Empty Thoughts: Penguins 5, Rangers 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 5-1 win against the New York Rangers:

First things first, there was no update on Penguins forward Jared McCann after the game. He left the game at 14:48 of the second period with an undisclosed injury.

His linemates, Kasperi Kapanen and Evgeni Malkin, were front and center in this victory.

Each time the Penguins have made a trade involving Kapanen, it’s been done with the intent of benefiting franchise center Sidney Crosby.

And each time, it leads to benefiting the other franchise center, Malkin, primarily.

When they included Kapanen in the bundle of assets they sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2015, the Penguins got back All-Star winger Phil Kessel with the hopes of placing him on Crosby’s wing, ideally leading to great and wondrous displays of offense.

Things didn’t work out as hoped and, eventually, Kessel found his home with Malkin (as well as a really fun spring with Nick Bonino). That deployment led to the franchise’s two most recent Stanley Cup titles.

This past summer, the Penguins made another deal with the Maple Leafs, this time bringing Kapanen back to Pittsburgh with the intent of letting him flank Crosby on the right wing.

Kapanen’s issues securing a work visa in a timely fashion to open this season derailed those plans in early January. By mid-February, Penguins coaches began allowing Kapanen and Crosby to skate together, along with Jake Guentzel. That deployment offered some results but not enough for Kapanen to avoid being benched for the third period of a home game Feb. 20.

After Crosby missed a game Tuesday as a result of being placed on the NHL’s covid-19 protocol absences, the Penguins’ lines were shuffled, ultimately resulting in Kapanen being reunited with Malkin for the past two games.

After Sunday, it’s hard to envision Kapanen and Malkin being separated again.

Malkin played a role in setting up Kapanen for the game-winning goal while Kapanen set up Malkin for an insurance score in the third period.

It was a welcome sight for two players who haven’t exactly lived up to immense expectations this season.

They’ve seemed to have found comfort in playing with one another after the team’s two most recent games, and it’s helped provide the balance throughout the lineup that this franchise has always sought.

“They’ve established some pretty good chemistry,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “(Malkin) is a really dangerous player off the rush. He sees the ice so well and he commands so much attention. With (Kapanen’s) speed, (Kapanen) can open up the ice for him and (Malkin) can get the puck to (Kapanen). … They’ve had some chemistry. We’ve really liked it when we’ve put them together. They’ve had some good games. We’re certainly encouraged by that.”

What happened

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead 1:18 into regulation. As Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson pinched into the offensive zone, Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad created a two-on-one rush with Alexis Lafreniere against Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci. Approaching the net from the right circle, Zibanejad faked a wrister, jammed up goaltender Casey DeSmith’s mechanics and lifted a forehand over DeSmith’s glove on the near side for his third goal of the season. Assists went to forward Pavel Buchnevich and defenseman Jacob Trouba.

A three-goal spurt by the Penguins a span of 61 seconds put them up, 3-1, to close out the first period. First, defenseman John Marino tied the game at the 16:13 mark. Just as a Penguins power-play opportunity had expired, Kapanen flicked a forehand pass from above the right circle of the offensive zone to Marino along the near wall. Marino slinked his way up the boards and into the right circle. Utilizing a screen by Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues, Marino ripped a wrister past goaltender Alexandar Georgiev’s blocker on the far side for his first goal of the season. Kapanen and Rodrigues claimed assists.

The Penguins took their first lead at the 16:52 mark. After Matheson forced Rangers forward Kevin Rooney into a neutral zone turnover, McCann backhand chopped the puck from in front of the visiting bench across the ice. The puck hopped over the stick of Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller at the blue line and was claimed by Kapanen who surged past a stumbling Miller and created his own breakaway. Attacking the net, Kapanen lifted a wrister over Georgiev’s glove for his sixth goal. McCann and Malkin had assists.

It became a 3-1 game at 17:14 thanks to Penguins forward Sidney Crosby collecting his eighth goal. Skating the puck out of his own zone, Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin approached the center red line and head manned a pass to Crosby at center point of the offensive blue line. Accelerating between Rangers defensemen Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren, Crosby veered to the left circle and fired a wobbly wrister past Georgiev’s glove on the far side. Assists were credited to Dumoulin and defenseman Kris Letang.

The Rangers called a timeout to regroup and pulled Georgiev in favor of Keith Kinkaid.

After a scoreless second period, the Penguins made it a 4-1 game at 13:57 of the third period. After Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson won a puck battle in his own right corner against Rangers forward Filip Chytil, he fed it up the near wall for Malkin, initiating a three-on-one rush with Kapanen and Rodrigues against Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith. In the neutral zone, Malkin fed a cross-ice pass to Kapanen who gained the offensive zone on the right wing. Smith opted to defend Kapanen who was able to slide a backdoor pass to the left of the crease where Malkin tapped in his sixth goal past Kinkaid’s right skate. Assists went to Kapanen and Pettersson.

Forward Zach Aston-Reese collected his fifth goal of the season at 16:37 of the third. After Pettersson won another defensive zone battle, this time against Lafreniere in the left circle, he backhanded the puck up the near boards for forward Brandon Tanev, who also backhanded the puck up the wall, springing Penguins forward Teddy Blueger and helping initiate another odd-man rush. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Blueger saucered a backhand pass over a sliding Smith to the left of the crease where Aston-Reese knocked the puck down with his right hand then jabbed it with a backhand a few times before it got past Kinkaid’s right skate. Blueger and Tanev recorded assists.

Statistically speaking

• Shots were even, 24-24.

