Yohe’s 10 observations: The ballad of Kris Letang on full display in Penguins’ romp

DETROIT — It was the ultimate Kris Letang experience.

The Penguins defenseman, one day shy of his 35th birthday, dazzled the Red Wings enough to overcome a couple of gaffes as the Penguins rolled to a 7-2 victory in Detroit on Saturday afternoon.

Letang finished with a goal and two assists and has now tied his career high with 67 points this season. He’ll have a chance to reset the mark on his birthday when the Penguins play in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon.

“It seems like we always play Philly on my birthday,” Letang said. “No (birthday) plans. Just another day in the life of a hockey player.”

Make no mistake, there aren’t many players like Letang.

He toyed with the Red Wings most of the afternoon and, for a second consecutive game, was likely the Penguins’ best player.

But then, there were those first five minutes of the second period.

On his first three shifts of the second period, Letang:

• Was trapped in Detroit territory, allowing Michael Rasmussen to even the score at 2 by beating Casey DeSmith on a two-on-one.

• Committed a turnover that gave the Red Wings a glorious chance to take the lead.

• Got away with a penalty.

• Was again caught out of position defensively.

Then, just like that, he took over the game.

After Rickard Rakell put the Penguins ahead 3-2, Letang scored a beautiful goal to essentially put the game out of reach.

In the third period, he made a spectacular play to set up Danton Heinen’s 18th goal of the season.

After the hiccup early in the second period, Letang weaved his way through the Red Wings like they weren’t even there.

“He’s a really talented player,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “Obviously. He drives so much of our offense in so many different ways.”

That he does. Letang, of course, is going to be a hot-button topic come the offseason, when he is set to become an unrestricted free agent. The Penguins may well balk at giving a 35-year-old defenseman a lengthy, lucrative contract.

He can be maddening at times, too. Of that, there is no question.

But only so many defensemen can produce these kinds of numbers while playing among the most minutes in hockey. He’s a plus-21, a figure eclipsed only by defense partner Brian Dumoulin.

The Penguins still largely go as Letang goes, and he’s been terrific during the past couple of games. They’ll need this version of Letang when the postseason arrives.

“I just think it’s a team game and success comes with the success of a team,” Letang said. “When everybody’s pulling in the same direction, individual success always comes.”

Evgeni Malkin scored twice for the Penguins in his first appearance since serving a four-game suspension.

Sidney Crosby scored his 30th goal of the season, and Chad Ruhwedel started the scoring in the first period.

Ten postgame observations

• This was kind of a strange game to analyze. The Penguins were sluggish in the game’s first 10 minutes, managing just one shot on goal. They were fairly terrible during the first 10 minutes of the second period, allowing numerous odd-man rushes and relying heavily on DeSmith to keep the game even.

Also, we need to note that the Red Wings are a special kind of horrible right now. They’ve really fallen apart and are one of the NHL’s worst teams at the moment. Really, really bad.

Still, for most of the afternoon, the Penguins were dominant. They toyed with the Red Wings for most of the afternoon and were at their best in the third period, when they scored twice while sucking the life out of the game, maintaining the puck at will.

All in all, the Penguins did precisely to the Red Wings what they should have done to them. It looked like a good team against a bad team most of the afternoon. For the Penguins, it was another step in the right direction. I believe they will be an underdog regardless of whether they play the Rangers, Hurricanes or the Panthers in the first round. But I also believe they needed those four days off earlier this week and that they look like a different team now.

• Having a healthy lineup sure makes a difference, too.

Other than Tristan Jarry, the Penguins are finally healthy and were able to deploy all of their forwards. Brian Boyle was a healthy scratch, though I wonder if we might see him in Philadelphia on Sunday.

All four of the Penguins’ lines scored in this game. I’m not sure if even Sullivan knows what his bottom-six configuration will be when the postseason begins, but it’s clear that his top six is set.

Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Rakell are really humming right now.

On paper, a second line of Malkin, Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust could be quite effective, as well.

• The Crosby goal (he made Marc Staal look awful) gave him his 10th season with 30 or more goals.

If not for injuries, he’d have at least 13 such seasons.

Not bad for a guy who is more of a natural playmaker than he is a goal scorer. That’s now 516 goals in his career, by the way.

We have seen Crosby have greater seasons, but I don’t know how many times he has been this consistently good in almost every game. He’s at 1.26 points per game for the season and continues to cause us to marvel almost every game.

Don’t ever take him for granted. He may appear to be ageless, but he won’t do this forever.

• Rakell’s ability to distribute the puck is a big deal.

Oh, he can score goals. He proved it with the game winner in the second, and it was a beauty.

But Rakell is regularly making beautiful passes to Crosby and Guentzel and, given their goal-scoring prowess, this is a big deal. The most effective players with Crosby aren’t always finishers. Rather, they are balanced players.

Guentzel distributes the puck as well as he shoots it. Chris Kunitz was a wildly underrated passer. He knew how to find Crosby with speed in the neutral zone and streaking toward the net. So does Rakell. It’s a really important attribute.

• Malkin was credited with a power-play goal in the second period, and it absolutely shouldn’t have counted.

Here was the NHL’s explanation:

Listen, I’ve been covering hockey for a long time. It was a bad whistle, but that whistle blew way before Malkin shot the puck. As long as I’ve been covering hockey, that’s not a goal. You’ll note that the Penguins didn’t even celebrate. That’s because it shouldn’t have counted.

It wouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things, but the Red Wings had the right to be a little upset after that ruling.

• Ruhwedel opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season. He’s no offensive machine, but he has more goals than Dumoulin, John Marino and Marcus Pettersson this season.

It was a really smart play by Ruhwedel, who saw the open ice, took a nice feed from Teddy Blueger and scored.

I can’t say enough about how dependable Ruhwedel has been this season. Good player.

Sullivan agrees:

• We all love when Sullivan deploys Crosby, Malkin and Guentzel on the same line late in periods and after penalty kills. In theory, it’s a great idea. Problem is, it hasn’t looked very good in recent games.

Malkin turns the puck over a lot when these three are on the ice together. I sense that, because they’re such gifted offensive players, Malkin feels almost obligated to make something great happen when he’s on the ice with Crosby and Guentzel. But on some shifts, there’s just nothing there. It’s the way it is, and he needs to stop forcing passes when he’s out there with them.

That said, Malkin scored two more goals. He has 19 goals and 39 points in 38 games. That’s a 41-goal, 84-point pace. Not bad for a guy coming off of knee surgery.

• Little Ceasars Arena is the best building in the league, and there isn’t a close second. The Penguins play in Detroit twice next season. Do yourselves a favor and make one of those trips. It’s worth it. Just a spectacular place.

• Anything can still happen, but the Penguins and Hurricanes won Saturday and the Rangers lost to the Bruins. All three of those events make it more likely that the Penguins will play the Rangers in the first round. Still, a meeting with the Panthers or the Hurricanes remains possible.

• The Penguins are back in action Sunday in Philadelphia. I don’t recall the last time a Penguins-Flyers game meant so little. It will be interesting to see if the Flyers show up with their biggest rival in the building.

If the past two games are any indication, the Penguins — likely with Louis Domingue in net — figure to show up in a big way.

(Photo of the Penguins’ Kris Letang skating with the puck in front of Detroit’s Sam Gagner: Raj Mehta / USA Today)