After the Penguins shutout victory over the Winnipeg Jets last night they are 4-1-1 in their last six games. A must needed stretch that was preceded by a seven-game losing streak. It was imperative to stop the bleeding and start picking up standings points. The team is now three points out of both the wild card and third place with a game in hand on the Rangers and Islanders respectively. it is tough to make up points in the NHL so the winning must continue, and the losses need to come in overtime/shootout situations.  

You can’t lose if you don’t give up any goals. Tristan Jarry made sure of that last night. He rebounded from a stretch of less than stellar play to post a 32 save shutout over the Winnipeg Jets. It was a low scoring affair, and the team needed the shutout. While the score finished 3-0 it wasn’t until the last minute and a half when the Penguins added goals two and three.  

It was Jason Zucker who opened up the scoring. He now has five goals on the year and continues to perform at a high level for a team who desperately needed somebody to step up this year. He has. The line shuffling putting Rickard Rakell back on the top line and Bryan Rust with Evgeni Malkin has also been working because it was working before. On the season, the Zucker-Malkin-Rust line has a 68.08 xGF%. There was probably never a need to reinvent the wheel. The Guentzel-Crosby-Rust line had a really bad stretch, but wasn’t horrible in their entire sample. It was less effective with a 55.24 xGF%. Might as well lean into the trio getting the best overall results and Mike Sullivan has gone back to it. 

Evgeni Malkin began his career in historic fashion by scoring in his first six games (on top of escapting from Russia). He’s 999 games into his career and here he is with 19 points in 18 games at age 36 coming off of major knee surgery. Tonight, he joins Sidney Crosby as the only other Penguin to hit the 1,000 career game mark. While Malkin and Crosby have not played all of those 999 games together because of injury, when they do play together only one of them gets to come on the ice last  

I said, 'Do you usually go last?' And then he told me, 'Three years Super League.'

"The three years pro in Russia, I guess, was more than the one year I played in the NHL. He wasn't budging at all. I was trying, like, 'rock-paper-scissors every game?' And he was like, 'no.'"

😂

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 20, 2022

 

  

From escaping his home country via Finland to start his NHL career. To his Calder, Hart, Ted Lindsay, Art Ross, and Conn Smyth Trophy. To his three Stanley Cups and many other amazing moments. Congratulations to Evgeni Malkin on game #1,000. Here is to many more. He’s lived up to all expectations and is on the Penguins Mt. Rushmore of players. A true legend. 

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