• Guentzel led the game with five shots.

• Forwards Kaapo Kaako, Chris Kreider, Zibanejad and Lindgren each led the Rangers with three shots.

• Letang led the game with 25:50 of ice time on 25 shifts.

• Fox led the Rangers with 23:04 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 28-23 (55%).

• Blueger was 9 for 15 (60%).

• Rangers forward Brett Howden was 6 for 9 (67%).

• Ceci, Letang and Fox each led the game with two blocked shots.

• DeSmith made 23 saves on 24 shots.

• Georgiev made 3 saves on six shots.

• Kinkaid made 16 saves on 18 shots.

Randomly speaking

• After being relegated to third pairing duties Saturday, the duo of Marino and Pettersson responded pretty well in this game. Marino scored the Penguins’ first goal with a good read of a screen while Pettersson won two defensive zone battles that directly led to late goals.

• With McCann sidelined, Rodrigues stepped up as the left wing of the second line and seemed more than capable, in this game at least, of filling that role. It’s probably not ideal for him to be in a top-six role for any significant period of time. But he showed some positive signs in a limited deployment Sunday.

• Sullivan didn’t offer many specifics on McCann’s status but hinted it might not be all that serious. Either way, the timing of his ailment is kind of rotten given that he seems to have found something playing with Malkin. In his past six games, he has five points (three goals, two assists).

• The pass Dumoulin made on Crosby’s goal was subtle in how he was able to hit Crosby with speed and allow him to split the Rangers’ defense before scoring. Dumoulin’s bread and butter will always be defense but his offensive touch doesn’t get nearly enough appreciation.

• DeSmith wasn’t overly taxed in this game but he was sharp when he needed to be, particularly early on when the Rangers raced out to a 9-2 lead in shots less than 14 minutes into the game.

• Aside from McCann’s injury, the lone blemish on this game for the Penguins was the power play as it went 0 for 4, including a brief five-on-three sequence that lasted only four seconds. They generated six shots with all that power-play time so it wasn’t as if it was never a threat. But they’ve had better days on the power play.

• The Penguins were pretty disciplined as they only took one penalty, a tripping minor by Crosby in the neutral zone against Kreider that looked dubious. It was a big improvement over Saturday’s game when they took six penalties.

• Penguins forward Sam Lafferty, who had an ugly turnover leading to a goal for the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, was scratched in favor of forward Anthony Angello. Logging 7:27 of ice time on 11 shifts, Angello was credited with a team-leading five hits.

• The puck really seemed to bounce around in this game. It wasn’t an overly warm day in Pittsburgh or even that humid, but the ice really seemed to be choppy, at least based on how the puck hopped.

• The Penguins’ first three goals in 61 seconds was the fastest three goals by one team in the NHL this season.

• The Rangers just looked like a shell of a team with star forward Artemi Panarin absent as he attends to personal matters. Few players may be as important to their team’s overall success as Panarin.

Historically speaking

• Marino’s goal was his first in over a year. He last scored in a 7-3 home win against the Ottawa Senators on March 3, 2020.

• Buchnevich recorded his 100th career assist.

• Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux appeared in his 100th career game.

• Kinkaid made his Rangers debut.

Publicly speaking

• Having dropped that ugly come-from-ahead 4-3 home loss to the Flyers on Thursday — in which they fell despite a 3-0 lead — Kapanen said the Penguins weren’t about to allow a repeat of that:

“The game against (Philadelphia), we kind of let our foot off the gas. Today, I think we played a solid 60 minutes and it shows. That’s the way we’ve got to play the game.”

• DeSmith was really high on how his defensemen played, particularly how they helped generate offense:

“We were really, really solid, especially in the second two periods. We had them to the outside. We were so good on our breakouts, just getting the puck in deep. It must have been a really frustrating game for them because we were so good defensively and we played really smart tonight.

“The defense did a great job of keeping their guys in front of us, breaking the puck out, sending the forwards off on odd-man rushes. The (defensemen) did pretty much did everything well tonight.”

• Ever since he was benched for the third period of a game Feb. 20 and had a one-on-one discussion with Sullivan, Kapanen has been producing with nine points (four goals, five assists) in nine games. Kapanen on his play since that heart-to-heart:

“It was a nice little sit-down with Mike to kind of just talk about certain areas that I need to be better in. To help the team, it’s not always about offense. It’s taking care of business down low in our own zone. That translates to the rest of my game. Our line has been doing a good job of that lately. Everybody is confident. I feel confident. (Malkin) looks great out there. He’s making a lot of plays. He looks like the (Malkin) that’s dangerous every night.”

• Sullivan on Kapanen:

“It’s about the details and the process. That’s what we’ve really liked about (Kapanen’s) game here over the last stretch of games. … I give (Kapanen) a lot of credit because I think he’s responded the right way. He’s really making a concerted effort here to play the game a certain way. When he does, in our estimation, he can be an impact player for us. He’s established some chemistry with (Malkin) which I think is a positive thing. … It’s both good for him and it’s good for (Malkin). So we’re really encouraged by that aspect of his game. Most importantly, we’re really encouraged by the response. That’s an important aspect.”

• Sullivan on McCann’s play before his latest injury:

“Jared’s playing really well for us. He’s a good player. He brings a lot of speed, the ability to finish, he’s got good offensive instincts and I think he’s really found his game here as of late. So it’s discouraging from all our standpoints to see Jared go down with an injury. Hopefully, it’ll be something that won’t be too long. But certainly, we feel for him. That can be frustrating.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

Follow the Penguins all season long.