to keep his name in the lineup.
- Grzelcyk getting rammed through the end wall two weeks before the trade deadline is a tough beat. Hopefully he’s not too bad, there was no substantive update on him after the game beyond being evaluated for an upper body injury.
- Malkin put up a goal and an assist, encouraging to see him hit the ground running after his injury layoff. No problems there and he’s making something out of playing with guys like Heinen and Glass which is pretty impressive.
- Crosby had 5 SOG and eight total shot attempts, this was the first game in a while where he was uncorking good shots without looking terribly limited or deferring to a pass in a while since his arm injury.
- When Blomqvist gave up his fourth goal of the game, Moneypuck had NYR’s expected goal total at 2.04, which felt very fair. He needed to make two more saves than he did today. The defense wasn’t great on some of those sequences but the Pens suppressed a lot overall and didn’t ask their netminder for too much by only allowing 15 shots. Giving up four goals in that situation isn’t a recipe for winning.
- On the other side, the Pens generated over 4 xGF but Shesterkin did well to hold them at bay. There’s no doubt he was the stronger of the goalies, saw a lot of work and did enough to keep his team in. The Rangers didn’t have much business winning this game but their goalie kept them hanging around and eventually they made the most of that opportunity.
Somewhat of a nice response for the Pens, but a frustrating result to see this game slip away. In the big picture that might not be a terrible thing but today is just another game in a big pile this season that was right there for the taking that they couldn’t get the job done. The rivalry with Philadelphia renews this week with two games coming up starting on Tuesday night.
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It looks like a refresh is coming next year to alternate jerseys
The Penguins are quietly starting to give hints (including to prospective season ticket holders) that the club will be revealing new alternate jerseys for the 2025-26 season next fall.
The Pens have been wearing a black design of a popular ‘90s throwback jersey since 2021-22. This season they have worn their alternates for every Tuesday home game, last season the jerseys were used regularly on Thursday. Each alternate jersey design tends to have a limited shelf life of a few years in order to cycle onto new ideas that make for fresh rotations, so it would make sense with timing that change is coming.
From the team’s Instagram account today, it looks like they’re starting for some casual market research from fans on social media via polls in their stories.
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The team included a series of polls featuring:
- 2021’s reverse retro jersey (white, with diagonal PITTSBURGH)
- 2019’s third jersey (mostly yellow with skating Penguin)
- The cursed 2012 third jersey (dark blue with light blue accents and old logo)
- The 2004 home jersey (black with skating Penguin, Vegas gold)
- The 2000 road jersey (black with RoboPenguin, gray gradients)
The last jersey might be the most intriguing, being as the Pens’ ECHL affiliate in Wheeling created (rather successfully we might add) a version of this jersey to recently wear this season as alternates themselves. It’s a long way from the ECHL to the NHL but certainly interesting that has picked up some traction within the organization at some levels.
We recreated this iconic shot of Pittsburgh Penguins legend Mario Lemieux… let us know below who did it better!
Click the link below to place your bid on our Pittsburgh Penguins Night Specialty Jerseys NOW: https://t.co/u1xDvUdUM8#ForgeTheFuture pic.twitter.com/d0lgxIDXK5
— Wheeling Nailers (@WheelingNailers) February 7, 2025
Pittsburgh brought back the RoboPenguin for the first time since 2002 very briefly in 2022-23 but only wore it a handful of times before going with the current alternate design of the diagonal Pittsburgh text.
The current polling included a variety of different colors (black, yellow, blue, white) which could indicate the team is willing to open up their color scheme more than the past. The Pens wore two different variations of a blue jersey from 2008-13 but have had that look on the shelf for now over a decade. Their yellow design occasionally worn from 2018-21 was the first time they wore that dominant color since the 1980’s. Their “Vegas gold” (a gold color instead of the yellow) was around from 2000-16 in various forms.
An announcement likely isn’t imminent, but the wheels are getting in motion to choose what new/old look the team will bring back for next year.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins might not be particularly good, but they should not be this bad, either.
Nobody should have delusions as to whether or not the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins are any good. They are not. They have real flaws, and they are significant in both quality and quantity.
I am not going to sit here and tell you they are a good defensive team.
Because they are not.
Nobody shoud sit here and try to convince you that they are a good offensive team.
Because outside of a few players at the top, they are not.
But I am also not sure they are bottom-five in the NHL bad. I am not sure they are “hey, a top-five pick is looking very likely” bad. That is where they are trending in the standings, especially as the season gets closer and closer to the NHL trade deadline when the roster will become even thinner than it already is.
The biggest reason they are losing so many games, and the biggest reason they were pretty much humiliated over the weekend in back-to-back games against the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, is the simple fact their goalies stink. We know they stink. We have known they stink. Goaltending has been the single biggest weakness this team has had for the better part of five years now with no real sign of getting better in the immediate future.
While it may not be the only problem, it is certainly the one of the most significant.
Just consider these numbers from the past two games this weekend.
The Penguins allowed just 47 shots on goal against the Capitals and Rangers.
They allowed only 19 high-danger scoring chances. Just for comparisons sake, the Penguins had nearly that many high-danger chances for themselves on Saturday afternoon against the Capitals (18) and had 25(!) for themselves against the Rangers on Sunday afternoon.
They allowed only 5.36 expected goals.
Despite those numbers, their goalies allowed 12(!) goals.
Objectively speaking, it was not a bad defensive performance. Neither performance was bad overall. They may not have been deserving of a win on Saturday on Washington, but they were certainly not deserving of an 8-2 loss.
They not only deserved a win on Sunday, they dominated the game from start to finish.
That is what bad goaltending does to a team. And make no mistake, there was some bad goaltending on display over the weekend. Both Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist allowed some ugly, ugly goals on Saturday. I think you can make an argument that most, if not all, of the goals that Blomqvist allowed on Sunday could have been stopped.
This is also not a new trend. Over the Penguins’ past five games going back to the pre-break games, they had allowed only 39 high-danger chances (only 7.8 per game) and only 11.3 expected goals.
They had a decisive edge in both categories over that stretch.
Despite that territorial and chance dominance, they have won just one of the five games and allowed 20 goals. That is nine worse than expected. That is .... awful.
That is also what makes goaltending the greatest X-factor in the NHL. Great goalies turn lottery teams into fringe playoff teams and fringe playoff teams into contenders. Bad goaltending turns contenders into fringe playoff teams, and fringe playoff teams into lottery teams.
That is where the Penguins currently are.
