Penguins Stand Tall In Emotional Win Against Predators

After a tumultuous 24 hours, the Pittsburgh Penguins really needed a win – literally and figuratively – on Saturday against the Nashville Predators.

And that’s exactly what they earned.

The Penguins defeated the Predators, 3-0, in commanding fashion, controlling play almost entirely for the final 50 minutes of the game. They played a simple, straightforward game despite the emotional toll of the last 24 hours, which included the trade that sent defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor – both longtime Penguins – to the Vancouver Canucks.

The win was a complete, spirited effort from up and down the lineup, and they were happy to put together a great effort given the circumstances.

“We didn’t really have time to think about it, honestly,” said goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, who posted his first shutout this season with a 25-save effort. “Maybe, it was kind of nice the way it turned out. It happened so late. Then, you get the news this morning. Then, you’ve just got to go out and play today. I thought we did a great job of just focusing on our job tonight and just getting two points.”

Not only was this a cathartic win for the Penguins, it was also an important one. Several of the teams they’re chasing in the standings that played on Saturday – the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, and Ottawa Senators – all won as well, so it was important to keep pace with the rest of the Eastern Conference to give themselves a chance at climbing back into the playoff race.

“It’s huge,” Nedeljkovic said. “Every game now is important. Not that they weren’t before, but we dug ourselves a hole again. We know what it’s going to take to get out of it. We’ve got to bring our A game every single night, and if we don’t have it, we’ve got to find a way to win with our B game. And we can’t have much worse than that, quite frankly. We’ve got to bring it every night. That’s what it’s going to take.

“It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard. It’s going to be a lot of work, and it’s going to take a lot of discipline and paying attention to details the rest of the way. All we can do is focus on one game at a time. We’ll take the day off [Sunday], get back to practice Monday, and whoever we play on Tuesday, we’ll deal with them on Tuesday.”

The scoring kicked off exactly halfway through the first period, when ex-Predator Philip Tomasino rifled a shot past Juuse Saaros on the Penguins’ first power play of the game. Sidney Crosby added a second tally midway through the second period on a gorgeous feed from linemate Rickard Rakell, which Crosby finished on – you guessed it – one knee.

The Penguins didn’t give Nashville much of anything in the third period until the very end, when Nedeljkovic was peppered a bit. However, Bryan Rust sealed the game shut with his 20th goal of the season – an empty-netter – which gives him six seasons of 20 or more goals in his career.

“Great win for our team,” Tomasino said. “I think we’ve been playing really well. That was an effort we kind of need consistently throughout the rest of the year here. I think everyone kind of contributed. So overall, it was a really good effort tonight.”

Here are a few other notes and observations from this one:

– Nedeljkovic continues to put together a legitimately good stretch of goaltending for the Penguins. He earned first-star honors and was lauded by his teammates after the game.

“Ned’s one of the hardest working goalies I’ve ever played with,” forward Kevin Hayes said. “He’s always working on his game. And I think with the situation he’s in now, I think he’s embracing it. So far, he’s been great. These last couple games, he’s been really good. So he’s been making it easier on us.”

He sure is. In his last six starts – dating back to the Penguins’ decision to waive Tristan Jarry and call up the youngster in Joel Blomqvist – he is 4-2 with a .940 save percentage in those starts.

This is the goaltending the Penguins have been missing all season long. The end results haven’t been there in every game he’s started, but it’s safe to say he’s giving them a chance in every game he starts. And, right now, the Penguins can’t ask for much more than that.

– Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais – who were brought over in the Pettersson trade – were both completely fine on Saturday, and even, noticeable in a good way.

Heinen is in his second stint with the Penguins and was, therefore, pretty familiar with everything systems-wise. He helped generate a few good chances on a second line with Cody Glass and Michael Bunting.

Desharnais blocked four shots and played on a third pairing with Ryan Graves, and – honestly – they were pretty solid. Both used their large frames and reach to help each other out, and Desharnais said the keys were Graves’ guidance and the pairing’s gap control.

“I think the key was our gaps,” Desharnais said. “Our gaps were great, and it gave us time to go back for pucks and break out pucks. We just talked about it, and we’re just going to keep building on top of it. It’s fun to come into a new team and feel comfortable right away.”

Well, maybe not right away. He did also give a pretty hilarious quote about defense coach David Quinn… with the utmost respect to Quinn’s coaching, of course.

– It was nice to see Tomasino score a goal against his former team. He never did go into too much detail about his time in Nashville, but a few reports from Music City suggested that his relationship with the organization was a bit tumultuous.

Tomasino likes it in Pittsburgh. He was obviously disappointed in being a healthy scratch in Wednesday’s win over the Utah Hockey Club, and he mentioned on Friday that he wanted to make the most of his opportunity when he did get back into the lineup.

He definitely did on Saturday. He generated a few good chances offensively, his power play goal was a wicked shot – and his celebration said it all:

“Definitely extra hyped to score that one,” Tomasino said. “It ended up being goal for our team and for myself, as well. It’s definitely nice to score against your former team.”

I’d expect to see Tomasino get another crack when the Penguins take on the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

– Erik Karlsson played a spectacular game for the Penguins. He registered two assists, which gave him 30 assists for the 12th time in his career. He and Matt Grzelcyk were paired together again after the departure of Pettersson, and they were driving offense all night.

I also thought the pairing of P.O Joseph and Kris Letang played a solid game. Their play, at times, has been uneven, to say the least – but they were responsible with the puck all night and helped on the offensive attack as well.

– The Penguins play three consecutive divisional matchups to close out their schedule before the 4 Nations Face-off. They face New Jersey on Tuesday at home before hitting the road for a weekend back-to-back against the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers – both teams that are currently tied with them in the standings with 52 points.

Suffice to say, these next three games are crucial for the Penguins. The Rangers lost to the Bruins Saturday, and they will square off against the Vegas Golden Knights Sunday and the Bruins on Wednesday. Philadelphia plays Utah on Tuesday and the Washington Capitals on Thursday.

Those two teams have a couple of tough matchups on their schedule, and the Penguins have not played the Devils well at all in recent years.

Really, they need to seize all six points, but they definitely need to beat both the Rangers and Flyers to have a fighter’s chance when teams return from the break.