No Crosby? No sweat
Fans return, and Penguins respond with rousing win
For the first time in too long of a time, it felt like a hockey night in Pittsburgh.
With paying customers allowed back inside PPG Paints
Arena on Tuesday, the barn buzzed more than one might expect given it was only filled to
15% capacity.
Then again, the home team gave them plenty good to shout about in this one.
Kasperi Kapanen scored twice, Tristan Jarry was sharp again between the pipes and the Penguins got a little payback against the rival Philadelphia Flyers, beating them, 5-2, despite not having captain Sidney Crosby in the lineup Tuesday. It was just the second time all season that the Penguins won by two or more goals.
“[Having fans] just creates the environment that we’re all accustomed to, that we’re all longing for, that we haven’t had in quite a long time,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “So to have some fans in the building, I know our players were fired up for it. And you get energy from it. I think our guys got some juice from the crowd.”
The Penguins took over the game with a dominant second period that included three goals, two of them by Kapanen, in a span of seven minutes, six seconds.
After Joel Farabee got his first of two goals on the night, Kapanen jumped a pass in the defensive zone and cruised in alone on Carter Hart. He faked a slap shot, getting the goalie to open up his legs, then slammed the puck between his pads. That was one of 11 chances the Penguins generated off the rush, per Sportlogiq.
Kapanen got his second of the night at the end of a pretty passing sequence on the power play. Evgeni Malkin to Bryan Rust to Jake Guentzel to Kapanen, all in less than two seconds. Kapanen roared in from the right point to score that one.
On Kapanen’s next shift, Hart sprawled across his crease to deny a hat trick.
Kapanen has three goals and five points in five games since Sullivan gave him just one shift in the third period of a Feb. 20 win over the New York Islanders.
“I’m just trying to be in the play a bit more and be a bit more active. … [And] just using my size and my skating to try to make a difference out here,” he said.
Rust buried a rebound midway through the second to push the lead to 3-1.
The bleacher creatures, masks over their faces, went wild as the PPG Paints Arena seemingly played their goal song, “Party Hard” by Andrew W.K., on loop.
“It was unbelievable. It’s been a while since we played in front of fans,” Kapanen said. “Even though there was 2,800 tonight, it felt like there was 20,000.”
On Tuesday, the Penguins, with Gov. Tom Wolf’s blessing, welcomed 2,800 fans inside PPG Paints Arena for the first time this season. The last time the arena was open to ticketed fans was March 8, 2020, a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes four days before the COVID19 pandemic paused the 201920 regular season.
During warmups, the spattering of fans in the arena Tuesday maybe wondered, “Who are these guys? And what the heck did they do with our captain?”
The Penguins placed Crosby on the NHL’s
COVID-19 protocol list Tuesday, a move that sidelined their best player and forced them to cancel their morning skate. They were also without assistant coach Todd Reirden due to COVID protocols.
“That pretty much sums up the COVID season for you,” Rust said. “There’s a lot of unexpected things that happen and you’ve got to just roll with the punches.”
Crosby’s absence created a trickle- down effect on Tuesday’s forward lineup and factored into two players pulling on a Penguins sweater for the first time.
Malkin was reunited with Guentzel and Rust on the top line. Jared McCann moved into the middle with the Penguins shorthanded at center. Josh Currie was added to the roster and made his Penguins debut. Ditto for defenseman Mark Friedman, who picked up his first Pittsburgh point when Cody Ceci made it 4-2.
Mike Matheson added a late goal to put the explanation point on a big win for the Penguins, who came up with a complete effort without their captain. It came two days after the Penguins were shut out, 2-0, in a road loss to the Islanders.
“We were all disappointed, obviously, in the effort that we had in [Long] Island,” Sullivan said. “And everybody wanted to respond the right way to do that.”
With the decisive victory, they improved to 8-1-0 at PPG Paints Arena in 2021.
Jarry made 40 saves, 15 in the final period, to earn his sixth win since Valentine’s Day. The last time he faced the Flyers, Jan. 15, he got yanked after giving up three goals on six shots as the Penguins started 2021 by going 02 in Philadelphia.
Jarry had to be sharp early Tuesday as the Penguins took a pair of penalties in the first four minutes. In the second period, with the Penguins up two, he stretched out to stuff James van Riemsdyk, earning a “Jarry! Jarry!” chant from the crowd. During the third, he shut down a streaking Jakub Voracek with his blocker.
“You see how much it changes when fans are in the crowd. It’s a different feeling,” the goalie said. “Whenever you step on the ice and have them stand up and cheer, I think that motivates us so much more. We love playing in Pittsburgh.”
Tuesday’s game was the first of three in a row against the Flyers, all of them at PPG Paints Arena. The Keystone State rivals also play Thursday and Saturday.