That could continue to play a role this week with four games on the schedule, including two games to start the week against another potential lottery team, the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Penguins play the Flyers on Tuesday and Thursday in a home-and-home set to open the week. These two games have no practical purpose in the standings as far as the playoffs are concerned, but they could play a big role in draft lottery odds. The Flyers just beat the Penguins, 3-2, in one of those aforementioned games before the break. A sweep from one of these teams here could have significant lottery ramifications.
The Flyers are coming off an impressive 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
After the home-and-home with the Flyers, the Penguins return home for another home weekend back-to-back with the Boston Bruins coming in on Saturday and the Toronto Maple Leafs arriving on Sunday.
The Bruins are on the fringes of playoff contention and have some significant flaws on their roster. They have also been mostly lousy over the past couple of weeks and will be without a couple of top defensemen in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm. But they are going to have everything to play for and should – should – be highly motivated.
The Toronto game on Sunday is the one that has the potential to get ugly for the Penguins from a goaltending and goals against perspective. While the Maple Leafs have their own flaws, they still have high-end talent at the top of the roster, have won five of their past six games.
In terms of opponents, there are some winnable games here this week. If the Penguins were getting competent goaltending I would expect at least four points and maybe even six out of this week for a potentially significant move in terms of potential playoff positioning. With the current state of their goaltending, however, this could be a significant week for their draft lottery odds instead.
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Road game!
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@wbspenguins
The spotlight was on the Pens’ top prospect this week in Wilkes-Barre
Usually when Rutger McGroarty isn’t mentioned in this feature, someone will ask why. Well, believe it or not a 20-year old singular member of an AHL team doesn’t always require comment every week. Sometimes it’s business as usual and that’s not much to write home about.
This week, however, was not one of those weeks. McGroarty incredibly noticeable and had an important place in the spotlight during the WB/S Pens’ 1-1-1 week of road games. McGroatry put up 2G+1A in the three games, and is up to an impressive seven points (2G+5A) in his last five AHL games. McGroarty was also involved in a fight where he got the breaks beaten off him (which we’ll kindly link but not insert into this article out of respect).
On the positive side, it’s nice to see McGroarty leaning into his offensive instincts and using his shot from some distance to score on the rush.
McGroarty was matched by the streaky but productive Ville Koivunen. Koivunen entered the week on a three-game point drought, broken by nabbing at least one point in each game, and five overall this week (1G+4A). When it rains it absolutely pours down points for Kouivnen and that was the case in the latest set of games.
The concise recap of games from Nick Hart at WBSPens.com:
Wilkes-Barre has settled into second place in the division. One cool aspect is that they have the most goals in the division (despite other teams having some games in hand), and per the team WBS’s 3.5 goals/game makes them the highest scoring team in the whole AHL thus far by that metric. Their goals against totals are in good shape too, this team is still chugging towards an easy qualification to the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs.
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An injury to Bryan Rust led to Emil Bemstrom getting his first NHL game just before the 4 Nations break. Bemstrom nabbed a recent recall with Rust and Sidney Crosby’s statuses up in question after the 4 Nations, though Crosby’s return to the NHL lineup meant Bemstrom’s return back to the AHL. Based on that, it looks like Bemstrom is the first in line for a forward call up in the organization’s eyes. However, Koivunen’s 44 points in 48 games this season makes him the AHL’s most productive forward and it looks only a matter of time before he will be receiving a call up to the big time.
The WBS Pens are on the road for three more games in the upcoming week, visiting Rochester today and then setting up the weekend for games in Syrcacuse on Friday and then against their big rival in Hershey on Saturday.
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Veteran winger has struggled since multiple knee surgeries
The NHL keeps a 23-player maximum roster in place through the trade deadline. Usually the Penguins run out of cap space before players, but this year they have too many players. As such, Matt Nieto has gone on waivers according to reports.
Pittsburgh has utilized rotating Bryan Rust and Boko Imama on and off the injured reserve to stay under the 23-play limit but these days everyone is healthy. Something had to give, and it ended up being the veteran Nieto.
Nieto, 32, has played in 31 games for the Pens this season scoring just one goal and adding two assists. The forward has been limited in the speed and energy style after having surgeries on both knees last year. Rehabbing those issues kept him on the shelf until mid-November. Since then he has been in and out of the Pens’ lineup in mostly a fourth line and penalty killing role.
Nieto is in the final season of a two-year contract with the Penguins. If he is announced as unclaimed tomorrow, the team would be able to assign him to Wilkes-Barre of the American Hockey League, and at that point there would be space to activate Imama, who has been skating with the team while working back from an undisclosed injury.
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It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!
Who: Philadelphia Flyers (26-26-7, 59 points, 6th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (23-28-9, 55 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:30 p.m. ET (Note: This was changed recently, so if you had an outdated calendar, game is starting 30 mins later)
How to Watch: Streaming exclusive game on ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens keep chuggin’ along when the Boston Bruins come to town on Saturday, followed quickly by the Toronto Maple Leafs making an appearance at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday. Next week the Pens go west and play games in Colorado and Vegas. That list of opponents about grows more daunting by the game...
Opponent Track: The Flyers are riding high lately, 2-0-0 since return from the 4 Nations break and having scored six goals in each game (wins over Edmonton and the Pens). After today they head out to Winnipeg for a game and then return for a seven-game homestand that will eat up much of March. They sit five points and several teams below the final playoff spot and really need to keep at work in order to make any sort of run at it.
Season Series: Pittsburgh will have to win tonight to earn a split with the Flyers. The Pens won 7-3 back in December, but have lost two games in February to the other team from the commonwealth. This will be the last PIT/PHI game of the season.
Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, Pittsburgh has points in nine-consecutive home games against Philadelphia (7-0-2).
Getting to know the Flyers
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Bobby Brink
Owen Tippett - Sean Couturier - Matvei Michkov
Andrei Kuzmenko - Scott Laughton - Travis Konecny
Jakob Pelletier - Ryan Poehling - Garnet Hathaway
DEFENSEMEN
Cam York / Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler / Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula / Rasmus Ristolainen
Goalies: Samuel Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Alexei Kolosov
Scratches: Nicolas Deslauriers, Erik Johnson
IR: Ryan Ellis
—Foerster, 23, has quickly become a pesky Penguin killer, scoring well above his early career average against Pittsburgh. Foerster had three points (1G+2A) in the game on Tuesday to up his total to nine points (4G+5A) in eight career games against Pittsburgh. The next highest team he’s scored against is Boston (five points in six games).
