Penguins stars lead way in win
good things with it.”
Since the calendar flipped to 2018, the Penguins have won four out of five games. In that stretch, Crosby and Malkin have 10 points apiece, and Kessel has eight.
Malkin, in particular, seems to have really found his offensive game lately. He had two goals and two assists Saturday, giving him five goals and three assists in the three games he has played with Hagelin and Patric Hornq vistas his wingers.
If you ask Mike Sullivan, that’s no accident. Sullivan said when that line formed, he sat down with Malkin and told him he was the most dangerous scoring threat of the three.
“Let Horny go to the net, wreak havoc and bang a rebound in, let Haggy chase down a loose puck and help you get it back,” Sullivan said. “I think with Geno, his willingness to shoot the puck really jumps out at me. He’s got such a dangerous shot — he’s as dangerous a shooter as there is in the game — some of them are going to go in. They’ve done that lately.”
Malkin’s second goal Saturday — a low wrister from the high slot that snuck past Jimmy Howard’s pad — seemed to be a particular example of him just shooting the puck and letting good things happen.
“I feel so much more confidence,” Malkin said. “When you score, you feel so much better.”
Sullivan agreed with that assessment.
“As an elite player, Geno’s a guy, when he starts to feel it and he scores a goal, then all of a sudden, I think his whole mindset, his confidence level gets higher,” Sullivan said. “Then the puck tends to find him. It follows him around, like it does for most elite players.”
The scary thing for the Penguins’ upcoming opponents, though, is that Malkin isn’t the only elite player in that zone right now. Crosby seems to have come out of his December funk with two goals and eight assists in his last three games. Against the Red Wings, he assisted on Kessel’s first-period goal and added an insurance score of his own in the third period.
Crosby already has as many points in the first 13 days of January (10) as he did inthe month of December.
“Ithink you just keep building,” Crosby said. “I think we felt good about our couple games going into the break. I don’t think we rest on that. I think we try to continue to get better. It’s nice to get rewarded and feel good about our game and know what it’s like to have that consistency through out those games.”
And if there has been a model of consistency for the Penguins this season, it has been Kessel, who added to his team-high goal and assist totals Saturday with a score and two helpers. Kessel has goals in three of his last five games, and hasn’t gone backto-back games without a point since mid-November.
The Malkin-Crosby-Kessel trio also makes up three-fifths of the Penguins absolutely lethal power play, which went 2 for 5 Saturday. The unit has scored on seven of its 15 attempts in 2018, and has goals infive of the last six games.
“I think we’re moving the puck around well and guys are moving,” Kessel said. “When we do that, we’ve got some pretty good players.”
That might bean under statement. The Penguins have three of the best offensive players in the world.
After Saturday, Sullivan made sure to credit players up and down the lineup for the team’s recent turnaround, but admitted that when it comes to Malkin, Crosby and Kessel, “Those guys drive the ship, there’s no question.”
“We’re going to go as they go,” Sullivan said. “I think they’re so dynamic when they’re on the top of their game and they’re so dangerous in every aspect of their game.”