After 59 evenly played minutes of hockey with two evenly matched teams it was a fortuitous bounce to Evgeni Malkin with 34 seconds left that ended the game in favor of the home team. Pittsburgh was able to secure two points over the visiting Dallas Stars. Both teams sit in second place in their respective divisions and both teams have very similar records. Pittsburgh is now 17-8-4 and Dallas is 16-8-5.

For Evgeni Malkin last night’s goal extended his current point streak to six games. He has a point in every game since the calendar flipped to December. In these six games he has nine points, including last night’s game winning goal.




Early in the sequence it looks like Malkin has the body language of a player who might be about to go for a chance and then the flip switches around the defensive blue line that there’s a potential opportunity on the rush.

Malkin now has 29 points in 29 games to go along with his 59.37 xGF%. His goal last night moves him ahead of Jaromir Jagr on the all-time Penguins game winning goal list with 79. He is four behind Sidney Crosby who has 83.

Speaking of Jaromir Jagr, guess who laced them up again the other day and registered two assists?

In his season debut, Jaromir Jagr -- The Legend -- had two assists over 15:10 of ice time in Kladno's 7-3 loss to Liberec today. Kladno has had an illness running through the team that already forced them to postpone a game, so the owner jumped into the lineup. He's 50 years old.

— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) December 11, 2022

Jagr’s Hall of Fame induction is now pushed to at least 2026.

Tristan Jarry is on a heater. Since November 19th here are his save percentages in the last nine starts:

1.000
.971
.967
.923
.919
.929
.974
.903
.963

The Penguins are 11-1-1 in their last 13. Tristan Jarry’s performance is at the heart of it.

Kris Letang partnered back up with Marcus Pettersson and things went better than they did against the Sabres on Saturday night. He broke even in a game where the two teams were even. He was CF 21 CA 20. A nice bounce back after a rough outing Saturday. Also, understandable because you know… the entire stroke thing.

The good news is in December Kasperi Kapanen has four goals and seven points in six games. The bad news is the last four games have xGF% of 22.99. 40.87, 40.39, and 26.47. He’s going to need the offense to continue otherwise he’ll land back up in the press box. There’s not a lot of substance here, but we know that. Although, I’m sure Jeff Carter is doing no favors on this front.

The Penguins will look to make it 12-1-1 in their last 14 when they visit the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Thanks for reading!

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