—Is Ersson, 25, the long-term answer in net? He’s already up to almost 100 NHL games (96) with a not encouraging .896 save percentage. However, there have been good signs too with his record (47-32-10) and seven shutouts. Ersson got a surprise opportunity to play a game at the 4 Nations due to Jakob Markstrom being injured and the other two goalies being ill and made the most of it by stopping 32/33 shots against the US in a winning effort.
—Beyond the big picture and more pertinent for today, Ersson is in good form now. As ESPN.com pointed out, he’s 3-1-1 with a 2.20 GAA and a .926 save percentage over his last five games. In the bigger scope Ersson is has a 12-5-1 record in his last 18 starts dating back to Dec. 21.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
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—The defection of Cutter Gauthier is really going to sting in the years to come. Just turning 21 last month, Gauthier already has double-digit goals and assists this season for Anaheim. Having a top-five pick opt to nope on out of town is a big blow for a team that needs assets precisely like that. The Flyers did well to recoup something from it in Jamie Drysdale but the jury is out if he’ll give an impact beyond just being a guy.
—Selling on Joel Farabee means Philadelphia has up to $32 million in projected cap space (after the Ellis LTIR exception) this summer and then a whopping $67 million available as of now for 2026-27. They’ve laid low uncharacteristically lately and built up draft picks (with three first rounders in the upcoming draft) since Danny Briere jumped on as GM and are positioned to start adding back up in the near future if they opt for that route..
And now for the Pens
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Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Anthony Beauvillier - Evgeni Malkin - Cody Glass
Danton Heinen - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino
Boko Imama - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Vincent Desharnais
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist
Potential Scratches: Michael Bunting (illness), Ryan Graves, Vladislav Kolyachonok
Waiver Limbo: Matt Nieto (possibly leaving the roster as of 2pm or shortly after)
IR: Boko Imama (possibly leaving IR after 2pm today)
—Bunting’s availability is in question during the lead up to the game after he missed yesterday’s practice due to illness. The team will find out about Matt Nieto’s waiver status at 2pm today; he could be claimed, remain on the NHL roster or sent down to the AHL in likely probabilities from least to most. Imama was deemed a full practice participant and should be back on the 23-man roster and even playing tonight depending on the outcome with Nieto.
—It was a quick practice without many lines rushes, so don’t be shocked to see if defenders at the bottom of the lineup are flipped around.
Time to dig in
Coach Mike Sullivan’s message to the team was upbeat and almost conciliatory yesterday. The Pens have given up 19 goals in the last three games and are in a tough spot. Any illusions the players might have clung to about the season meaning anything have vanished. All they can do now is put on a brave face, take it a day at a time and try to play as hard as they can. While cliche, it also is about the only outlook to have at this point.
The guys took this message from Mike Sullivan and the Penguins coaching staff to heart today at practice, for sure
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) February 26, 2025Milestones and achievements
As the Penguins play out the string, they do have some individual markers to keep in mind and add a little extra. Here are some of them close on the horizon:
- Rickard Rakell, 500 career points (498 currently)
- Rakell, a 50-point season (would be the fourth of his career, 49 this season so far)
- Sidney Crosby, 18th place all-time NHL goals (610, currently tied with Bobby Hull)
- Crosby, 10th place all-time NHL assists (1,046 currently, three back of Gordie Howe)
- Noel Acciari, 500 career games (should hit tonight, 499 entering the day)
- Mike Sullivan, 400 wins with Penguins (398)
Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!
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The season might not be going anywhere but you still have to give a damn.
There has not been a lot to like about the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltending situation this season.
Or over the past few seasons for that matter.
They have not really given the team a chance on most nights, have allowed a goal on a first shot a comical number of times, and have simply not been good enough across the board. The numbers are bad. The eye test is bad. None of it is good enough. It has all been mostly rancid.
But on Thursday night veteran goalie Alex Nedeljkovic did something that a Penguins goalie really has not done this season.
He provided a spark.
Not necessarily with his play, but with the fact he still gives a damn and let his teammates know about it.
After allowing a third goal mid-way through the second period, giving what had been at the time a lifeless Penguins team a three-goal deficit to try and climb out of, head coach Mike Sullivan made the decision to pull Nedeljkovic in favor of rookie Joel Blomqvist.
It was the second time in four starts that Nedeljkovic had been pulled mid-game.
He did not take it well.
Before leaving the ice he obliterated his goalie stick over the crossbar, slammed the bench door shut and then proceeded to scream at somebody down the bench. His teammates? His coach? Given that Nedeljkovic did not talk after the game it is all just guesswork at this point, but it could have reasonably been both.
As much as Nedeljkovic has struggled this season, Thursday’s performance was really not on him. There was a lot of bad luck at play on those goals, with two of them bouncing in the net off of his own teammates. It was a tough luck night. If he was mad at Sullivan for pulling him and placing the blame on him, I get it. If he was made at his teammates for not helping him, I get that as well.
But sometimes a goalie change – even if it is not the goalie’s fault – can spark something in a team.
Sometimes somebody just telling you to get it together can serve as a wakeup call.
Whether all of that was the case on Thursday, it’s not hard to make the connection on where the game turned around for the Penguins.
Just minutes after Nedeljkovic’s outburst the Penguins scored two quick goals to get back into the game on their way to rallying for a 5-4 overtime win.
In terms of the standings, the game and the win mean next to nothing. Neither of these teams are going to the playoffs this season, both are rebuilding, and it is a game that will mostly get forgotten in what has amounted to a lost season.
Even with all of that being the case, it was still nice to see.
It was still nice to see the Penguins, as a team, not roll over. Because it would have been easy for them to do that given the circumstances. Like I wrote on Thursday morning before the game this is relatively new and uncharted territory for a lot of players on the Penguins. They are not used to playing meaningless hockey games, and given the way the past few games had gone it would have been easy for them to continue going through the motions.
But they didn’t.
They not only showed they were not going to just roll over, they also showed that they still care.
And that’s something.
Nedljkovic’s meltdown was the first real fire and emotion anybody had shown on this team since they returned from the 4 Nation’s Face-Off break. The way they started Thursday’s game after getting absolutely humiliated against the same team on Tuesday was concerning. Alarmingly so.
I have made this argument here before, but I don’t want to see an environment get created here where indifference starts to set in and where losing becomes accepted.
The front office can have its long-term vision and have its own internal expectations.
Fans can update Tankathon lottery odds and understand the big picture of why it is important to have top picks and try to get a franchise-changing player.
