Empty Thoughts: Penguins 1, Bruins 0

Observations from the Penguins’ 1-0 win against the Bruins:

Jake Guentzel scored the winning — and only — goal early in the third period of Sunday’s game.

But in reality, he won the game much later.

The Bruins had pulled goaltender Jeremy Swayman late in regulation for an extra attacker and the Penguins got the puck deep into the Bruins’ zone on the end boards.

Guentzel chased after it and managed to attract five Bruins players in his vicinity then goaded Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron — one of the most composed players in the entire NHL — into a high-sticking infraction at 18:32 of the third period.

As the only penalty called all game, it all but eliminated any chance the Bruins had at forcing a tie.

Guentzel kind of downplayed the significance of the sequence.

“Just helping the team in any way I can,” Guentzel said.

Clearly, he is capable of doing that in more ways than just scoring goals.

What happened

Guentzel’s goal did not happen until 4:03 of the third period.

After Penguins forward Bryan Rust made a gutsy effort to keep a puck in the offensive zone at the left point, Dumoulin shielded Bruins forward Sean Kuraly from the puck on the boards in front of the visiting bench and tapped a backhand pass to Guentzel above the left circle. From there, Guentzel fed the puck to forward Sidney Crosby deep on the left wing. Allowing the play to develop, Crosby drew in Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller, opening up space for Guentzel at the left dot and fed a pass which Guentzel swiped for a one-timer that beat Swayman’s glove on the far side for his 21st goal of the season.

Statistically speaking

• The Bruins had a 30-29 edge in shots.

• Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen led the game with five shots.

• Forwards David Pastrnak and Craig Smith each led the Bruins with four shots.

• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang led the game with 24:59 of ice time on 23 shifts.

• Defenseman Charlie McAvoy led the Bruins with 23:47 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• The Penguins had a 29-27 edge in faceoffs (52%).

• Bergeron was 13 for 23 (57%).

• Penguins forward Jeff Carter was 11 for 20 (55%).

• Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk led the game with four blocked shots.

• Rust, defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Jason Zucker each led the Penguins with two blocked shots.

• Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry made 30 saves on 30 shots.

• Swayman made 28 saves on 29 shots.

Randomly speaking

• This game was a coach’s dream. That’s to say the precision from both teams and the adherence to structure was nearly perfect. Each squad was stiff defensively. Even with a general lack of offense, it was a pretty fierce contest.

• Things weren’t that cantankerous. Sure there was plenty of hitting but nothing that really rose to the level of a penalty. (Literally, there was only one penalty called.) And there was almost nothing after the whistle. This was just two teams playing a very hard game in a mostly legal matter.

• The Penguins’ defense was something to behold. After seeing them struggle with the lowly Devils in previous games, they really clamped down on the Bruins who are blessed with some of the top offensive talent in the NHL. Sure, the Bruins had a healthy 30 shots but very few of them were of high quality.

• Jarry will have more challenging nights as a goaltender but give him his due in recording his first shutout of the season. Just about everything he did on Sunday seemed routine.

• Carter seemed to thrive in this environment as he had a handful of strong scoring chances, perhaps none better than a nice rush he made early in the first period. Approaching the offensive zone on the right wing, he faked a dump-in then deked Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lauzon out of his undergarments in attacking the net.

• Kapanen seems to really embrace his role as the “Brandon Tanev” of the third line. For a guy of moderate dimension (6-foot-1, 194 pounds), he seems to enjoy making contact. He really laid into Lauzon on a hard hit in the second period.

• Bruins forward Taylor Hall looked pretty ordinary. He was aggressive in throwing a few checks but beyond that, he was hard to notice. He had no shots on two attempts.

• Swayman played a pretty strong game. Like Jarry, he wasn’t overwhelmed with quality chances but he just looked on top of things. He was aggressive in challenging shooters. With just over four minutes left in regulation, he denied Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese on a breakaway to maintain a one-goal deficit.

• As far as the officiating, the guys in stripes adopted a “let them play” approach to this game but there really wasn’t that much to call. Both teams played a pretty clean game.

Historically speaking

• Jarry recorded his sixth career shutout and first since he made a mere 17 saves in a 1-0 overtime home win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 12, 2019.

• The Penguins went more than a decade between shutouts of the Bruins. Their last goose egg against the Bruins was a 3-0 road win on March 18, 2010. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 17 saves in that victory.

You may recall that game for Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton beating up Matt Cooke in retaliation for Cooke injuring Bruins forward Marc Savard with a scary hit a few weeks prior.

• Dumoulin (95 points) surpassed defenseman Paul Baxter, forward Wally Boyer and defenseman Ulf Samuelsson (94 each) for 97th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

Publicly speaking

• Dumoulin on the nature of the game:

“It was very tight checking. Their forwards were above our forwards a lot of the game. The same thing with ours. There wasn’t much room out there. We had to try to create some plays and make some time for ourselves by supporting the puck. It was a playoff feel. There wasn’t a lot of special teams. There was a lot of five-on-five play. It was a fun one to play in.”

• Sullivan on the game:

“It was a hard-fought game. There wasn’t a lot of space out there. You had to fight for every inch on both sides. From that standpoint, I think it had a playoff feel to it. The score should have been low-scoring. I don’t think there was a ton of scoring chances on either side. That’s just an indication of how hard both teams were trying to defend. It without a doubt had a little bit of a playoff feel from that regard. It’s good for our team to get into these types of games. We’ve got to find a comfort level in playing in a one-goal, low-scoring game because that’s the nature of high-stakes environment hockey. That’s the way it’s going to be when you play a top team in the league like Boston. They’re as good as a defensive team as there is in the league. We knew we were going to have to fight for every inch out there. We wanted to try to force them to do the same.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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