Empty Thoughts: Penguins 4, Bruins 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-1 win against the Bruins:

Evgeni Malkin continues to roll on as his scoring streak has reached eight games.

The Penguins’ forward punctuated his night with a power-play goal in the second period that helped secure victory.

While it wasn’t the game-winning goal, it did mean a lot toward the Penguins claiming victory. And it was clearly big for Malkin on a personal level.

But in a lot of ways, it was Evan Rodrigues’ goal.

A little under a minute prior to Malkin’s goal, Rodrigues put the Penguins on a power play by hustling in the offensive zone and forcing Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton into putting his stick between his legs, tripping him.

Rodrigues was modest when asked about the sequence:

“Just doing what I can to contribute,” Rodrigues said via video conference. “Their (defensive) corp. I think was out there for quite a while. It was nice to draw one, lead to that power-play goal and give our team some more momentum.”

For a player like Rodrigues, who is usually in a game-to-game battle to maintain his place in the lineup — in this case, deployment on the left wing of the second line — drawing penalties is a major way to keep your stock up.

That’s to say coaches LOVE guys who can draw penalties. And that’s a component of his game that tempts Mike Sullivan and company to get Rodrigues into the lineup whenever possible.

This season, Rodrigues has drawn three penalties in 17 games in five-on-five play. That doesn’t seem like a lot on the surface but it equates to an average of 1.10 penalties over 60 minutes of ice time.

In comparison, top-line center Sidney Crosby has drawn 0.86 penalties over 60 minutes of ice time.

(Figures via Natural Stat Trick.)

There’s a lot of things coaches like about Rodrigues. He’s a right-handed shot. He can take faceoffs. He can play a number of positions. He thinks the game well.

And he draws penalties.

“It’s certainly something that we look at because usually when players are drawing penalties, it’s because they’re getting inside or they’re forcing their opponents to have to defend them in the good ice,” Sullivan said. “So usually, they’re challenging our opponents with speed or things of that nature. Usually, good things happen. When we can draw penalties, it’s usually an indication that we’re trying to get to the scoring area, we’re trying to get inside the dots, we’re forcing teams to have to defend us.

“As I say to the players all the time, one of three things happen when we get pucks to the net, we get inside the dots and we go to the net: We either score a goal, create a scoring chance or we draw a penalty. All three of which I think is good for the process. It’s nice that our guys are trying to challenge our opponents. We’ve got to continue to try to do that.”

What happened

The Bruins took a lead 6:47 into regulation with a power-play score. Taking a pass at center point of the offensive zone, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk surveyed for a shooting lane then lifted a wrister past an effective screen by forward Nick Ritchie that clunked off the right post, rattled off the left post and went into the cage. It was Grzelcyk’s first goal of the season. Forwards Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak recorded assists.

Things were tied, 1-1, at 16:51 of the first. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Rodrigues chucked a knuckler on net to the far side. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak appeared to make the save initially but allowed the puck to clunk off his glove and trickle into the net for Rodrigues’ second goal. Forward Kasperi Kapanen and Malkin netted assists.

The Penguins took a lead, 2-1, less than two minutes later at the 18:34 mark. After Penguins forward Sidney Crosby gained the offensive zone at center point, he fed a pass to forward Jake Guentzel on the right point. From there, Guentzel crisscrossed with Crosby and from the high slot, he fed a pass low in the right circle for Crosby who cranked a bad-angle one-timer that found a narrow opening between Halak’s left leg and his glove on the near side and hit twine for Crosby’s team-leading 11th goal. Guentzel and defenseman Brian Dumoulin collected assists.

It became a 3-1 game at 11:40 thanks to a power-play score. Settling a puck at center point of the offensive zone, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang fed a pass to the left half wall for Crosby. Curling around in the left circle, Crosby slipped a seam pass above the opposite circle for Malkin who glided in and lifted a wrister from the hashmarks past Halak’s glove on the near side for his eighth goal. Assists went to Crosby and Letang.

An empty net goal by Guentzel — his 11th — at 19:44 of the third capped the scoring. Forward Bryan Rust and Crosby had assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Bruins dominated shots, 43-26.

• Grzelcyk led the game with eight shots.

• Malkin led the Penguins with five shots.

• Letang led the game with 26:43 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• Defenseman Charlie McAvoy led the Bruins with 25:03 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• The Bruins controlled faceoffs, 31-23 (57%).

• Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron was 12 for 20 (60%).

• Crosby was 10 for 18 (56%).

• Letang led the game with four blocked shots.

• McAvoy, defensemen Jared Tinordi, Jakub Zboril and forward Trent Frederic each led the Bruins with two blocked shots.

• Jarry made 42 saves on 43 shots. Both figures were season highs.

• Halak made 22 saves on 25 shots.

Randomly speaking

• Malkin said his game was coming along back on Feb. 28. He’s certainly delivered since then. During his eight-game scoring streak, he has 12 points (four goals, eight assists).

In contrast, during his first 20 games of the season, he also had 12 points (four goals, eight assists).

The fact that the Penguins are on a six-game winning streak while Malkin is producing at such a rate is no coincidence.

• As evidenced by the 43 shots he saw, Jarry was pretty busy, especially in the first period when he faced 20 shots. And he was pretty sharp. Most of the shots the Bruins launched at him were kind of perimeter “junk” shots but there were several quality chances throughout this game, including a stop of Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk on a great short-handed chance in the second period.

It took a pretty perfect shot on a great screen for the Bruins to get one behind him in this game. Jarry is really tuned in at the moment.

• Even the fourth line looked OK for the Penguins. All together, Anthony Angello, Mark Janowski and Colton Sceviour generated six shots. Sceviour had a nice rush off the left wing in the second period using “the move” from NHL 94 to create his shot.

Sceviour also drew a roughing penalty by just going to the net during the second period to give his team a chance on the power play.

• This was hardly the best effort these Bruins had to offer this season. They limped into this game with some issues and they were evident. The Penguins should face a much better game from the Bruins in subsequent rematches.

• Halak looked off. He has a pretty good history against the Penguins but that was not evident in this game.

Historically speaking

• Malkin’s goal was his 1,100th career point.

• Malkin (1,100 points) surpassed forward Glenn Anderson (1,099) for 63rd place on the NHL’s career scoring list.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on Malkin:

“(Malkin) is a guy that I think relies so heavily on his confidence level and he puts a lot of pressure on himself to produce offensively for our team. When it doesn’t go the right way, I think he’s harder on himself than anyone. … When a few of the pucks go in the net for him and he’s getting opportunities to score, you can see his confidence start to build and usually his game follows. He’s playing a strong game right now. Obviously, he’s a dominant player for us. He’s contributing offensively, he’s a threat when he’s going over the boards. You just notice him every time he’s on the ice. It just feels like the puck follows him around. That’s when you know he’s on his game.”

• Rodrigues on Malkin:

“You see when he gets hot, he gets going. I don’t think anyone in our locker room doubted that he would turn it on. It’s not really that he didn’t have it at the beginning of the year. Sometimes, it’s just bounces, sometimes when things are going down, you’ve got to really dig deep to get it going. Obviously, when he’s feeling it and turning back and wanting the puck, he’s going to be dangerous.”

• Crosby on Malkin:

“He’s dominant. That’s what sticks out the most is when he has the puck, it’s hard to take it from him. He’s seeing the ice really well, he’s shooting the puck. When he’s going like that, there’s not much you can do to stop him. He’s so big. Just the way he’s carrying the puck, you can tell he’s really confident. His whole line, you can tell they have some chemistry and they’re working well together.”

• Sullivan on the top power-play unit:

“The movement is what creates the deception. Our experience in coaching this group is they’re at their best when their play is instinctive. We’re not the type of power play that performs well when we’re stagnant and stationary. When the puck moves and people move, they see it and they create so much off of it. There was a lot of positional exchange, the puck was moving. They were putting pucks at the net. Then they were doing the little things, retrieving pucks and things of that nature that are so critical to a power play’s success. Obviously, a huge goal for us during the course of that game.”

• Crosby explained his goal:

“Once (Guentzel) got it, I just tried to open up and be in a shooting position. You just want to hit the net. Obviously, you’re trying to pick the corner. But you don’t want to miss the net when you’re that low and start the breakout (for the opposition) the other way. I just tried to put it there on the short side and fortunately, it squeaked through there. … You’re just trying to make sure you hit the net. You don’t want to miss and have it go the other way.”

• Jarry on what’s gone well for him as of late:

“I’m just tracking the puck a lot better. I’m keeping it between my shoulders and keeping it center. That’s been helping me a lot, just staying in front of the pucks and making myself as big as possible and just trying to take as many pucks in the chest as I can.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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