But players will never share any of that. They will never care about that. And they should not. Not only because professional athletes are simply wired differently than the people in the stands, not only because they did not get to this level by accepting losing, but because they are not thinking about one, two or three years from now. Why does Anthony Beauvillier or Alex Nedeljkovic care about a future draft pick? They will not be Penguins when that pick happens or the player makes the NHL.
Front offices might tank. Fans might cheer for a tank.
Players do not tank.
And I do think that matters.
The worst emotion that can happen in sports, whether it be from a fan, player or team perspective, is apathy. Losing should make you angry. Getting embarrassed, especially by your biggest rival, should make you mad and want to break something.
It’s why I think the Penguins’ rebuild will benefit from having players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Bryan Rust around for it. As long as those guys are still there, you have to imagine there is going to be a sense of caring, a sense of pride and a desire to keep winning. The winning might not happen for a bit, but the right mindset will be there.
You don’t want to become Buffalo. You don’t want to become the Pirates. To draw another cross-sport analogy that is close to Alex Nedeljkovic … you do not want to become the Cleveland Browns.
When losing becomes accepted and nobody cares, your franchise is cooked. For one night, a bad Penguins team did not let that happen. Hopefully it continues. They need more of that energy not just this season, but in what will probably some long seasons in the future.
Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Penguins almost delivered what would have been another agonizing loss, but Erik Karlsson and Evgeni Malkin were having none of it.
Here are your Pens Points for this Friday morning...
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers wrapped a home-and-home set on Thursday night. Following a 6-1 Philadelphia drubbing in the first game, the Penguins nearly melted down again, which included a legendary tantrum from Alex Nedeljkovic. But the team got four points from Evgeni Malkin, including the game-tying and game-winning goals, to come back and beat Philly at home. [Recap]
The Penguins have 22 games remaining in the 2024-25 season, including Thursday's game against the Flyers. Barring an immaculate run, those 22 games are going to mean, quite literally, nothing, besides some jockeying for draft lottery positioning. Throwing in the towel on the season in February is pretty uncharted territory for the franchise. [PensBurgh]
Forward Michael Bunting will be sidelined indefinitely after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix. [Trib Live]
With Bunting on IR for now, the Penguins made a few more roster transactions ahead of Thursday’s game. Forward Emil Bemstrom was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Boko Imama was activated off injured reserve, and the team reassigned forward Matt Nieto to WB/S after clearing waivers. [Trib Live]
News and notes from around the NHL...
San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini has expressed interest in playing at the 2025 IIHF World Championship. [TSN]
The NHL expects over 90,000 people, one of its largest crowds ever, at this weekend’s Stadium Series game in Columbus, Ohio. [Sportsnet]
Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images
The Pens begin a weekend back-to-back this afternoon at PPG Paints.
Who: Boston Bruins (27-25-8, 62 points, 6th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (24-28-9, 57 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 3 p.m. ET
How to Watch: National broadcast on ABC, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens get less than 24 hours between games this weekend. The team is back at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday for a 1 p.m. ET puck drop against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Opponent Track: The Bruins have lost seven of their last nine games. They’re currently in a five-game losing skid, dating back before the 4 Nations break. Since the return of NHL play the Bruins have dropped three straight, including a frustrating back-to-back of OT losses against the Ducks and Leafs.
Season Series: Philip Tomasino scored a third-period game-winner, while Tristan Jarry turned aside 30 shots, to help the Penguins claim a 2-1 win over the Bruins at TD Garden back on Nov. 29.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins are 3-9-0 in the first half of back-to-backs this season (h/t Pens PR.)
Getting to know the Bruins
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Morgan Geekie - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Elias Lindholm - Charlie Coyle
Georgii Merkulov - Matthew Poitras (?) - Justin Brazeau
Cole Koepke - John Beecher - Mark Kastelic
DEFENSEMEN
Nikita Zadorov - Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei - Andrew Peeke
Ian Mitchell - Parker Wotherspoon
Goalies: Jeremy Swayman, Joonas Korpisalo
Scratches: Trent Frederic (week-to-week lower-body injury), Jordan Oesterle, Jeffrey Viel
IR: Hampus Lindholm (fractured kneecap, likely out for the season), Charlie McAvoy
- It’s been a brutal stretch, injury-wise, for the Bruins. Trent Frederic was hurt after making a failed hit on Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe on Tuesday. Two days later, Matt Poitras was shoved into an open bench door during Thursday’s loss to the Islanders.
- It sounds like Poitras avoided serious injury and could be available Saturday. Frederic, however, is sidelined on a week-to-week basis. As a pending UFA, he’s a candidate to be moved at the deadline, and that news won’t help improve his trade value.
- The Bruins made a series of Friday roster moves. Forwards Riley Tufte and Oliver Wahlstrom and defenseman Michael Callahan went to the AHL, to be replaced by forwards Georgii Merkulov and Jeffrey Viel and defenseman Ian Mitchell. Merkulov has appeared in three games this season for the B’s, while Viel and Mitchell have yet to make their season debuts.
- Whether Merkulov and Viel both play could hinge on Poitras’ availability, while Mitchell will presumably replace Callahan on the bottom pairing. Bruins writer Scott McLaughlin offered some insight as to the call-up:
- Wahlstrom, a former No. 11 pick, cleared waivers as part of the move. He has just two points in 16 games since a midseason trade from the New York Islanders.
- Charlie McAvoy is still sidelined with the infection that hospitalized him during the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
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- David Pastrnak recorded career point No. 800 during Thursday’s loss to the Islanders.
Inconsistent goaltending, inconsistent goalscoring: the
PenguinsBruins experience
It’s been a difficult campaign for Jeremy Swayman ever since he signed his eight-year, $66 million extension last fall.
Even when he plays well, however, the Bruins haven’t been able to consistently support him.
Take Boston’s last two losses as an example. The Bruins held a 3-0 lead over the Maple Leafs at home on Tuesday before Swayman’s struggles allowed the visitors to come storming back and win in overtime.
Two days later, Swayman made 18 saves on 19 Islanders shots— but the Bruins couldn’t find a way to support him with more than one goal of their own.
The Bruins aren’t out of the playoff picture. They’re four points back from a Wild Card spot (whereas the Penguins sit nine back.) But this latest stretch hasn’t inspired confidence that this is a postseason team.
The Marchand question
Boston’s place outside the playoff bubble looking in begs the question: is this the last time the Penguins face Brad Marchand in a Bruins uniform?
