With the Penguins looking to the future - and the trade deadline looming - the Penguins have some options at the forward position. The Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/] knew they were going to be without one of their best players heading into Monday's tilt against the Los Angeles Kings. They still got the job done - and in quite convincing fashion. The Penguins resoundingly beat the Kings, 5-1, to sweep their season series for the first time in a decade and beat a team that was previously 14-2-1 on home ice. They did it without the services of their best goal-scorer, Rickard Rakell [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-forward-on-fire-since-4-nations-face-off-snub], who flew back to Pittsburgh prior to the game for family reasons [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-at-kings-preview-rakell-takes-leave-pens-support-fire-relief-efforts]. Pittsburgh got contributions from up and down their lineup, as Kevin Hayes, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Cody Glass, and Anthony Beauvillier lit the lamp. They played a full 60 minutes and largely controlled play, surrendering L.A.'s only goal to Adrian Kempe on a five-on-three power play. "I thought everyone played well," Crosby said. "It was a great effort on both sides of the puck. We gave up the five-on-three goal, kill the next one, then get a big one from Glasser, too. So, I thought we managed the game really well." With Rakell out, Beauvillier played on the top line alongside Crosby and Bryan Rust, and his contributions to the win were very noticeable. A few minutes after Hayes opened the scoring on the power play midway through the first period, Beauvillier forced a turnover and was working hard down low on the forecheck. He managed to get the puck from along the boards to Matt Grzelcyk at the point, who one-timed the puck towards the net. Crosby deflected it on the way in. Malkin scored midway through the second to make it 3-0, and after Kempe's five-on-three goal and the subsequent kill late in the period, Glass responded with just a minute left in the second to score a huge goal and retake the three-goal lead. And then, in the third, Beauvillier's hard work was on display yet again. He was engaged in a battle for positioning in the blue paint with Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, and Kris Letang one-timed a pass from Crosby, who was working below the goal line. Beauvillier squirmed free of Clarke and regained control of his stick, and he swatted in a loose puck that was sitting behind Kings goaltender David Rittich for his 11th goal of the season to seal the deal and put the Penguins ahead, 5-1. "I thought he played really well," head coach Mike Sullivan said of Beauvillier. "He's noticeable and making an impact with his speed, his tenacity, he can shoot the puck... He's been hard on the boards, hard on the walls, he's competing in the puck battles. When he does that, he's an effective player." Sullivan also praised his team's four-line effort from the drop of the puck. "I thought it was one of the better games we played all year," Sullivan said. "If you think in terms of, 'it's our third game in four nights travelling coast-to-coast,' I thought we played with a ton of energy. We did a real good job just playing on top of them in the offensive zone. I thought we did a great job getting up at fives, just five-man units in all three zones against a team that's as stingy defensively as they are." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some other notes and observations from Monday's big win: - I just want to pivot back to Beauvillier for a second. I mentioned this after the 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-unable-to-solve-capitals-defense-in-4-1-loss], but I'm not sure this guy has gotten enough credit for the way he has played in Pittsburgh's top-six this season. He has legitimate chemistry with Crosby, and I think a lot of that connects to the stuff that Sullivan mentioned: his speed, tenacity, ability to win puck battles, and his play down low and on the walls. It seems like he is an effective player when he complements a player like Crosby, who he can get the puck to reliably and who can make things happen to get the puck to the net - another spot where Beauvillier thrives. I like what I'm seeing from him in that top-six role. He has two goals in his last three games since being spotted back up there, and he had six goals in his first 19 games when playing largely with Crosby or Malkin. He had three goals in 26 games otherwise. I realize that it's tough to keep him up there with Rakell available, but that Beauvillier-Crosby-Rakell line from earlier in the season was actually clicking quite a bit. It's understandable if Rakell, Crosby, and Rust stick together - since they've been very good [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-first-line-currently-the-best-line-in-hockey] - but that line might be another option for them if they want to give Rust some time with Malkin. - Part