Crosby’s night ends in win
Letang scores first two goals of season and the captain gets two assists
With flowers in hand and his girlfriend by his side, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby glanced up at the Jumbotron as a video tribute played before his 1,000th career game.
“Three Cups. Conn Smythes. Hart Trophies. You did it all,” his long-time teammate Kris Letang said late in the video. “And it was a pleasure for me to be next to you for all those great moments.”
Saturday night, Letang helped make sure the milestone was a special one for the captain.
The Penguins All-Star defenseman tallied his first two goals of the season — one on the power play and then eventually the game-winner late in the third period — to power the Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders at PPG
Paints Arena.
Letang’s breakthrough night, coupled with two assists from Crosby, a goal from fellow defenseman Mike Matheson and several stand-on-his-head moments from Tristan Jarry, helped the Penguins improve their record to 9-6-1.
Moments after the video
tribute faded to black, the Islanders nearly put the first number on that scoreboard. Jarry was forced to sprawl out on his stomach, in an inverse snow-angel position to keep the puck out of his net in desperation.
It set the tone for a first period in which the Islanders peppered Jarry with 16 shots. Six of them were of the high-danger variety, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Islanders would go on to outshoot the Penguins 35-18 in the game. Jarry has now put together, arguably, his two best performances of the season back-to-back.
While the Penguins celebrated their captain, there were some tense moments for their other star center. Evgeni Malkin tumbled into the boards with just over five minutes to play in the first period. He flexed his right leg repeatedly as he gingerly made his way around the defensive zone. He went to the dressing room immediately after that shift.
Initially, Malkin did not appear on the bench for the second period. But after missing at least one shift, he returned.
The Penguins found a spark from an unexpected place in the second period. The maligned power play entered the evening just 1for-29 over the previous 10 games. Recently, it has better than those stats would suggest.
Finally, Letang gave the unit something to show for it, when he rifled a onetimer from the top of the left circle past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov. Fittingly, Malkin and Crosby earned the assists.
The lead was short-lived. Less than three minutes later, as the Penguins entered the offensive zone, a pass from Malkin ricocheted off of Jason Zucker’s skate, sending the Islanders off to the races the other way on a 3-on-2. The odd-man rush was exacerbated by a defensivezone breakdown between Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Matheson. The puck and Matheson ended up in the back of the Penguins’ net, as Jordan Eberle celebrated his game-tying goal.
Not even a minute into the third period, the Islanders took their first lead. After the Penguins turned the puck over trying to exit the defensive zone, Brock Nelson shot the puck through traffic and into the back of the net.
With the Penguins pressing, Matheson tied the score at 2 with 12:25 left in regulation. The Penguins want to activate their defense more this year. The past two games, no defenseman has shown it as much as Matheson. He skated all the way into the slot for the second time in the game, this time to bury his first goal of the season.
That set the stage for Letang.
From below the goal line, Crosby put the perfect pass onto Letang’s stick. He ripped the wrister and then waited for the man of the night to come celebrate their moment.