Empty Thoughts: Penguins 3, Rangers 2

Observations from the Penguins’ 3-2 win against the Rangers:

First things first, there was no update on Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues. He left the game at 9:11 of the second period after he lined up Rangers forward Filip Chytil for a hit inside the Penguins’ blue line.

Just as a whistle blew, Rodrigues dropped Chytil with a train wreck of a collision that injured both players. Each of them appeared to ding up their right knees.

Rodrigues left the ice immediately hunched over while Chytil took a few moments to regain himself before making it to the bench. Chytil had one more shift after that but did not finish the game.

The same could be said for Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin.

One could even question if he truly started the game.

Logging a mere 14:23 of ice time on 23 shifts — one of the lowest time on ice totals in his career — Malkin failed to even record a shot attempt.

Granted, the lack of any power-play opportunities for the Penguins — versus the two the Rangers had — probably kept Malkin’s ice time down. But he was just a non-factor in every way possible.

He didn’t even take a bad stick-related penalty out of exuberance or frustration. He was simply inert.

As he usually does for any of his struggling players, coach Mike Sullivan went to bat for Malkin after the game.

“When he scores a goal or two, his confidence goes to another level and he tends to take off,” Sullivan said via video conference. “When he doesn’t, he tends to be hard on himself because he cares so much and he wants to help the Penguins win. And he knows that’s how he can help us win. My conversations with (Malkin) to this point is just to encourage him, just to make sure he’s trying to play the game the right way and play on both sides of the puck. When he has the opportunity to shoot the puck, shoot the puck and allow his instincts to take over.”

Through six games, Malkin has two points, one being a power-play goal and the other being a secondary assist. But even beyond the raw basic data, he just looks like another player on the ice. That surge he creates when he skates with puck — the same one that has distinguished him throughout his career — isn’t evident to this point of the season, at least to the naked eye from an admittedly amateur perspective.

Regardless, the Penguins continue to profess faith in him. He’s certainly earned that trust over the past 15 years.

“We’ll continue to encourage (Malkin), we’ll continue to try to find him the right people to surround him with that give him an opportunity to be successful,” Sullivan said. “But we know he’s a really good player. He’s a guy that once we get him going, he can take off.”

What happened

New York claimed a 1-0 lead 16:36 into regulation. Corralling a puck at the right point, Rangers defenseman Adam Fox pumped a wrister towards the cage. Rangers forward Colin Blackwell, who was recalled from the taxi squad earlier in the day, established position in the crease against Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci and deflected the puck with the shaft of his stick through goaltender Tristan Jarry’s five hole for his first goal of the season. Fox and forward Brett Howden had assists.

After Rodrigues was injured, forward Bryan Rust was promoted to the top line and scored the Penguins’ first goal at 11:24 of the second. After Rust broke up a pass by Rangers forward Artemi Panarin, Penguins forward Sidney Crosby corralled the puck and slid a lead pass up ice to spring Rust on a breakaway. Attacking the net, Rust fired a wrister through goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s five hole for his second goal of the season. The lone assist went to Crosby.

The Rangers responded at 17:17 of the second with a score off a goalmouth scramble. Settling a rebound low in the left circle, Panarin fed a pass to Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba, rushing in from the right circle. Trouba’s wrister struck the right skate of Rangers forward Ryan Strome, positioned in the crease. Fighting off Ceci and Penguins defenseman John Marino, Strome chopped the loose puck over the glove of a scrambling Jarry for his first goal. Trouba and Panarin collected assists.

The Penguins forged a tie only 2:26 into the third period. After Penguins forward Brandon Tanev hounded Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith into a turnover out of New York’s left corner, Penguins forward Jared McCann jumped on the loose puck along the left half wall and floated a fluttering wrister. The puck appeared to glance off Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s right hip and catch Shesterkin off guard, beating him over his right shoulder on the near side. It was McCann’s second goal of the season and was unassisted.