of the issue with Beauvillier sticking in the top-six is that other guys are in a similar situation. Glass played another strong game and also registered his second goal in three games - although, both goals were scored with guys other than Malkin, as he played on the fourth line when he scored a power-play goal in a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/nedeljkovic-makes-history-as-penguins-beat-sabres-5-2] and was out for a shift with Hayes when he scored on Monday. Another guy who had a really strong game was Philip Tomasino, who was noticeable and hard on the forecheck all night as part of a third line with Hayes and Drew O'Connor. He made a few ridiculous passes in this game - including one fresh off the bench that fed Malkin for his ninth goal of the season: I'd still like to see Tomasino get more looks with Malkin. This guy has some legitimate talent - as well as playmaking ability - and he and Malkin have shown a lot of chemistry together. Sullivan said in the pregame that it's been "up and down" with Tomasino in terms of some of the details of his game, including play along the walls and in puck battles. Monday was definitely one of the "up" games for Tomasino. - This really was a four-line effort. All of the Penguins' lines - even their fourth line of Noel Acciari, Matt Nieto, and former King Blake Lizotte, who was playing his first game back in Los Angeles since coming to Pittsburgh [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-at-kings-preview-rakell-takes-leave-pens-support-fire-relief-efforts] - spent most of the evening in the offensive zone, and they weren't giving the Kings much to work with, either. This was a complete, 60-minute effort from top-to-bottom. And if the Penguins are going to go on a run, they need to have these more consistently, even if the results don't always pan out for them. - I think Penguins' defensemen were the only mixed bag on Monday. Grzelcyk and Erik Karlsson were really good once again. Grzlecyk's assist on the Crosby goal puts him at 25 points, which is just one point shy of his career high set in Boston during the 2022-23 season. Karlsson was flying all night long, and he didn't show up on the scoresheet, but he was doing a lot of good things on both sides of the puck - including on the penalty kill, where he seems to have found a home. On the flip side, I didn't think Letang, P.O Joseph, and Owen Pickering had particularly strong nights. Letang made a few ill-advised pinches and passes, while Joseph and Pickering made a few mistakes of their own on a pairing - including taking both penalties that led to the Kings' five-on-three goal. These three weren't bad by any means, but there's still another level for each of them. - Alex Nedeljkovic enjoyed another really strong performance. His one-game goal-scoring streak [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/nedeljkovic-makes-history-as-penguins-beat-sabres-5-2] was, unfortunately, snapped. But he made a lot of big saves in the middle portions of this game to make sure things didn't get out of control, stopping 25 of 26 shots total on the evening. The past three games between Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist has been the kind of goaltending that the Penguins are going to need if they expect to make any noise down the stretch. Nedeljkovic especially has really turned it up a notch since Tristan Jarry was waived. It'd still be nice to see Blomqvist get the majority of starts [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/its-blomqvists-time-for-the-penguins], but Nedeljkovic sure is doing a nice job so far of forcing their hand. In any case - regardless of who actually starts - that's a good problem to have. - The Penguins have four very winnable games coming up to close out this seven-game road trip, They take on the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, followed by the Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks, and Utah Hockey Club - and none of these teams are in the playoff picture at this point. I'd say the Penguins need at least six of these eight points to stay well in the mix for a wild card spot and put themselves in a good position for their final four games before the 4 Nations Tournament in February [https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-power-rankings-4-nations-face-off-edition-and-a-wild-new-no-1] - as three of those games are divisional matchups. They need to bank every point they can, especially against teams they should bank points against and ones in the West that don't have any consequence in their conference standing. The stoppage for the 4 Nations will, likely, act as a barometer of sorts for the Mar. 7 trade deadline [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/we-believe-in-each-other-penguins-players-eager-to-stay-in-fight-together]. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjEyMTYyNzc0NjIzNTk0MDE5/thnpitnews.png] Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjEwNjYwNDIwMDI3OTUwOTI5/thnpitbanner.png]
