Empty Thoughts: Penguins 5, Devils 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 5-1 win against the Devils:

The thing that usually jumps out at you first with Kasperi Kapanen is his skating.

That’s to say he’s fast.

When he has the puck, he looks like a comet entering the offensive zone. He’s not necessarily as fast as someone such as Connor McDavid (who is, really?), but he’s pretty darn quick.

So considering Kapanen was sidelined for the previous 13 games due to a suspected left foot injury, it was fair to wonder where his skating would be after such a long layoff due to an ailment that would directly affect that part of his game.

As it turned out, Kapanen put any worries to rest after about half a period.

He opened Thursday’s game on the fourth line and roughly 10 minutes into the first period, he was promoted to the third line.

And by the midway point of the second period, he used his speed to exploit a poor Devils defense and scored a fantastic goal.

“I only had one practice (prior to Thursday’s game),” Kapanen said via video conference. “But regardless, I still felt really good, felt fresh. I thought my legs were good. Coach (Mike Sullivan) did a good job of not playing me as much. It always takes some time, I feel like, to get into the rhythm of things, but I was just really excited to be back out there.”

Kapanen displayed a good deal of chemistry on the third line with Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese so it’s safe to assume that trio will remain intact moving forward.

Or maybe not. The second line of Jared McCann, Jeff Carter and Jason Zucker didn’t have a good game so perhaps that trio gets broken up and Kapanen gets promoted again to his previous role as right winger on the second line.

Either way, Kapanen’s speed gives them no shortage of options in what to do with him.

“His speed is so noticeable,” Sullivan said. “He just backs teams off with his speed through the neutral zone. He’s got a great shot. He’s a good playmaker. … He can make plays, he sees the ice pretty well. … He has such an impact on our overall team game.“

What happened

A goal by Penguins forward Sidney Crosby opened the scoring only 41 seconds into regulation. Stealing a puck off of Devils forward Pavel Zacha above New Jersey’s left circle, Crosby snapped a rising wrister from outside the faceoff dot past the right shoulder of goaltender Aaron Dell on the short side for his 19th goal of the season. Forward Bryan Rust and defenseman Kris Letang recorded assists.

New Jersey responded at 12:34 of the first period. Devils defenseman Ryan Murray stroked a one-timer from the left point of the offensive zone but missed wide to the far side. The rebound rimmed around the boards and coasted to the right point where defenseman Matt Tennyson teed up his own one-timer. The puck sailed through an open lane, beating goaltender Tristan Jarry’s right elbow on the far side clinking off the post and into the net. Murray and forward Jesper Boqvist had assists.

The Penguins reclaimed a lead, 2-1, at 17:46 of the first period. After Blueger and Aston-Reese hounded Tennyson into a turnover on New Jersey’s end boards, Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin settled the puck at the left point and fed a pass to the right point for defenseman Cody Ceci. Settling the puck, Ceci chopped a slapper that sailed past Dell’s blocker on the far side for his fourth goal. Aston-Reese provided a screen on the sequence. Assists went to Dumoulin and Kapanen.

It became a 3-1 game at 12:03 of the second. After Devils forward Jack Hughes turned the puck over in the offensive zone, Crosby tapped the puck up to the neutral zone to Rust, allowing him to generate a two-on-one rush with forward Jake Guentzel against Tennyson. Rust then dealt the puck to Guentzel who gained the offensive zone on the left wing. Drawing Tennyson into the left circle, Guentzel distributed the puck back to Rust who one-touched a forehand shot over the glove hand of a sprawling Dell for his 19th goal. Guentzel and Crosby tallied assists.

It took only 28 seconds after that for the Penguins to strike again. Taking a pass in the neutral zone from Blueger, Kapanen surged into the offensive zone, challenged defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler off the right wing and fired a wrister through Dell’s five hole for his eighth goal. Blueger and Aston-Reese had assists.

Dell was pulled in favor of backup Scott Wedgewood but there was little the Devils could do to stop the Penguins who scored a short-handed goal at 15:59 of the second period.

Late on a penalty kill sequence, Blueger pushed the puck from his own zone through the neutral zone on the right wing, generating a two-on-one rush with forward Colton Sceviour against Devils defenseman Damon Severson. As Severson leaned down to take away a passing lane, Blueger accepted the shooting lane and blew a no-look wrister past Wedgewood’s glove on the near side for his seventh goal of the season. Assists went to Letang and John Marino.

Statistically speaking

• The Devils led in shots, 31-23.

• Crosby, Hughes and Devils forward Nathan Bastian each led the game with four shots.