It looked like the Penguins might be going beyond regulation for the fourth consecutive game but their first line struck again at 18:29 of the third. Driving the puck deep up the left wing, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang drew in Rangers forward Chris Kreider and vacated space in the left circle. Sensing opportunity, Guentzel set up shop above the circle, took a feed from Letang and whacked a one-timer that glanced off Shesterkin’s stick then then through his five hole for his second goal. Letang and Crosby had assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Rangers led in shots, 26-19.

• Strome led the game with four shots.

• Crosby, Guentzel and Rust each led the Penguins with three shots.

• Letang led the game with 28:08 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• Fox led the Rangers with 25:42 of ice time on 32 shifts.

• The Rangers had a 29-28 edge in faceoffs (51%).

• Strome was 12 for 18 (67%).

• Penguins forward Mark Jankowski was 7 for 8 (88%).

• Fox led the game with four blocked shots.

• Ceci led the Penguins with three blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• The second defensive pairing of Ceci and Marino had a messy game. Particularly the Ceci portion.

Ceci was beaten in one-on-one physical battles — an area of the sport he supposedly is competent in — that led to each of the Rangers’ goals. Additionally, he took a hooking penalty early in the third period with the game tied and even had a poor clearing attempt in the first period that led to an icing infraction after his team had a long shift.

After gaining traction with a fine game Friday, Ceci took a step back Sunday.

• Marino wasn’t much better. He just looked overwhelmed physically at times. To be fair to him, he’s been playing on the left side (he’s right-handed) the past few games due to the injuries on the blue line. So he’s not exactly been in an optimal position. But he’s been somewhat underwhelming most of the season, to be frank.

• Rust’s malleability continues to be his defining trait. He scored a pretty important goal almost as soon as he got promoted. Then he drove the net to help open up a shooting lane for Guentzel on the winning score.

• Rust was stoned on a breakaway a few moments before his goal. He went backhand on that first shot then changed it up with a forehand shot on his second attempt.

• Jarry looked really sharp. It was easily his best game of the season. He was aggressive with his stick, breaking up chances and passes near the crease. And he has been pretty sharp locating shots through traffic.

He just looked in total control most of the game. That handful of days Jarry spent refining his game with goaltending coach Mike Buckley did a world of wonder. He looks like a completely different player than the guy who looked lost during the first two games of the season in Philadelphia.

• The Penguins switched up their bottom three lines to open the game but those designs went out the window after Rodrigues’ injury.

Historically speaking

• Rust (175 points) surpassed forward Pat Boutette (174) for 47th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Guentzel’s goal was the 100th of his career.

• Blackwell’s goal was the first as a member of the Rangers.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan is happy with his team’s play but not satisfied:

“We’ve got a ways to go. We’ve got to get better in certain areas. We’ve got to get more people going as far as trying to capture their very best game. But on a positive side, I think the resilience this group has shown in the first handful of games here is encouraging. It’s such an important aspect of winning in this league. Things don’t always go your way out there. Your ability to respond to those adversities and the ebbs and flows of the game go a long way to dictating your ability to have success. We’re really encouraged by that but we also know we have a ways to go here.”

• Rust on his goal:

“The puck was kind of wobbling off the (defenseman’s) stick so I just tried to kind of take off behind their (defense). I didn’t really need to yell to Sid. Sid’s going to make those plays. On my first breakaway, the goalie was really patient. So I just tried to beat (Shesterkin) quickly.”

Sullivan on Jarry:

”Tristan was really solid. He’s had two solid games here, back to back. He’s tracking the puck really well, he’s seeing the puck really well. You can see how he plays the puck when they dump it in. He plays the puck extremely well which helps us. The last two games were really encouraging. He played two solid games for us.”

• Rangers coach David Quinn was pretty mad about Guentzel’s goal:

“A guy can’t get a shot from that area with (1:31) to go. You have to have an urgency, you have to know who’s dangerous. Just really disappointing.“

Visually speaking

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights:

Follow the Penguins all season long.