You take a brief holiday and the team you cover goes on a small heater. It’s enough to give a daily feature a complex.
Anyway, we’re back after taking off Thanksgiving and Black Friday (consider this a plug for discounted subscriptions to The Athletic).
Your Pittsburgh Penguins have won three consecutive games for the first time since last season, and their postseason odds stand at 8 percent. Not good. But better.
Some notable developments from the wins:
• Goalies Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic combined for a .875 SV% at five-on-five. Contrast that with a .886 SV% at five-on-five otherwise. Maybe these wins had less to do with a big jump in goaltending performance and more with a slightly better defensive performance by the Penguins, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
• Erik Karlsson placed eight shots on goal. That’s 0.20 more per game than his 2.47 average previously. Doesn’t seem like a big difference, but that would mean about 11 more shots on goalies for Karlsson the rest of this season than with his prior pace. Coaches want him to shoot more because they believe that is the best version of Karlsson. So … progress?
• I hated the penalty taken by Michael Bunting late in the win over the Bruins in Boston on Friday night, and I made that known in this story. I stand by what I wrote, but Bunting played one of his better games as a Penguin at home against the Calgary Flames on Saturday night. Look, every player is going to deal with adversity; good players respond well. Bunting is a better player than he’s shown this season, and he showed that against Calgary.
• Two goals, each of them winners, in three games for Philip Tomasino since being acquired by president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas. Not. Too. Shabby.
• I haven’t mentioned Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. And when I can omit them from a conversation about three consecutive wins by the Penguins, that usually is more about others picking up the slack than The Two-Headed Monster not doing its part. That’s the case on this winning run, too.
• The schedule is imposing, specifically with home games against the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche over the next eight days. We’ll know a lot more about the Penguins in about a week.
History n’at
Pittsburgh played host to its first NHL game on this date in 1925.
No, I didn’t cover that one.
The game was staged at Duquesne Gardens. It started around 8:30 p.m. (I wonder if Pittsburgh fans left games early then, too?). It was the Pittsburgh Pirates, not the Penguins, facing the New York Americans, not the Rangers, and over 8,000 packed the hockey barn, according to reports.
The cost of a ticket was around $1. That wasn’t cheap for the times, but it wasn’t like beers were pricey back then — what with it being the prohibition period.
Can you guess who tallied the winning goal without looking it up? Don’t cheat. (Hint: He had one of the great names in Pittsburgh’s pro sports history.)
As always, thanks to our friends over at PittsburghHockey.net for the historical assist.
Look for the helpers
That’s what Fred Rogers used to preach. And if it was good enough for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, it’s the way to go.
That’s not a law, but maybe it should be a rule.
While we were away, the Penguins Foundation donated $100,000 to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Every dollar matters when it comes to supporting families and patients receiving treatment for cancer.
So while the Penguins haven’t been great on the ice this season, they continue to be champions for the Western Pennsylvania region through their charitable arm. “Always look for the helpers,” period.
We’re committed to serving our community members and hockey family impacted by cancer. Through our fundraising efforts that took place throughout the month of November for Hockey Fights Cancer, we’re honored to announce our donation of $ 100,000 to @ChildrensPgh! pic.twitter.com/HCB62qnIKl
— pensfoundation (@pensfoundation) December 1, 2024
Don’t miss
• New month, new feature. Been doing a bit of that lately, eh? I get into Crosby’s influence, Dubas’ focus and coach Mike Sullivan’s message in What You Might Think/What I Know. Let me know what you think of what I know in the comment section, please and thank you.
• Josh Yohe dusted off his crystal ball and turned this story that forecasts which Penguins are likeliest to be traded. Come for the insight, but stay for the cleverly named tiers. My favorite is that last one.
• Nobody is quite as creative with insults as Sean McIndoe. I’m not even sure what a flapdoodle is, but I have a better idea after reading the section about the Penguins making the playoffs in this story. (FYI, I checked, and a flapdoodle has never won top prize at the National Dog Show, so there’s that.)
• The Penguins aren’t likely to be represented by any players on Team USA at the 4 Nations tournament. However, Sullivan is the team’s coach — and as Mike Russo writes in this story, at least a couple of the likely forwards have ties to Pittsburgh.
(Photo of Philip Tomasino celebrating his goal against Calgary: Joe Sargent / NHLI via Getty Images)
