As has been the story for many of them in his career against the Philadelphia Flyers, it was Sidney Crosby’s night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain led the charge with four points against his favorite team, and the Penguins defeated the Flyers, 7-3, in their final game before the NHL holiday break.
Pittsburgh is now 9-3-1 in its last 13 games, and they go into the holiday hiatus just one point back of the Ottawa Senators for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s big for us, especially playing a team like Philly,” said Rickard Rakell, who scored the Penguins’ second goal during the first period for his team-leading 16th tally of the season. “We know that we’re going to play them a lot down the stretch. We’re just feeling good about ourselves going into this break, just regrouping and getting away from it a little bit… then just come back even better.”
And this victory would not have been possible without Crosby.
He collected an assist on the game’s opening goal by Bryan Rust – his 15th of the season and 10th goal in 13 games – and also picked up the secondary assist on Michael Bunting’s first goal of the game on the power play near the end of the first period.
Then, on the next goal – Philip Tomasino’s fourth of the season and another power play goal for the Penguins – Crosby tied Mario Lemieux for the all-time franchise record in assists with 1,033.
He also tied Lemieux for the franchise record in three-point nights with 183:
“I dreamed of playing in the NHL, and I’m grateful for that, for all these years,” Crosby said. “But I don’t think about where I am on the list. But to be with Mario, though, is pretty cool. I never would have expected that. So, that’s just a bonus.”
Head coach Mike Sullivan said Pittsburgh has been lucky to witness two of the greatest to ever play the game over the last 40 years.
“Mario’s one of the greatest players of all time, as is Sid” Sullivan said. “The milestones these guys reach… there’s very few players in the history of the game that have reached these milestones that Mario and Sid and some of our guys have reached here most recently. I just think it’s one more piece of evidence to suggest that Sid is one of the very best players of all time, and as we know, Mario is as well.”
He continued: “Their legacy just continues to grow. I think it’s pretty cool that you have two generational players in one organization that had a little bit of crossover. But, to have those two players play for your team in this city for almost three decades… what an incredible privilege to have two players of that ilk that played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s remarkable.”
Bunting added another goal at the end of the second period, and Blake Lizotte potted the Penguins’ third power play goal of the game in its waning seconds. Those goals sandwiched Crosby’s fourth point of the game, which was an empty-netter to put the dagger in the Flyers’ chances.
Here are some other thoughts and observations from Monday’s 7-3 victory:
– Not only did Crosby tie Lemieux for the franchise’s all-time assists record, he continued to utterly dominate the Philadelphia Flyers.
Crosby is now up to 133 points in 88 games against Philadelphia. This guy may “just not like” the Flyers, but he certainly loves playing them.
And his efforts led to another dominant performance for his line, as he, Rust, and Rakell combined for another eight points on the evening.
“It feels like he’s behind every goal we score,” Rakell said. “That’s definitely the case with him and Rusty. He’s doing it all. He’s so good with the final touch or last pass to create a dangerous scoring chance. As much as he can have the puck on his stick in their zone, I think it’s going to work to our benefit.”
In this 13-game winning stretch, Rust has 10 goals and 19 points, Crosby has two goals 18 points, and Rakell has nine goals and 16 points. That is 21 goals and 53 points just from that line during their best stretch of the season.
They are driving the bus for the Penguins – and they are, arguably, the best line in the league right now.
– One more note about that line: Rakell ALWAYS scores when Rust almost overtakes his team goal-scoring lead.
Rust scored the game’s opening goal to tie Rakell for the team lead, and I just got done tweeting about how Rakell always seems to score when Rust does so he can take back sole possession of that feat when he did, in fact, score to take back sole possession of that feat.
Unfortunately, that goal was taken back on an offside call, but just a few minutes later, he scored again anyway:
I asked Rakell about this funny little back-and-forth, but – like the professional he is – he brushed it off to focus on how they’re helping the team.
“That doesn’t really matter at all,” Rakell said. “As long we’re fighting every shift to score and play good hockey, it doesn’t matter who scores. For some reason, we both seem to be scoring.”
– Bunting has been a gigantic part of this winning stretch for the Penguins, and he seems to score the biggest goals for them as well.
After going up 4-1 in the first period, the Penguins were not playing well at all in the second. They had just one shot in the second frame with just over two minutes remaining in the period. Philadelphia had brought the game to within one, and they had all the momentum.
Then, Bunting, Evgeni Malkin, Cody Glass, and the Matt-Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson pairing had a strong shift in the offensive zone. Philadelphia cleared the puck, but the Penguins marched right back in the zone with a good breakout pass from Karlsson, and Malkin fed Bunting a perfect backhand pass that he put home:
Bunting now has five goals and 11 points in these 13 games, and a lot of these goals couldn’t be more timely. He’s showing exactly why he is such an important player for the Penguins.
– Another player who has been playing a very high level of hockey these past few weeks is Karlsson.
He’s up to 12 points in the 13 game-stretch, and he had another multi-point effort on Monday. He and Grzelcyk are gelling well. He is limiting mistakes and making a huge difference on the Penguins’ breakouts and in the transition game.
Karlsson is the only player I’ve seen during the Crosby era who rivals Crosby’s vision. He sees the ice very well, and since he’s playing a more responsible game, he’s really looking like the guy the Penguins traded for last summer.
Like Kris Letang, the Penguins are better when Karlsson is playing better. And he is on some kind of run right now.
– I thought the top pairing of Letang and P.O Joseph struggled against the Flyers.
Each player had two giveaways, and they were frequently leaving the danger areas exposed and seemingly lacking communication on coverage. It could be chalked up to Joseph needing a small re-adjustment period since his return, so it may need some time to play out.
But with both Owen Pickering and Marcus Pettersson on injured reserve, it’s not like the Penguins have any better options right now, either. That pairing didn’t have the greatest returns last season, so hopefully, they can figure something out, at least until the other two are healthy.
– This was a good win for the Penguins.
They mustered huge win against a Metropolitan Division opponent that was just one point behind them in the standings heading into Monday’s game. They have struggled against the Metro this season at a meager 2-6-2, and they have two more divisional games against the New York Islanders before the calendar year turns.
These are games they need to win. This holiday break was well-earned for the Penguins, but hopefully, the days off don’t diminish any momentum they’ve had during this stretch that has gotten them back into the thick of the playoff race in the East.
