Evgeni Malkin missed his second straight game, but the Penguins handled the powerful Edmonton Oilers without him, coming away with a big win last night at PPG Paints Arena. Paul Steigerwald has the story.
Coach Mike Sullivan says the Penguins came out hot in the first period.
Sullivan says Sidney Crosby’s line, with Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell, had a good night against the Oilers top line of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman.
The coach says the Penguins didn’t back down when the Oilers turned up the pressure in the third period, and goaltender Alex Ndeljkovic stood tall, especially when Edmonton got a late power play.
Ndeljkovic stopped 40 of 43 shots as Edmonton had the second-highest shot total against the Penguins. The Oilers also have the highest total, 50, in an October 25th 4-0 shutout of the Pens in Edmonton.
Ndeljkovic says the Penguins did everything they could to keep Edmonton out of the offensive zone, whether it looked good or not.
Sidney Crosby says the Penguins knew how important it was to be on their game right from the opening faceoff.
The Penguins will play back-to-back home games tomorrow afternoon (4:00) against Ottawa and Sunday (5:00) against Tampa Bay.
Malkin put in a vigorous workout in the morning skate for the Pens but did not dress for the game. Forward Philip Thomasino, who’s on long term injured reserve, skated yesterday as well.
The NHL yesterday unveiled the Penguins’ “Quarter-Century Team”, celebrating the best players of the last 25 years. The league is naming a first and second team for all of the franchises. The Pens’ first team includes forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jake Guentzel, defensemen Kris Letang and Sergei Gonchar, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The second team, surprisingly, had Phil Kessel as one of the forwards (not Bryan Rust), along with Mario Lemieux and Chris Kunitz, defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Brooks Orpik, and goalie Matt Murray.
Other contenders who didn’t make the cut were Jaromir Jagr, Alexi Kovalev, and Patric Hornqvist.
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