The Penguins continue to collect standings points. They took the defending Stanley Cup champions to a shootout yesterday earning the loser point. These points are starting to add up and they now sit in the eighth overall pick spot, tied with Boston in both standings points and games played. Falling out of the top ten while maybe not likely is now on the table. I agree with the following sentiment
The long term damage of this hot streak by Penguins could set back franchise for a lot longer than anyone realizes.
Winning their way out of potential top 5 pick was terrible. Falling out of top 10 would render this season a disaster.
They need impact prospects.
— Rob Rossi (@robrossi.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 7:18 PM
This isn’t on the players. They play to win. Kyle Dubas should have knee capped the roster at the trade deadline. He should have at a minimum gotten rid of Matt Grzelcyk and likely should have moved Rakell as well. What we have now is a team capable of competing now that their goaltending has magically turned a 180 and is now stealing games and keeping the Penguins in games they otherwise haven’t been in this year. Jarry is a .923 since the call up and Nedeljkovic in his only start during this stretch had an excellent game and was .936 against the Blue Jackets.
Sidney Crosby added two points in the loss and now has 78 on the year. There are ten more games in the regular season and Crosby only needs two points in those ten games. Things are looking great for him breaking the Gretzky record and it will be one of the highlights of this lost season for sure. He has done so in impressive fashion because after last night he is tied for first among all players with 51 5v5 points on the year with Leon Draisaitl. He’s third overall in 5v5 points per 60 at 2.76. Just unbelievable achievements in his 20th season.
Unfortunately, I still have a strong distaste for Crosby's shootout approach. It's not effective and boring. It's been a long time since that Jose Theodore water bottle pop.
It doesn’t happen a lot anymore, but it is always nice to see an Evgeni Malkin one-timer goal on the power play. Last night, he got one and it was in a different spot than normal. This one was near the left circle rather than the right circle we’ve been accustomed to all these years
Bryan Rust was the recipient of both of Sidney Crosby’s assists last night and each goal was a quality finish. He now has 25 goals on the season which is three fewer than his career high of 28 goals
And finally, I leave you with a legendary performance from Kristen Simms in the Women’s National Championship Game yesterday against Ohio State. With her team on the brink of losing she took a penalty shot with 20 seconds left to tie the game and she left no doubt about it. As Mike Lange would have said, she was puttin’ on the ritz.
Wisconsin's Kirsten Simms scores on the ensuing penalty shot to tie the game
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— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
She wasn’t done. She capped things off by scoring the game winning goal in overtime, giving Wisconsin the national championship. What a performance
Simms scores the OT winner on a rebound and the Badgers win the natty
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— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM
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