It wasn’t a pretty win for the Penguins, but it was a win over Florida. Paul Steigerwald has the recap.
In addition to Letang’s two scores, the Penguins got goals from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell, and two bottom six forwards, Danton Heinen and Drew O’Connor.
Coach Mick Sullivan said the whole team was celebrating Letang’s big night after the veteran defenseman missed 11 games due to a lower body injury and the death of his father.
Sullivan was happy to get scoring from players who were not skating on the top two lines.
While the Penguins were happy to get the win, the coach was not happy with the way they played defense.
Casey DeSmith stopped 33 of 39 shots on goal as a last-minute substitute for Tristan Jarry, who skated in the morning and was scheduled to start in goal, but suffered an undisclosed injury that Sullivan said he didn’t know about until he came to the arena last night.
The Penguins placed defenseman Jan Rutta on long-term injured reserve yesterday. That means he cannot return to the lineup before February 14th. Forward Kasperi Kapanen was put on regular injured reserve. Forward Josh Archibald was placed on long-term IR on Monday.
The Penguins play at Washington tomorrow night, then return home Saturday to face the San Jose Sharks. They will then have off until February 7th as the NHL heads into the All-Star break.
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