Sully Says: We Protected the Lead the Right Way

The Penguins entered the third period of Saturday’s matinee against Philadelphia with a lead. And instead of allowing their opponent to come back like they have in recent games, they added to it in the final minutes, scoring three goals in the last 5:36 to come away with a 5-1 win over the Flyers.

Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby, Jason Zucker and Jake Guentzel all scored for Pittsburgh before Mikael Granlund capped it off with his first as a Penguin. Casey DeSmith made 30 saves in the first half of a back-to-back set, with the New York Rangers coming to town on Sunday.

“We just wanted to make sure we stayed on our toes,” Zucker said. “I feel like the games we’ve given up leads, we kind of sat back and we’re trying to protect a lead rather than still get after them. Make plays, hold onto pucks, and just do it the right way. I thought tonight, we did that.”

Before the game, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan announced that forward Nick Bonino would be week-to-week with a lacerated kidney suffered in the last game (full update here). Alex Nylander, recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, slotted into the forward group – which saw a lot of mixing and matching.

Nylander skated alongside Jason Zucker and Evgeni Malkin, while Bryan Rust moved up alongside Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby. Rakell scored Pittsburgh’s first goal on the new-look third line with Drew O’Connor at left wing and Granlund at center, while Jeff Carter centered the fourth line between Danton Heinen and Josh Archibald.

One group of personnel that didn’t undergo any changes was the top power-play. Sullivan had been questioned about keeping that unit together after they were unable to be a difference-maker in Thursday’s overtime loss to the Islanders, and he said they weren’t going to consider changes.

“We like that group,” he said. “They’ve been one of the best power plays in the league since January. Their expected goals has been like, top three in the league. So that suggests that the process is there. They’re getting a lot of looks in the big picture, and in the body of work. If we could finish a little bit more, I think that would help.”

That’s what they did in the second period, following a pretty lethargic first. Rookie Tyson Foerster took a double-minor for high-sticking, and it took Crosby all of 38 seconds to convert the first one with a slapshot from the circle.

Overall, it was a strong middle frame for Pittsburgh, who had an 11-1 edge in shots during the first half. In the final frame, DeSmith continued his redemption tour from the tally he gave up to Kieffer Bellows in the first, saying, “that was a horrible goal that I let in – one of the worst I’ve let in in this league, probably.

“Would’ve loved to get it back. Just happy that I could answer and play the rest of the game solid. Obviously, the team picked me up there, and I thought we played a heck of a game.”

He battled hard to help the Penguins come up with a huge pair of penalty kills, making an incredible stick save on talented young forward Owen Tippett to preserve what was then a 2-1 lead. From there, Zucker tipped a shot from Marcus Pettersson to earn his eighth goal in the last seven games, and 10th in his past 12. Only Connor McDavid (12) has more goals than Zucker since Feb. 17.

After Guentzel got his second in as many games into an empty net to make it 3-1, Granlund scored with less than a minute to go. Here’s what Sullivan had to say after the game.

On the line changes: “We’re playing a lot of really important games. We’ve got a lot of games in a short period of time. We need four lines to get this done here. We put combinations together today that we thought gave us balance throughout the lineup. We could utilize guys that can play to their strengths in different situations. That’s what we tried to do.”

On if he noticed his team doing anything different playing with the lead in the third, or if it was just one of those games that fell in their favor: “No, I just think they’re trying to trying to play the game the right way. We got to make good decisions, we got to play behind teams, we got to force them to play 200 feet. I thought the guys were locked in. I thought they played hard in the third. Give Philly credit, they’re hard to play against. They’re playing the right way on the other side. They put a lot of pucks in deep, they’ve got a heavy forecheck. They made it hard on us all night long. So I didn’t expect anything else. I knew this was going to be a competitive game, and it was, for 59 minutes or so of the of the game. So, I give our guys credit. I thought they played hard in the third in particular. And most importantly, I think just playing with the lead, just continue to play on our toes, trying to work to get the next goal. Not trying to sit back on the lead and protect it. We certainly want to protect it, but we want to do it the right way. I think we did a pretty good job of that today.”

On how receptive Jeff Carter was being asked to play a different role: “Quite honestly, I really didn’t have a conversation with him before the game, just because we didn’t have a whole lot of time. But Carts is always receptive to any role that we ask him to do. He always embraces it. He just wants to win. I think that’s the group we have, we just want to win. Everybody’s gonna get minutes, and we utilize Carts in a lot of critical situations. So, I don’t think his role really changes per se. It was just kind of creating a little bit more balance through our four lines. We’re still utilizing Carts in a lot of the similar ways that we’ve used him all year long, and we’ll continue to do that. He’s good at the faceoff circle. We can use him on the penalty kill. He plays on the second power play. He’s good at that netfront. And he’s a conscientious defensive player. He has good awareness. He’s got a ton of experience in those situations. And he utilizes that. He’s strong on pucks, he uses his size and his reach defensively, and I think that helps us. So it’s not like his role really changed. It was more just kind of an adjustment in the lines, and then we were deploying the lines in a similar fashion.”

On Alex Nylander: “I thought Alex played really well. You can see his offensive instincts. He sees it pretty good out there. He can make plays. But I’ve just been impressed with his details away from the puck in his own end. He made some nice plays in the defensive zone. He’s strong on pucks. I think he’s really grown a lot there. He deserves a lot of credit for that in making that commitment. I think J.D. and his staff in Wilkes-Barre have done a great job helping him along the way. But in two games now, I’ve been really impressed with his complete game. I think offensive instincts are obvious to all of us. That’s where he excels, and it’s hard to teach that aspect of the game. And he has it. And so, I think he’s making a commitment in valuing some of the other things in order to become a complete player, to become a regular player in this league. If Alex can bring that type of game consistently, I believe he’s an NHL player.”

On what it means to become the 14th coach in NHL history to 400 wins: “Well, it’s humbling. It’s humbling, for sure. I think I’ve been fortunate to coach a lot of really good players, and great players is what make coaches look smart. This group that I’ve had Pittsburgh, they’ve been an unbelievable group to work with, and I’m grateful to to all the players that have been a part of it that make the sacrifices to help us have success.”