Marchand says he wants to retire with the Bruins, but his expiring contract and the Bruins’ disappointing season could force the franchise to consider trading their captain during his 16th season with the Bruins.
Brad Marchand on the upcoming trade deadline: "You can’t get caught up worrying about it...you need to worry about what you can control, stay in the moment. The team's always going to do what it feels is best for the group."
Full practice reactionhttps://t.co/s5H7o6aXdb pic.twitter.com/Mg783Kdocy
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 24, 2025
The Bruins only have a few more days left to make their decision. The NHL trade deadline is set for March 7.
And now for the Pens
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Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Anthony Beauvillier - Evgeni Malkin - Cody Glass
Danton Heinen - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino
Boko Imama - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Vincent Desharnais
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist
Potential Scratches: P.O. Joseph, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Emil Bemstrom
Injured Reserve: Michael Bunting (appendix surgery)
- The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz doesn’t believe Boko Imama will face supplemental discipline for his hit on Garnet Hathaway.
- Per Pens PR: Ryan Shea set a new career high by skating for 21:47 in Thursday’s win over the Flyers.
- A Penguins win this afternoon would make Mike Sullivan the first American-born head coach to win 400 games with a single franchise, per Pens PR.
- More milestones to watch: Rickard Rakell is two points away from No. 500, while Erik Karlsson needs a hat trick to reach 200 goals.
Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images
The Pens make a run at the game late, but it’s not enough.
Pregame
The Penguins make a few lineup changes from last game to rotate Emil Bemstrom and P.O, Joseph in and give Boko Imama and Ryan Graves a night off. Alex Nedeljkovic starts after being pulled last game, it is the first game on a b-2-b.
First period
Pittsburgh allows a goal on the opponent’s first shot for the 13th shot of the season. Can’t blame the goalie for this one though, Matt Grzelcyk makes a pinch, David Pastrnak sneaks behind him. Pavel Zacha hits Pastrnak with a great pass and even better deke to the forehand makes it look easy for the NHL’s hottest player to extend his point streak to 17 games.
David Pastrnak buries it to extend his point streak to 17 games!
: @ESPNPlus
— NHL (@NHL) March 1, 2025
The Bruins get the game’s first power play, Brad Marchand gets hurt on it. Joseph checks him in the corner and Marchand’s legs buckle oddly and he crunches into the boards high. He stays down for a long time and requires help to slowly leave.
Undaunted, the Bruins don’t let their captain’s injury keep them down and they convert on the power play. Mason Lohrei has plenty of room and steps into a shot off the post and in. 2-0 early.
The Penguins get their first power play, but Sidney Crosby goes to the penalty box along with two Bruins. Evgeni Malkin gets tripped up and Pittsburgh gets a minute of 5v3 time, although they’re missing their own captain temporarily from his penalty. The Pens’ power play looks bad, does nothing.
Joseph is the latest player off with injury, Mark Kastelic runs POJ over with a clean but heavy hit.
Nikita Zadorov slashes Malkin to give the Pens a late period power play.
Shots are 11 a piece, the typical early-game break down and poor special teams problems color the game to the tune of a 2-0 B’s lead.
Second period
The Pens get another power play early on, again squander it.
Not much else going on, Nedeljkovic makes a great stop on a later Penguin power play to keep the team somewhat close.
Shots are 20-16 Boston through two periods.
Third period
Boston springs Pastrnak for another breakaway but Erik Karlsson hacks at the dangerous scorer from behind. Perhaps sensing a chance to inject some excitement (well, not really but it makes for a nice story) the refs award Pastrnak a penalty shot. This time he tries to deke to the backhand, but Nedeljkovic stays with him all the way and stops the shot. A little redemption for that first period goal where Pasta got the better of him. Game remains 2-0.
Mark Kastelic rips down Vincent Desharnais to send the Pens to yet another power play, 15:11 to play and a good chance to claw back into the game. It goes absolutely no where.
Blake Lizotte is the net to the penalty box, and the Pens strike. Kevin Hayes carries the puck up the ice, draws two defenders in and pulls up. Hayes feeds Anthony Beauvillier who finishes a nice wrister to get the Penguins on the board with 5:59 left to play. 2-1 game.
Pens lift Nedeljkovic with about two minutes to play. Cole Koepke lifts his stick into Rickard Rakell’s stick and opens up a cut under the eye for a four-minute penalty with 1:34 to play. The Pens go to a 6v4. Crosby can’t get one in from in front, the Bruins hold on long enough to get the puck back and score a long-range empty netter. 3-1 with 41 seconds left.
But the Pens keep at it, they keep Nedeljkovic on the bench (why not) and find a goal. Rust power moves to the front, the puck comes loose and Rakell finds it, slings it in. 21.4 seconds left, the Pens are back within 3-2. Time is not on their side though and they run out.
Some thoughts
- Tough to see Marchand go down hard and pickup an injury. Joseph’s barely broken an egg in his career, end result was more unfortunate than intentional. Boston, namely Kastelic, responded by finishing checks on Joseph every chance they got. Nothing out of line but the target was on him from that moment on.
- Note to buyers at the deadline: don’t scout today’s game just look at the assist totals on Matt Grzelcyk. Pinching mindlessly 90 seconds into the contest with an elite player like Pastrnak on the ice is no indication of his season! This barely happens! You’re welcome for the time savings.
- An 1/7 power play game was a rotten effort, including squandering 1:03 of 5v3 time in the first period. Crosby was unavailable in the penalty box but still, they didn’t come anywhere close to scoring. Boston entered the day with a 75.8% PK rate, only 24th in the league, wasn’t like it was a great PK group.
- No goals for Bryan Rust since February 1st (which is only five games for him), and only one in his last 10 dating back to January. Similarly, Rickard Rakell hasn’t scored his first goal in six games. Obviously a lot of players are not on great streaks but it’s going to be difficult for Pittsburgh to compete without those two pitching in. Nice for Rakell to get on the board, but a last minute goal while down two only goes so far.
- Pastrnak is a joy to watch. He’s red hot on a 17-game point streak and has 19G+19A in 22 games played in calendar 2025. The Bruins are probably down by the Penguins in the standings if they didn’t have his contributions, what a player.
- Boston scored two goals in the opening 6:33 and it looked like this game might go off the rails. Well, at least that didn’t happen. For entertainment/cringe purposes it would have been a sight to see though if the B’s got up to four or five goals by mid-way through the second as far as what the Pens would have done with Nedeljkovic. To his credit, he buckled down and kept pucks out of the net, and as usual without the greatest of help. The Bruins had plenty of odd man rushes and chances.
