The Pittsburgh Penguins got off on the right foot to begin their four-game Western road swing on Monday.
And they did it in statement fashion.
Despite several pushes from the other side, the Penguins defeated the Seattle Kraken, 6-3, giving them 57 points on the season and putting them in a tie with the New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division standings. The Penguins also created some separation between themselves and the Washington Capitals, who have played two more games than the Penguins and are three points behind them.
Connor Dewar scored two goals for the Penguins, Sidney Crosby registered two points in his 1,400th NHL game, and Stuart Skinner stopped 20 of 23 Seattle shots to earn his fifth win in the last six games.
The Penguins needed this win. And they earned it, too, even if it got a bit hairy at times.
Defenseman Parker Wotherspoon opened the scoring a little less than six minutes into the game with a snipe from the left point for his second of the season. A few minutes later, Brett Kulak took a hooking penalty, and the Penguins headed to the penalty kill. Dewar ended up with a breakaway opportunity on the kill, and he buried the shorthanded goal to give the Penguins the 2-0 lead.
But, then, Seattle began to respond a bit. Ben Meyers cut the Kraken deficit to 2-1 with a goal from the net-front late in the first, and Ryan Lindgren capitalized on a loose rebound given up by Skinner to tie the game at 2-2.
Yet, the Penguins didn't fold. Instead, they responded immediately. Kulak got the puck on his stick after an offensive zone faceoff win by Crosby, walked the blue line, and fired a bullet past Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord to restore the lead for the Penguins.
Justin Brazeau scored off the rush for the Penguins early in the third period to give the Penguins an insurance goal, and - once again - Seattle pushed. Eeli Tolvanen scored a power play goal for Seattle five minutes later to make it 4-3.
But with a little more than three minutes remaining in regulation, Crosby took control of the puck behind Daccord's net, and he found Rickard Rakell - who was waiting on the doorstep - with a connecting pass. Rakell shot from the goal line and banked the puck off of Daccord's pad to give the Penguins another insurance goal.
Dewar added an empty-netter with 30 seconds left to give the Penguins the 6-3 win.
Even if the Penguins weren't at their best throughout the 60 minutes and saw some momentum go the other way, they still found ways to respond, and they shut things down at the end of the game, too.
Here are some takeaways from this huge win in Seattle:
- Even when Seattle was pushing in the second and third periods - and they did have a few periods of sustained momentum - the Penguins always seemed to have a response.
After Lindgren scored to tie the game at 2-2 - and erase the 2-0 lead the Penguins had built - they did not crumble like they had during their December losing streak. Instead, they went right back to work, and Kulak scored his goal just 51 seconds after to give the Penguins back the lead.
Again, after Seattle came out strong to start the third, the third line and Brazeau answered that momentum swing with an insurance goal. And, again, after Tolvanen scored on the power play to make it 4-3, the Penguins and Skinner responded, and Rakell earned his insurance goal later in the period.
This version - the healthier version - of this Penguins' team is relentless. They don't crater when momentum swings the other way, even if they do get burned. Instead, they respond, and it's making a great deal of difference for them.
There's something to all of that.
- Speaking of the third line, I thought this was a much stronger game for them. They were generating chances in the offensive zone all night long, and Brazeau's goal was simply a fruit of those labors finally paying off.
Ben Kindel and Anthony Mantha were doing their part as well. If they can play at the level they did Monday, the third line will, once again, become a formidable threat for Pittsburgh and give them a triple punch as far as scoring depth.
- What an addition Dewar has been for the Penguins.
When they acquired the 26-year-old forward and defenseman Conor Timmins last season from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the last minute on deadline day, they only gave up a 2025 fifth-round pick to get both. They ended up flipping Timmins for Connor Clifton and a second-rounder, and Dewar - in the month of January - tied his career-highs of 11 goals and 19 points with his empty-net goal.
It's not an exaggeration to say that the Penguins may very well have the best fourth line in hockey. I've sung Blake Lizotte's praises, and Noel Acciari has been very, very good this season in his role on that line and on the penalty kill.
But Dewar - not unlike Brazeau, except in a bottom-six role - has been a revelation. And the Penguins, if they make the playoffs, should consider extending the pending-RFA just like they extended Lizotte.
- One of the only negatives to come out of Monday was the power play. It was 0-for-3, and it had trouble generating much of anything, even if the second unit had a few looks.
I think this unit really misses Erik Karlsson. They're struggling with zone entries right now, and he really helps in that regard. Karlsson made the trip, so hopefully, he'll be back sooner rather than later to aid the first unit.
And as for the second unit, Egor Chinakhov is playing the left flank, but I'm not so sure this is the best use of his deployment. He gets a lot of touches on the power play, and his shot is his greatest weapon. Yet, when he receives the puck, he has to reset in order to set himself up for a shot, and oftentimes, it gives the opposition an opportunity to obstruct.
If he's going to get a lot of touches, the Penguins should put him in the best position to use that weapon of a shot. He should either be on the left wall or in the slot. I feel like this is, kind of, a no-brainer at this point.
- This is the second straight game in which the first line was very effective for the Penguins. And it's nice to see Rakell getting on the board again, as this was his second straight game with a goal directly set up by Crosby.
The Crosby-Rakell connection has always been special, and Rakell has looked much more himself in the last several games. Once Rakell gets his goal-scoring traction back, it will only make the top line - and the Penguins - that much more dangerous.
So, hopefully, he can continue what he's doing and continue to make any trade talk moot.
- Kulak really deserves a lot of credit for the way he's been playing lately. It took him a couple of weeks to settle in, but now that he has, the Penguins - and Kris Letang - all of a sudden look a whole lot better on the blue line.
Once Karlsson comes back - and if Kulak and Letang can sustain their level of play - the Penguins should have a pretty good top-four. There are still a lot of questions that remain on their bottom pairing, but if they're still in the playoff picture come the trade deadline, that's an area they can look to add to without spending too much.
But, in any case, good for Kulak. He was in the midst of one of the worst stretches of hockey in his career when he left the Edmonton Oilers, and it's nice to see him looking like his reliable-with-some-offensive-upside self lately.
- The Penguins will travel to Alberta to take on the Calgary Flames on Wednesday before facing the Oilers on Thursday in the second half of the back-to-back. Then, they will conclude their Western trip against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
Two wins on this road trip feels like a must, but it sure would be nice to take three of these four games. No other team in the Metro - other than the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes - are playing particularly great hockey right now, so it's a great opportunity for the Penguins to beat two non-playoff teams in Calgary and Vancouver and create some separation.
But, beyond that, this is when you also start looking at the regulation wins column. Regulation wins is the first tiebreaker when it comes to the standings, and right now, the Penguins have 19. While that's more than the 17 the Islanders have, it's not more than Washington's 21, Florida's 22, Boston's 21, or Buffalo's 20. And those are all teams in the wild card picture.
Look: The best path to the playoffs is always being one of the three best teams in your division. That much is clear. But the East is so tight, and teams have been so inconsistent this season that it's critical for the Penguins to check as many of the "tiebreaker" boxes as possible.
We're approaching the end of January as well as the Olympic break, when many teams will determine their trade deadline strategy. These things really matter.
So, it can't be stressed enough how important this road trip is for the Penguins. They need to collect as many points as possible - and they need to do it in regulation.
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