The Penguins will take wins any way they can right now and especially so against their chief rival. Pittsburgh was able to squeeze out a 2-1 victory over the division leading Washington Capitals last night in a game that surely wasn’t lacking emotion or notable events.
The game started with a Tom Wilson and Jamie Oleksiak fight. Although, a fight would imply Oleksiak participated. He was one-punched and did not return to the game. Oleksiak was not jumped. He had his gloves off before a punch was thrown. He just lost the fight. The fight was stupid for numerous reasons. The first is that by being knocked out it left the Penguins with only five defenseman for the rest of the game. Kris Letang went to work
Even if the results of the fight were reversed it is still incredibly stupid to engage in the fight in the first place. It doesn’t resolve anything. Tom Wilson has shown he’s still an idiot even after his most recent lengthy suspension. Another dynamic of the fight that was stupid was the fact Jamie Oleksiak probably felt obligated because his general manager ran his mouth last spring about Wilson not fighting Oleksiak.
Tl;dr The fight left the Penguins down a defenseman for the entire game. Tom Wilson went on to have a good game including the primary assist on the Capitals lone goal. Revenge violence fail for the Penguins.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin had words after the fight
Crosby had the last laugh scoring a goal and adding an assist in the 2-1 victory. Including a vintage tip courtesy of Geno’s shot-pass.
Alexander Ovechkin saw his career high point streak of 14 games end. During that streak he scored 17 times. He’s having another amazing year and the fact he scores all these goals against modern goaltenders puts to shame anything from the late 70’s and 80’s.
The Jake Muzzin trade idea seems better by the day. From
Greg Wyshnyski’s power rankings at ESPN:
19. The Penguins are probably still in the market for a defenseman, but the group they have could be a bit more responsible. They've given up the third-most shots since Dec. 1, with 339, ahead of only the Blackhawks and Senators.
Woof, not the company you want to keep.
I thought Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel accidently found themselves on the wrong side of the Penguins power play in a recent game and couldn’t find their way back during the flow of the play. It appears it was intentional because it happened again last night. Having Malkin on the left and Phil Kessel on the right side is the sibling of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin playing on separate power plays. Neither option optimizes the talent on the ice.
Matt Murray was very good, again. This is two consecutive starts where he has played at a high level. Penguins are going to need that goaltending if they are going to bleed shots at the same rate as some of the worst teams in the league are. Murray stopped 31 out of the 32 shots he faced and with Washington getting five power plays. Washington’s power play will always increase the difficulty level. There’s a lot of season left, but it is nice to see Murray get a little bit of traction. We’ll see where this goes.
Mikko Rantanen is in some impressive company
I love having 2003 Mario Lemieux there. He may have lowered his career points per game (only player ever over 2.0) by coming back in 2000-01 to 2005-06, but it cemented his legacy of being able to dominate any era of hockey.
Penguins are back in action tonight against the Minnesota Wild. Keep an eye on Charlie Coyle. A potential third line center target via trade…
Thanks for reading!
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