Empty Thoughts: Penguins 3, Sabres 0

Observations from the Penguins’ 3-0 win against the Sabres:

When he reached the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career last season, Bryan Rust could barely stifle a smile.

He achieved that plateau during a 2-1 road win on Jan. 17, 2020 against the Detroit Red Wings, his hometown team, and was just beaming over the accomplishment.

“It’s pretty cool,” the Penguins forward said after that game. “It’s kind of one of those ‘milestone’ things that once you get closer and closer, you kind of look at as somewhere where you want to be.”

Given Rust’s rise as a goal scorer, his offense is what many observers largely think of when it comes to him. And justly so.

After all, he leads the Penguins in goals since the start of the 2019-20 season:

Rust has become a legit goal-scorer by any measure.

But that hasn’t come at the expense of the stout defense he still offers.

That was evident late in this game.

With just under nine minutes remaining in regulation, the Penguins were protecting a one-goal lead when Sabres forward Tobias Rieder — a low-key Penguins killer over his career — got loose on a short-handed breakaway.

By the time Rieder reached the hashmarks, Rust tracked him down and poked the puck away, preventing a shot even getting off.

(Thank you to The Pensblog via @largeturkey for finding that video.)

The man who stopped every shot he faced to record his fifth career shutout was pretty happy with the play.

“That was huge,” said goaltender Casey DeSmith via video conference. “He’s one of the fastest guys in the league and he showed it on that play. And that was huge for us, preventing a shot there.”

Rust later had a blocked shot on Sabres forward Sam Reinhart with a little more than a minute left to help preserve the shutout.

He won’t likely ever be a serious candidate for the Frank J. Selke Trophy which recognizes the NHL’s top defensive forward, especially since he doesn’t see as much short-handed ice time these days, but Rust’s defense should not go under-appreciated. It certainly isn’t by his teammates.

“He just does those little things that add up to winning,” defenseman Brian Dumoulin said. “Regardless if he’s scoring or not — usually, he is — but he’s also doing a little extra to secure wins for us. He’s such a great all-around player.”

What happened

After a fairly bland opening 36 minutes of regulation, the Penguins struck first at 16:37 of the second period on a power-play opportunity.

After a faceoff win in the Sabres’ left circle by Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, defenseman Kris Letang settled the puck at the left point and made his way to center point. From there, Letang fed a pass to forward Evgeni Malkin in the right circle. Surveying the offensive zone, Malkin snapped a pass to the front of the crease where forward Jake Guentzel redirected the puck on net. Goaltender Carter Hutton made the initial save but on the ensuing rebound, Guentzel was able to jab the puck out of mid-air past Hutton’s blocker for his 10th goal, becoming the first member of the Penguins to reach double-digits in goals this season. Malkin and Letang collected assists.

Crosby scored his 10th goal of the season by air mailing a wrister from deep in his own zone into an empty net at 19:07 of the third period. Letang had the only assist.

Forward Mark Jankowski collected his second goal of the season on an empty net as well at the 19:44 mark. Assists went to forwards Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 34-24.

• Guentzel led the game with eight shots.

• Rieder led the Sabres with four shots.

• Letang led the game with 24:51 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen led the Sabres with 22:06 of ice time on 26 shifts.

• The Penguins had a 27-26 edge in faceoffs (51%).

• Blueger was 7 for 11 (64%).

• Sabres forward Curtis Lazar was 7 for 9 (78%).

• Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour led the game with four blocked shots.

• Defenseman Cody Ceci led the Penguins with three blocked shots.

• DeSmith made 24 saves on 24 shots.

• Hutton made 31 saves on 32 shots.

Randomly speaking

• This wasn’t an overly entertaining game. The Sabres clearly have many limitations and they tried to bog things down a bit. Frankly, that’s how they have to play. The Penguins remained patient throughout until they were able to take a lead and protected it fairly well.

This was far from the stiffest challenge the Penguins will face, but they handled their business and came away with a clean two points in a situation that demanded it.

• Slugging out a low-scoring win against the cruddy Sabres is one thing. Trying to do it with the solid Bruins or Islanders is another. The Penguins will face a considerable upgrade in competition on Monday and Tuesday when they host the Bruins. But it was a positive step to see them grind out a “low-event” win for the first time this season, regardless of the competition.

• Last week, coach Mike Sullivan spoke about how Guentzel has a “knack” for finding ways to score goals. Saturday’s goal was a perfect example of that attribute. He just happened to find enough space in a small window of opportunity to put a rebound in the net. He has such a feel for finding goals in a steady but unspectacular fashion.

• Guentzel’s goal came 36:37 into regulation. That’s the latest any of the Penguins’ games this season have gone without either team scoring. The previous high-water mark was 32:35 in a 3-2 home win against the Islanders on Feb. 20.

• Jankowski’s goal was his first since the first game of the season, a 6-3 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 13.

• With the team still protecting a one-goal lead, fourth-line forward Anthony Angello took a slashing minor at 12:07 of the third period in the offensive zone on Ristolainen. That’s a bad way to stay in the lineup.

Historically speaking

• This was the Penguins’ first shutout of the season. Their last shutout was a 1-0 home win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dec. 12, 2019. Tristan Jarry made 17 saves in that win.

• DeSmith recorded his fifth career shutout and his first in nearly two years. His last shutout at the NHL level also came in a road game against the Sabres. He made 26 saves in a 5-0 win, March 14, 2019.

• Letang (556 points) surpassed forward Kevin Stevens (555) for eighth place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Guentzel’s eight shots were a career-high.

• For whatever reason, Hutton, an otherwise unremarkable goaltender, always seems to play the Penguins well. In nine career games, he has a 5-2-0 record along with a 1.83 goals against average, a .943 save percentage and two shutouts.

Publicly speaking

• Guentzel on grinding out a low-scoring win:

“You’ve got to be able to play in these kinds of games. In these low-scoring games, you’ve got to be able to just stay patient. Not be high risk. It’s good to find different ways to win. It’s nice to know that we can be low scoring and defend hard.”

• Sullivan on Guentzel’s scoring touch:

“He just finds the ice where opportunity presents itself for him. He’s got a knack to find the back of the net. He’s a goal scorer. There’s no other way to describe his game. He can be opportunistic, he doesn’t need a lot of chances to bury pucks. When he gets them, usually some of them end up in the back of the net.”

• DeSmith on his team playing better defense as of late:

“There’s been a big emphasis on protecting the house, protecting that prime scoring area. We had been giving up a lot of goals from really close to the net, in the slot and even in the low slot where most of the goals are being scored. We’re doing a really good job of keeping it simple on breakouts, making sure we’re getting the puck out at the appropriate times and obviously, protecting the good ice.”

• Sullivan on what prompted him to go with DeSmith over Jarry:

“We’re going through a stretch of games here where we’re playing a lot of games in a short period of time. I believe we’re going to play 10 games in 16 nights. That’s a heavy workload for one guy. We’re going to rely on both guys here. Both guys give us a chance to win. Casey did a terrific job for us tonight. It also gives Tristan a chance to get some rest so that he can continue to be at his best. We’re trying to keep both guys at their best just because the logistics of the schedule are going to command that we’re going to have to use both guys. Right now, we like where they’re both at. They’re both giving us a chance to win each and every night.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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