The Pens are back at it tomorrow afternoon against Toronto.
Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Penguins host Toronto in an early afternoon game
Who: Toronto Maple Leafs (37-20-2, 76 points, 1st place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (24-29-9, 57 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 1:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: National broadcast on TNT and truTV streaming on Max
Pens’ Path Ahead: Pittsburgh takes a swing out west for a week after tonight. First up is a stop in Colorado on Tuesday (9pm Eastern start), then Vegas on Friday (10pm) and finishes up in Minnesota to see Marc-Andre Fleury one more time a week from today (3:30pm).
Opponent Track: The Maple Leafs are getting it in gear, they have a 4-0-0 record since the 4 Nations break. That includes a 3-2 result in their last game on Friday night against the Rangers. Matthew Knies did the honors with a third period goal to break the tie.
Season Series: Today’s the rubber match in the three-game PIT/TOR set. The Leafs took the first meeting, a 4-2 decision back in October. The Pens returned the favor with a 5-2 victory in December.
Hidden Stat: The Pens are 6-6-0 on the second half of back-to-back games this season, as they will be today. They’re only 3-10-0 in the first part of them.
Getting to know the Maple Leafs
Projected lines (via practice yesterday)
FORWARDS
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Pontus Holmberg - John Tavares - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - Calle Jarnkrok - Nick Robertson
Max Pacioretty - David Kampf - Ryan Reaves
DEFENSEMEN
Morgan Rielly / Tyler Myers
Simon Benoit /Jake McCabe
Marshall Rifai / Connor Timmins
Goalies: Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz
Scratches: Alex Steeves, Steven Lorentz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson (injured), Chris Tanev (injured)
IR: Calle Jarnkrok, Max Pacioretty, Connor Dewar, Jani Hakanpaa
—Toronto used a couple IR players in their lines yesterday, we’ll see what comes of that. Pacioretty won’t be playing in today’s game due to his IR status.
—Defensively, the Leafs are banged up. Rifia, 26, might be making his NHL season-debut. He played two NHL games last year and has been with the AHL Marlies for the past three seasons.
—Toronto coach Craig Berube has already announced Woll as the starting goalie this afternoon. The Leafs play again tomorrow, at home against San Jose, and it’ll be Stolarz who gets the call for that game. Woll gave up three goals on 27 shots in Toronto’s loss to the Pens back in December and has only faced Pittsburgh twice in his career (0-2-0 record, 3.10 GAA, .903 save%). It’s kinda surprising Woll, 26, enters the day with only 67 career NHL games, feels like he’s been around longer than that.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
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—Marner entered yesterday tied for fourth in NHL scoring. He’s well behind the top-3 (who all have 87+ points) but has made his mark as an elite point producer. Marner has four points (2G+2A) in the two games against Pittsburgh this season.
—McMann is an interesting player. He scored 15 goals in 56 games last season and has done even better with 17 goals in 51 games this year. He doesn’t get a lot of assists (nine last year, nine so far this season) but a lot of damage at even strength, 30 of his 34 career goals have been scored there. An undrafted player out of Colgate, McMann was dug up by Kyle Dubas and company back in 2021 and made his way up the ranks from the minors into a sneaky productive NHL player.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Anthony Beauvillier - Evgeni Malkin - Cody Glass
Danton Heinen - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino
Emil Bemstrom - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Vincent Desharnais
Goalies: Joel Blomqvist starting, Alex Nedeljkovic played yesterday
Potential Scratches: P.O. Joseph (injured?), Vladislav Kolyachonok, Boko Imama
Injured Reserve: Michael Bunting (appendix surgery)
—We’ll see if Joseph can go after leaving yesterday’s game with injury. Kolyachonok was claimed on February 9th and still hasn’t made his Pittsburgh debut, would be nice to see him at some point.
—Crosby is at 61 points in 60 games played this season. Staying above the point/game mark is one of the few compelling storylines left in this season. Crosby only has one point in the last three games, and just three (1G+2A) in the five games since 4 Nations.
—This is the last home game prior to Friday’s trade deadline, which will likely mean the final time at PPG in Penguin colors for at least a player or two out there.
Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It wasn’t a good day for the masked men in Pittsburgh, which led to a chaotic 6-5 afternoon game
Pregame
Only a few lineup changes, P.O. Joseph’s injury from yesterday prevents him from going today, which puts Ryan Graves back in there. Joel Blomqvist rotates into the crease for the second day on the back-to-back. A few changes slide around on the lines where Phil Tomasino joins Evgeni Malkin but nothing too dramatically different.
Today's lineup vs. Toronto
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 2, 2025First period
The good news: the Penguins don’t give up a goal on the first shot they see for the fourth straight game.
The bad news: they do give up a goal within the fifth shot allowed for the eighth straight time.
Can’t help if it helps or hurts that it happens in a comical series of errors. First, Blomqvist plays the puck out in a direction that Ryan Graves can’t handle and has to bail and smack the puck away and not in a safe area. That was compounded by Toronto’s centering pass jumping off Evgeni Malkin and perfectly to Bobby McMann. Even when McMann completely whiffed on the shot attempt, it still ended up being a terrible development for the Pens since it slid to a wide open Max Domi who was about three feet away and in a much better shooting position. Anything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. 1-0..
It gets worse when the Leafs score their second goal of the game by the 4:39 mark. Blomqvist is worried about the guy sitting at the back door (probably for good reason) so he doesn’t completely square up to the shooter. That’s a big mistake at the NHL level, the shooter is going to put the puck in the net, as Connor Timmons does. 2-0 TOR.
Like Homer Simpson against Drederick Tatum, the home team may have been lulling their opponents into a false sense of security (yeah, let’s go with that). The rope-a-dope was on, Ryan Shea blasted a puck that went in, which eventually was credited to Cody Glass, 2-1 game.
Rickard Rakell stays hot with his second goal in as many days, converting a shot that served as a pass against the back wall by Matt Grzelcyk. 2-2 game.
Pittsburgh was awarded the first power play of the game and goalie Joseph Woll had his controller freeze up, failing to react to a quick but far out shot from Sidney Crosby that snuck in five hole. The Pens are up to a 3-2 lead!
The Pens get another power play, they don’t score this time but it at least has a lot more life and effort than most of what they put out there yesterday.
Shots are 16-13 PIT in a wild and wide open first period.
