In a sea of empty upper bowl seats and unused luxury boxes the Pittsburgh Penguins avoided a scary seven-game losing streak on Halloween. It was a combination of Sidney Crosby being Sidney Crosby and the opponent being the Anaheim Ducks.
The Penguins outplayed the Ducks all night and if not for the great play of Lukas Dostal who has a .945 save percentage in eight starts so far this season. Last night he stopped 44 out of 46 shots. He had to. The Penguins out-attempted the Ducks at 5v5 86-46 and carried a 20-9 advantage with high-danger attempts. Pittsburgh finished with a 69.45 xGF%. It was one of the few times this year they were in complete control.
Even though Pittsburgh was playing well they trailed for the majority of the game. If not for Alex Nedeljkovic making some pretty impressive saves this could have been another one that got away. He bought the Penguins, and specifically Sidney Crosby, enough time to close the gap and ultimately take the lead.
Sidney Crosby’s tying goal was a classic #SidDownLow. Get him near the net front and throw a puck in his direction and good things will happen. One of the best tippers of all-time is going to take a wide puck and redirect it on net.
If you can believe it the tip goal was Sidney Crosby’s first goal at even-strength this year.
I think we are going to see a lot more goals at even-strength with the Malkin-Crosby-Rakell line being a thing. I really enjoy watching them and considering there’s an entertainment element to watching hockey in the first place I hope they stay together for the foreseeable future. Through the first 35:40 of the line being together they have doubled up the opposition in shot attempts at 5v5 60-31 and have an xGF% of 65.55. It’s fun.
When Bryan Rust returns perhaps he can fill the Rakell role, but I kinda want Malkin and Crosby to stay together. I think this setup has freed up Malkin to make more entries with speed which is a great recipe for eventual zone time. I also saw something we haven’t seen a lot of the latter portion of Crosby’s career and that is him taking on a defender 1v1 and trying to beat them directly. There was a sequence last night where Sid took on a defender with speed and almost slipped by. I want more of that. I think Sid is still nifty in those situations and I wish we saw more of it. Perhaps this line configuration can lead to more of it.
Before Sidney Crosby scored his great overtime winner I was struggling on what I actually wanted from the game. Did I actually want the Penguins to win? I don’t give the Penguins a reasonable chance to make the playoffs so losing is winning. However, there’s also the chance Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson could do something really cool and win the game. Well, Sidney Crosby delivered and it was a reminder for me that I’ll take whatever awesome moments those players are willing to serve up. Sid took advantage of a turnover near the Ducks blue line (result of great forechecking from Cody Glass) and found himself alone in on goal. Sid sealed the deal with another rare occurrence, a deke on a breakaway.
And a very cool overhead angle of it
It was a fun way to end a well-played game from the player you want to see do it. Can’t ask for much more than that given the kind of season it will be. Crosby followed up Fleury’s #1 star of the game with one of his own. Something he’s done, a lot.
I leave you with Sidney Crosby Halloween costumes
Thanks for reading!
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