3 takeaways: For Penguins fans, Rangers game featured visits from familiar villains

Three takeaways from the Penguins’ 3-2 win over their Metropolitan Division foe New York Rangers on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Playoffs atmosphere

With several months of the regular season remaining, during which time the Penguins will need to continue to handle business on a nightly basis within a crowded Eastern Conference playoff picture, suffice to say that no player or coach on the team is thinking ahead already to the postseason.

As for the crowd at PPG Paints Arena? The playoffs, past and present, may have been on their collective minds. Just a tad …

The game they showed up to was the opening meeting this season between the Penguins and Rangers since the first round of last year’s playoffs, when New York rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the series in seven games.

Fairly quickly, it became apparent that the Penguins faithful had not forgotten much from last May, as evidenced by the multiple drawn-out “Eeeeee-gor” chants trying to rattle Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin and the on-cue boos of New York defenseman and captain Jacob Trouba anytime he touched the puck.

In a hypothetical poll of Penguins fans, Shesterkin would likely be described as more of a respected adversary.

Trouba, on the other hand, can probably continue to expect boos and worse from Penguins Nation any time he is in Pittsburgh due to his controversial hit on Sidney Crosby during Game 5 of last season’s first-round meeting between the two clubs.

Trouba was ultimately not suspended for the hit on Crosby, however meaningless of a reality that is to Penguins fans.

At any rate, however far away the 2022-23 postseason is, Tuesday’s game between the Penguins and Rangers, a close one featuring give and take, chirping between players and no shortage of excitement, had all the ingredients of playoff hockey.

“Every night is an opportunity for us to continue to try to climb in the standings,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re trying to establish ourselves, first and foremost, as a playoff team. And the best way to do that, from my experience, is you just stay in the moment. You focus on that one game in front of you. (Tuesday) it was the Rangers.”

100 power plays faced

Tuesday’s game had the distinction of containing the 100th opposing power play that the Penguins have faced this season, which came on a Kasperi Kapanen tripping call less than four minutes into the second period.

The Rangers did not convert on that power-play opportunity or their other two in the game.

Through 32 games, the Penguins (19-9-4) have allowed 16 power-play goals. That offers some nice, round numbers with which to do the math on the team’s penalty-killing percentage, which comes in at an even 84%.

The Penguins entered Tuesday evening with the fourth-best penalty kill at 83.5% on the year, trailing Dallas, San Jose and the NHL-best Boston Bruins, who have neutralized 85.0% of opposing power-play opportunities.

Having leapfrogged the Stars, the Penguins possess the third-best penalty kill in the league.

The Sharks moved into second in the NHL behind Boston by way of denying both of Calgary’s two power-play tries in their eventual 7-3 loss to the Flames during the early morning hours of Wednesday.

Jarry stays hot

Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry is enjoying one of the best streaks in franchise history, as his point streak now stretches to 13 consecutive games dating to Nov. 12, during which time Jarry has gone 11-0-2.

The streak ties Ken Wregget’s of 1994-95 for the fourth-longest in Penguins team history.

Tom Barrasso holds the record outright with points in 15 straight games between March 9 and April 14, 1993, with Marc-Andre Fleury having posted two 14-game point streaks in 2007 and 2010.

With Tuesday’s victory, Jarry is now 15-3-3 with a 2.60 GAA through 21 games played. Against the Rangers, Jarry made saves on 21 of 23 shots he faced, rebounding nicely from allowing an awkward-angled goal to New York’s Chris Kreider (that hit defenseman Marcus Pettersson before finding the back of the net) only 22 seconds into the first period.