Second period
Toronto comes out strong in the second period after only recording two shots in the latter half of the first. Some Pens puck watching allows Auston Matthews the time and space to snap a quick shot along the ice that Blomqvist can’t match. 3-3 game.
Tomasino attempts a wraparound that nearly gets the goal back but the defender and Woll team up to keep the puck out at the last second.
Kris Letang takes Pittsburgh’s first penalty of the game but Toronto doesn’t score on their power play.
Bryan Rust would get back on the scoreboard to put the Pens back ahead. Crosby used time to freeze Oliver Ekman-Larsson and then passed it by him for Rust to explode in towards the goalie alone. Rust finishes on the backhand, 4-3 PIT.
But the Pens can’t get out of the period. Jake McCabe makes a great long lead pass as Pittsburgh is changing to spring John Tavares on the breakaway. He quickly sizes up a shot that gets by Blomqvist and it’s a 4-4 game.
In fact, they can’t even get out with a tie. Matthew Knies steals the puck and sprints down the ice as time is running out on the period. He fires as the clock reaches 0.0 but upon review there was still 0.1 seconds left by the time the puck entered the net. Wow. 5-4 Toronto beats the buzzer to take a lead.
Third period
Not to be outdone in the bad goaltending duel, Woll gives his latest submission when Rakell takes the puck to the net on his backhand and it just kinda jumps in. Nice play by Rakell to go to the net strong and sweep it in but just 10 seconds in the game turns again. 5-5 with a ton of time to go.
Amazingly that’s the only goal scored in the third period as the game finally settles down for a while. The Pens get a point out of it.
Overtime
But they won’t get two points for the standings, since they never control the puck in OT. Auston Matthews wins the opening faceoff and the Leafs are in the mode to find the right time to strike. William Nylander gets it, one minute into OT with a long range shot that slings right on by Blomqvist. 6-5 TOR win.
It’s a fitting finish for the Penguins to be a step slow and have Nylander weave through them and then their goalie get beat on a shot he probably should have had. So it goes.
Some thoughts
- It’s amazing how fast something as modest as one single goal can completely tilt a power play from looking completely dead (like it was yesterday against Boston) into a confident, swarming, dangerous group like the Penguins did today. Nothing can go from cold to hot and reverse like a power play.
- Blomqvist was making his 15th NHL appearance of the season today but illustrated some young player growing pains in the first period. Be it on him for a pass to put Graves in a tough spot or on Graves to not be able to handle a standard bump out to him, that’s not an occurrence that usually happens to experienced players. Then the split second decision to align to play the pass instead of the shot basically handed away a second goal. That kinda stuff is going to happen but ideally if Blomqvist is going to have a long NHL career the frequency has to be dialed down in short order.
- The rest wasn’t much prettier. Moneypuck had Toronto with 2.02 expected goals after 40 minutes. Their actual total: 5. Not a winning formula for the Pens.
- Significant day for Crosby, his assist on the Rakell goal tied Gordie Howe for NHL all-time assists, then the assist on Rust’s goal had Crosby move ahead of Howe. Crosby’s goal put him past Bobby Hull in that category.
- John Tavares is “only” 34 but had a classic old guy finish on his breakaway to just go ahead and shoot it real quick before he can get caught with backside pressure. Vet move, no need to try to skate in and deke, just shoot. Knies didn’t have much of a choice with the clock ticking down but used every bit of time he had left to make a nice play.
- End of the second period sums the Penguins’ season up in a nutshell. Shouldn’t give the puck away to allow a chance, but they did. Should probably be able to count on the goalie or at least the clock to save them, but neither do. All the good things they’ve done up to that point unraveled. Just the way it’s gone this year.
- Yesterday’s recap highlighted the mini-goal slumps of Rust and Rakell, which ended with Rakell’s garbage time goal yesterday. That continued today with the top two wingers on the team joining forces to score three goals today. That’s the type of production the Pens need out of them to compete.
The Pens hit the road for three games next week, all against teams above the playoff line.
Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images
Goalie shakeup before road trip
The Penguins are headed west this week for three games. They will have different goalies for the trip after the team has decided to send Joel Blomqvist back to the AHL and bring back the exiled Tristan Jarry.
This move has more to do with Blomqvist than Jarry. The 23-year old has a 1-4-1 record with a 4.04 GAA and .854 save% since his January recall, at times looking overmatched in the top league. Blomqvist was much stronger in his first NHL stint back in October/November when he was the Penguins’ best choice at goalie for a while. That’s not the case now, so the team has elected to send him back to the minor leagues for more work and to regain confidence out of the spotlight.
For Jarry, today marks another twist in the bumpy road that has been the 2024-25 season for him. Jarry was soft demoted to Wilkes-Barre early in the season on a two-week long “conditioning assignment” before being outright waived in January. After clearing waivers he’s kept a strong upper lip and outwardly been in good spirits despite the difficult situation of seeing his career regress.
The move is interesting in the sense that Penguin management and coaching looked well over Jarry for his slumping play only a few weeks ago. Everyone has kept a diplomatic tact to say the right things, but it was clear through actions that the team was ready to turn the page on the mistake made in 2023 by giving Jarry a long-term contract. Now, he’s back.
Jarry’s return will give more intrigue to the stretch run. The goalie has three more seasons after this one on his contract that comes with a $5.375 million cap hit. It remains to be seen what kind of interest could be had with Jarry across the league, but this gives an opportunity for him to start to change the narrative and get his career back on track.
If not, the season is lost for the Pens anyways so it won’t hurt them. It became apparent that Blomqvist is not ready for a full-time role in the NHL at this point, so any other option would have sufficed. It just so happened that only reasonable option on the table at this point was to bring back the one-time franchise goalie.
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Who stays? Who gets traded? That matters more than the games this week.
On the ice the Pittsburgh Penguins have three games this week. They will probably not go well. Not only because of the way the Penguins are playing, having won just seven of their past 24 games since the start of the new calendar year, but also because they are going on a three-game road trip against three really good Western Conference playoff teams (Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild).
They will probably not win many of them. Or any of them. If they get more than two points it would be a surprise.
Those results, however, are of secondary importance to the upcoming trade deadline and which players will stay and which players will go.
Even if the Penguins are not screaming the word from the top of PPG Paints Arena, they are very much in a rebuild.
It started when they traded Jake Guentzel a year ago, continued this offseason when they put a priority on acquiring future draft picks and signing one-year stop-gaps, and has continued this season with the trades of pending free agents Lars Eller, Drew O’Connor and Marcus Pettersson.
