Penguins Dethrone Knights in 5-2 Victory

Recap by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

During the Penguins/Vegas Golden Knights game, I live-tweeted that somehow I’d forgotten that Marc-Andre Fleury no longer played for Vegas.

This, of course, means that Penguins fans are no longer obligated even remotely to root for them. So with that monkey off our backs, we can move on, and we all enjoyed the Pens’ 5-2 victory over the Knights at PPG Paints Arena.

And to cut you off, we are definitely not rooting for the Blackhawks. Sorry, Flower.

As he likes to do, Mike Sullivan shook up the lines for this game. In what can be viewed as an omen, for the first time since he’s been with the Penguins, Kasperi Kapanen was a healthy scratch. Sully was all like, “oh, we love Kap, he’s a real good player” in the postgame presser, but Kap’s production or lack thereof combined with the scratch doesn’t bode well for his future in Pittsburgh. Dominik Simon was also a healthy scratch, clearing the way for the NHL debut of young Finn forward Valtteri Puustinen, who’s been having a good season in Wilkes-Barre and took Simon’s place on Jeff Carter’s line.

Mike Matheson, who’d been on the IR for the past five games, made his return in a big way. In a fast-paced first period where the Pens were constantly hammering pucks at Vegas Goalie Who’s Not Flower Laurent Brossoit, who was making Flower-like saves, he broke the scoring drought at 18:54 off a great cross-ice pass from Sidney Crosby. For those keeping track, this was Sid’s eighth consecutive game with a point because Sid, that’s why.

Jeff Carter made it 2-zip Pens at 2:36 in the second period. Amazingly, Brock McGinn missed a massive breakaway started by a Puustinen pass, but Big Jeff caught his rebound and slapped it in. However, the joy was short-lived when new Knight and longtime punk Jack Eichel, coming off a satisfying booing/loss at Buffalo the night before, made it 2-1 at 4:19, with help from Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Marchessault. Alex Pietrangelo, another guy that I forgot plays for Vegas now, tied it up at 8:19 with a slick wrister through Tristan Jarry’s five-hole (that sounds dirty), with Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson on the assist. The Pens were noticeably slower in the second period, and slow Pens are not good Pens.