-Over the years, I’ve seen the Pens win in a lot of different ways. Sometimes the role players are the story. Sometimes the goaltender is the story. Sometimes Sidney Crosby is the story. And at other times, Geno Malkin is the story. I’ve learned that, on nights where Sid and Geno are the stories, the Pens don’t just win—they dominate. The latter option happened tonight.
-In my last “My Thought” I said that either Geno plays Pens Hockey and dominates or he tries to do it all himself and goes into a funk again. Thankfully, he chose the former and it really showed. Bob Errey said during the game, that he was using his teammates to his advantage. Some nights, you capitalize on every mistake and it seemed that that’s what the Pens and Geno did tonight.
-With the way Sid was flying up and down the ice, if you didn’t know any better, you would’ve thought he was the one with 5 points. What matters is that he got his linemates back and that he definitely made his mark on the game. From the very first shift, you could just tell Sid was comfortable. It’s funny with Sid because he manages to get shots on net just when you don’t think it’s possible to get one anymore. After having no shots the last two games , he had 8 tonight and I think his linemates were the reason.
-If there’s anyone who benefited from the 4 days off, it’s Sid. And if there’s anyone who benefited from having Kuni back, it’s Dupuis.
-Lost in all of this was the game that Flower had. Even after almost a week off, he was really sharp. If the Yotes get a goal in the first, when they were really pressing the issue, this game is completely different.
-Climie did a pretty good job trying to clean up Labarbra’s mess.
-Letang, like Sid was flying up and down the ice. What more can you say about his development?
-I really liked what I saw from Cooke tonight. A goal and agitation? It was a typical Cookie night.
-The coaching from DB was really good tonight. He really pushed against the Crosby matchup with the Yotes first D pairing and he was pretty successful most of the time. Plus, he mixed up the lines so that Sid and Geno were protected.
-The third line did some really good work.
-How about the special teams? With the refs calling every little hook, rough, and interference against the Pens, the PK unit responded with clears, saves, and blocks. The PP did very well for themselves too; going 3-5. I’ll say it again, I love the movement going on there.
-The Pens are back on track, and needed to be with a big stretch of game coming up. Let’s Go Pens!
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