It will almost certainly continue before Friday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.
It is just a question of how much it continues.
The easy answers are forward Anthony Beauvillier and defenseman Matt Grzlecyk. Those two seem like they were signed with the intention of flipping them at the deadline for some sort of mid-round pick, and I imagine there is some value for them.
Gustav Nyquist, who makes more money than Beauvillier and is having a comparable season offensively, just went for a second-round draft pick over the weekend. I don’t know if I’d expect that much here (Beauvillier himself was traded for a fifth-round pick at last year’s deadline) but there should be at least some sort of value.
The bigger questions for the Penguins are going to be players like Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell.
Given that both players are under contract for multiple seasons there is no immediate rush or pressure to trade them.
Those contracts also help complicate a potential trade. Especially as it relates to Karlsson and his $10 million salary cap number.
That contract is going to be extremely difficult to move in-season, especially if the Penguins are not really open to the idea of retaining salary on his deal. But as we just saw this weekend with the Seth Jones trade, it’s not an unmovable contract. At least it shouldn’t be.
Jones has been a better player defensively and is a couple of years younger, but his contract — even with $2.5 million retained — runs for three extra years than Karlsson’s and is a huge risk/investment. Even with that, Chicago still managed to get a solid return in Spencer Knight and a first-round pick. That’s more than I would have anticipated Jones going for a year or two ago. Or even at the start of the season.
Karlsson said on Sunday he has not been approached by the Penguins about waiving his no-movement clause, but that he would take a stand if that happens (I am guessing by stand he means dictate where he goes).
Unless the Penguins were willing to eat a significant amount of salary cap space (which they should not do unless they are getting a significantly jazzed up return in terms of draft picks or prospects) there would be a limited number of suitors.
The contenders/playoff teams that have the salary cap space to add him right now would include the Rangers (but they might be sellers), Columbus, Detroit, and Winnipeg.
Florida would have been a logical landing spot until it traded for Jones.
Could Vegas be a spot if it puts Shea Theodore on LTIR?
It seems likely that by the time Karlsson’s contract ends he is playing for another team, it just seems like that might be more of an offseason move than a trade deadline move.
Then there is Rakell.
He is having a career year and is signed for three more years at a reasonable salary cap number ($5 million) if he keeps performing at this level. But that is the big wild card with him. His value might never be higher than it is right now and there is an argument to be made that it might be the time to aggressively shop him to try and land a big return.
But that production and contract also makes him attractive for the Penguins to maybe want to keep. You still have to put a team on the ice, and if you have any dreams of contending for the playoffs while Sidney Crosby is still playing hockey he is going to need people to play alongside him. We know Rakell can.
Of the two big-money players, Rakell seems like the easiest and most likely to move this week, but it would have to take a heck of an offer to get it to happen.
Whatever they decide to do, the roster moves are going to take precedence this week over the play on the ice. Those moves will continue to shape the ongoing rebuild and are far more important than three relatively meaningless regular season games that Penguins fans might actually be hoping they lose anyway for draft lottery odds position.
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
It’s the Pens’ last game together before Friday’s trade deadline.
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (24-29-10, 58 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ Colorado Avalanche (35-24-2, 72 points, 4th place Central Division)
When: 9:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SN-PIT, ALT, SNE, TVAS, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins are spending this week on the road, with the trip to Denver by flights to Las Vegas on Friday and Minneapolis on Sunday. Tonight’s game is the last time the Penguins play before the NHL trade deadline hits at 3 p.m. ET Friday.
Opponent Track: The Avs dropped their first two games out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, but more recently claimed back-to-back blowout victories during which they outscored the New Jersey Devils and Minnesota Wild by a combined score of 10-3.
Season Series: The Pens scored twice in the second period on Dec. 10 to cut the visiting Avs’ lead to one goal, but were unable to complete the comeback in a 6-2 loss at home.
Hidden Stat: The Avs were 13-12-0 before acquiring goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the San Jose Sharks, but upped their pace to 22-12-2 since his first start.
Getting to know the Avalanche
Projected lines (from Sunday’s practice)
FORWARDS
Artturi Lehkonen - Nathan MacKinnon - Martin Nečas
Valeri Nichushkin - Casey Mittelstadt - Jonathan Drouin
Joel Kivranta - Jack Drury - Ross Colton
Miles Wood - Parker Kelly - Logan O’Connor
DEFENSEMEN
Devon Toews / Cale Makar
Samuel Girard / Oliver Kylington
Ryan Lindgren / Sam Malinski
Goalies: Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood
Scratches: Josh Manson (injured)
IR: Gabriel Landeskog, Tucker Poolman
- Tonight marks the Avalanche’s first game with their new lines since acquiring Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey from the New York Rangers in exchange for Juuso Parssinen, Calvin de Hahn and a draft pick. Expect to see Lindgren at work on the Avs’ penalty kill, which has so far this season ranked in the middle of the pack with a 79.9 percent success rate.
- Defenseman Josh Manson has missed six games with a lower-body injury, but the Avs’ three-day weekend may have given him enough time to recover. Per Brennan Vogt of Mile High Hockey, he could return during the Avs’ four-game homestand, which starts tonight against the Penguins.
- Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland indicated Monday that Gabriel Landeskog will not return before the end of the regular season. Landeskog, who has not played in the NHL since June 2022, underwent a cartilage transplant in May 2023.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
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- After being held without a point during the Avs’ two recent back-to-back losses, Nathan MacKinnon got up to his usual tricks with a three-point outing against the Devils that included a highlight-reel baseball goal:
- The Avs are currently sitting in the first Wild Card spot in the West, two points back from the Minnesota Wild for the third Central Division slot. MacFarland, who already made the decision to trade Mikko Rantanen earlier this season, says the Vesey/Lindgren trade isn’t the only move he’s planning to make before the deadline as the Avalanche gears up for a playoff push:
And now for the Pens
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Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Anthony Beauvillier - Evgeni Malkin - Philip Tomasino
Danton Heinen - Kevin Hayes - Emil Bemstrom
Blake Lizotte - Cody Glass - Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Vincent Desharnais
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Tristan Jarry (he’s back!)
Potential Scratches: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Boko Imama
Injured Reserve: Michael Bunting (appendix surgery), P.O. Joseph (upper-body injury)
- Jarry is back. He last played in the NHL on Jan. 14, and last won on Dec. 23.He posted a .866 save percentage over his last three AHL starts. Now, he’s back with the Penguins.
- P.O. Joseph was placed on IR Monday with an upper-body injury.
