Crosby Avoids Injury Scare As Penguins Fall To Devils In Shootout

The Pittsburgh Penguins mounted an impressive comeback against a team that has been giving them fits – the New Jersey Devils – on Tuesday, despite falling just a bit short in the end.

But that – almost – wasn’t the big story from this game.

During the third period, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby’s left arm was awkwardly caught between Devils defenseman Luke Hughes and center Erik Haula as Haula went to finish a hit on Crosby. Crosby was hurdled over in pain as he left the ice and went to the Penguins’ locker room.

As everyone held their collective breath, the Penguins rallied around the injury to their captain. They were already controlling a lot of the play in the third period – and during much of the second – despite trailing 2-1. Rickard Rakell had scored a late second-period goal to bring them within one, and they weren’t relenting.

Forward Kevin Hayes was tasked with taking over for Crosby on the top line since Evgeni Malkin is already out on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. And he was certainly up-to-task.

Just over a minute later, Hayes took a feed from defenseman P.O Joseph – who made a really nice play to get the puck to Hayes from down low – and buried the tying goal during four-on-four play. It was the Penguins’ first four-on-four goal since 2022-23.

After the team rallied for their captain, the captain himself returned just a few minutes later after missing a few shifts. And everyone collectively exhaled.

“I just got tangled up,” Crosby said to reporters after the game.

After Crosby returned to the ice, the Penguins and Devils exchanged a few chances before the horn sounded to end regulation. And, in overtime, the Penguins dominated possession for the most part and controlled play, but one slip-up near the end of the overtime period resulted in a Jack Hughes breakaway that Alex Nedeljkovic stymied with two seconds left.

From there, it went to shootout. Rakell and Anthony Beauvillier made some ridiculous moves to score for the Penguins, but Timo Meier ended it in the seventh round of the shootout after Cody Glass failed to score on the Penguins’ seventh attempt.

The Penguins are now 1-5 in the shootout this season, and – according to Penguins historian Bob Grove – they are 7-16 since the start of the 2021-22 season, which is the third-worst shootout record in the NHL during that timespan.

Despite the loss – and their shootout struggles – this is a point the Penguins are pretty happy about.

“We stayed in the fight, and I thought that we pushed hard the whole game,” Rakell said. “We had good looks in overtime, and I think this was probably one of the better games against this team that we have struggled against in the past. So, obviously, it hurts not getting the two points, but I thought we played hard.”

– Aside from the Crosby injury scare, this was a pretty good effort from the Penguins, and – as Rakell said – it’s probably the best game they’ve played against New Jersey in a while.

They found a way to combat New Jersey’s speed. They relentlessly pressured on the forecheck and managed to have several instances of sustained pressure in the offensive zone. They defended relatively well and made just a few mistakes that led to scoring chances, only surrendering six high-danger chances the entire game.

The Penguins were very good on Tuesday against a very stingy defensive team, too. Even though they only came away with the one point, there was a lot of positives to take from this one.

– Speaking of the Crosby injury scare, someone who was scaring the New Jersey Devils was Penguins forward Boko Imama.

After Crosby was initially injured, it was easy to tell that Imama was out for blood. The trouble is that every Devil on the ice was doing their best to avoid the Penguins’ enforcer, and they mostly did.

Look, I’m not one to say that every team needs a guy like this. But, man, is Imama fun to watch, and he brings an energy and an element that the Penguins have been lacking for years. The guys love him, too.

And in that situation, where a borderline liberty is taken on your star player? Yeah, it’s nice to have a guy like that on your roster.

– Despite registering an assist, Erik Karlsson did not have a particularly good game.

He was indecisive with the puck. He was throwing pucks into Devils’ sticks in all zones left and right. To me, it didn’t look like his reads were quite up-to-speed with New Jersey’s counterattack.

Luckily, none of his mishaps ended up in the back of the Penguins’ net. But not one of his best efforts this season.

– The shootout lineup is probably something worth talking about at this point.

Rakell should be in the shootout lineup, and he showed why tonight – even though he has struggled in it this season. His deke was nasty and completely threw off Devils goaltender Nico Daws. Beauvillier did the same thing a few minutes later on the Penguins’ fourth attempt.

Bryan Rust is fine in the shootout. He hasn’t been great this season, but he’s been good in his career otherwise.

However, as great as Crosby is, he should not be in the shootout lineup for the Penguins at this point. For whatever reason, it’s simply not working for him this season. He was at just 25 percent on the season coming into Tuesday, and that percentage has only gone down.

If I’m the Penguins, I give Beauvillier more chances because that move was nasty. Maybe even Karlsson or Philip Tomasino.

Either way, the Penguins need to figure something out. They are losing too many points in shootouts this season – and they have been for several seasons.

– Even though shootout goaltending hasn’t been spectacular this season, Nedeljkovic continues to go on quite a run for the Penguins. He now has a .936 save percentage in his last seven starts, and he – once again – made several ten-bell saves for the Penguins in this one.

While, yes, it would be nice to get rookie Joel Blomqvist some starts, I don’t fault head coach Mike Sullivan for continuing to roll with the hot hand. Because Nedeljkovic has been legitimately good lately.

With a back-to-back coming up on Friday and Saturday against the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, Blomqvist will get another shot. But Nedeljkovic is playing at a very high level right now.

– Really happy for Rakell that he was named to Sweden’s 4 Nations Face-off roster as an injury replacement for Vegas Golden Knights forward William Karlsson.

As everyone knows at this point, Rakell and his 24-goal, 46-point campaign should have been on the initial roster, anyway. But, the selection committee has righted a wrong, and Rakell is excited to represent his country – and the Penguins – at the upcoming international tournament.

“I mean, it’s a huge honor for me to play for Sweden, and ever since I didn’t make the team, you never know what’s going to happen,” Rakell said. “My whole focus has been here for the Penguins and just trying to do whatever I can here. But, obviously, I’m really looking forward to it and to just playing with the best players in hockey.”

– At this point, the Penguins know they are on the outside looking in as far as the wild card standings. They are seven points back of the second wild card spot, and some of the teams they’re chasing – like the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders – have been playing some good hockey lately.

However, if the Penguins were going to lose one of their three divisional games before the break, this was it. And they still managed to snag a point.

To say these next two games are must-wins – and in clean fashion during regulation – is an understatement. But the Penguins need all four points against the Rangers and Flyers if they are going to be able to hang around in this playoff race. The Rangers are one point ahead of them with three games in hand, while the Flyers are one point behind them with a game in hand.

If they play like they did against the Devils, they should be giving themselves a pretty good chance.