• Severson led the game with 23:29 of ice time on 26 shifts.

• Dumoulin led the Penguins with 22:26 of ice time on 25 shifts.

• The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 23-20 (53%).

• Devils forward Michael McLeod was 9 for 13 (69%).

• Carter was 8 for 15 (53%).

• Ceci, Tennyson and Devils defenseman Connor Carrick each led the game with two blocked shots.

• Jarry made 30 saves on 31 shots.

• Dell made 11 saves on 15 shots and recorded the loss.

• Wedgewood made seven saves on eight shots.

Randomly speaking

• Obviously, this game was a night and day difference compared to Tuesday’s 7-6 home win against the Devils. That’s to say the Penguins didn’t experience a nearly total collapse in the third period. They buttoned things down during the final 20 minutes and rarely let the Devils generate anything of a quality scoring chance.

A popular cliche in sports is “we’ve got to learn from this experience.” Well, the Penguins clearly learned from that awful experience on Tuesday and applied those lessons to Thursday’s win.

• Crosby looked very driven in his game, right from the first shift. In the first 41 seconds, he smacked Murray to the ice, won two faceoffs and generated two shots, including the opening goal. He wanted the bad taste of Tuesday’s game to be quickly forgotten by his teammates. He was just dominant most of this game.

• Don’t dismiss the significance of how “clean” this win was for Jarry. He was very much at fault for Tuesday’s result and rebounded with a pretty efficient win. He looked much more on task in this game.

• As mentioned before, the second line of McCann, Carter and Zucker wasn’t great. According to Natural Stat Trick, they were on the ice for eight shot attempts and 13 shot attempts against. Given Kapanen’s strong return, it might be worth reconfiguring the second line.

• That said, the new third line of Aston-Reese, Blueger and Kapanen was pretty sharp. Brandon Tanev is typically the right wing on that line and Kapanen is a reasonable facsimile of what Tanev can offer, namely through his speed.

Kapanen isn’t nearly as violent or abrasive as Tanev but he clearly has more skill.

• Ceci keeps producing. He looks so much better than he did when he made his Penguins’ debut just over three months go. That’s to say he just seems so much more comfortable in his surroundings.

Don’t dismiss the lack of a true training camp for players joining new teams around the league, particularly under the league-imposed restrictions on how often players can be around one another physically in their arenas or practice facilities. It really delayed the learning process for players such as Ceci to get acclimated to a new team, a new scheme and a new everything.

In a lot of ways, the regular season has been Ceci’s training camp.

He has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past 13 games.

• The Penguins’ penalty kill was pretty effective, going 4 for 4 with a short-handed goal. Granted, the Devils aren’t the most daunting offensive force in the NHL but for the Penguins, who have had trouble on the penalty kill all season, this was a fantastic step forward.

• Blueger leads the Penguins with three short-handed goals.

Historically speaking

• Guentzel (249 points) surpassed forward Jordan Staal (248) for 34th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Dumoulin (94 points) broke into the top-100 career scorers in franchise history, surpassing defenseman Bob Woytowich (93 points and one Polish Army).

• Zucker played in his 500th career game.

• Tennyson’s goal was his first at the NHL level since he scored for the San Jose Sharks in a 4-3 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 5, 2015.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on what his team did better in the third period on Thursday compared to the third period on Tuesday:

“We played a smarter game. We managed the puck better. We were competing on pucks. We didn’t put ourselves our or teammates in difficult positions. I said to (the players) after the second period going into the third, this is a great opportunity for us to grow as a team. Let’s just make sure we control what we can out there to make it hard on our opponents. We’re going to continue to play on our toes. We’re going to continue to get the next goal. We’ve just got to do it the right way. And we’ve got to make sure that we manage the puck in the critical areas of the rink. Then it boils down to details, line changes, things of that nature. Faceoff responsibilities. All of those things add up to being difficult to play against and managing games and controlling leads. I thought our guys did a real good job in the third period tonight.”

• Blueger on the third period:

“We managed the puck better. Tuesday night, we were a little loose. Getting out of our zone, I thought the wall play was pretty good in the third. For the most part, we kind of limited their (offensive) zone time. We were harder on pucks, winning more battles. They did have a couple of good chances but obviously (Jarry) made big saves. For the most part, we limited them, especially compared to the last game.”

• Blueger on Crosby:

“He set the tone. That’s the kind of leader that he is. It’s one thing to talk about it but when you see him go out there and do that, play so hard, I think it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the team. The rest of the guys follow his lead right there.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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