Empty Thoughts: Penguins 1, Blue Jackets 0 (OT)

Observations from the Penguins’ 1-0 win against the Blue Jackets:

Jake Guentzel was out of position on Thursday.

Sure, he’s listed as a center. But he’s not a center.

Yet, with all the maladies the Penguins are contending with, they were limited with who they could use as the No. 1 center against the Blue Jackets.

So, they slid Guentzel from the left wing to the center and had him skate with Bryan Rust on the right wing. At the left wing, Alex Galchenyuk opened the contest on that side but was eventually replaced by Dominik Simon.

Guentzel didn’t redefine the position by any stretch. No one is going to forget Jean Beliveau overnight. But he did okay given the circumstances. He logged 22:16 of ice time on 25 shifts, including an ample 1:15 on the penalty kill. He had one shot on four attempts and was in the black on faceoffs going 7 for 13 (54%).

“Well, we didn’t have a lot of options,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We discussed some of the options that we had but there weren’t a whole lot based on what we had available. Jake is such a smart player. He has the ability to adjust and adapt. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s over 50 percent on the faceoffs. I tried to keep him out of our end so I didn’t put him in a tough spot taking draws in our own end. But he did a pretty good job. For a guy that doesn’t take a lot of faceoffs, that’s pretty impressive. But he’s just a really smart player and because of that, we thought he could make that adjustment.”

That pliantness has become the trademark of these Penguins.

Not the speed or the skill they obviously possess. Or even the speed they have recaptured. Or even the sturdier defense they’ve constructed.

That malleability to move out of a comfort zone to fill in for a fallen teammate has been such a major factor in the success the 2019-20 Penguins have enjoyed.

• Guentzel at center? That’s nothing compared to Juuso Riikola moving from defense to forward. And on the occasions Riikola has been on the blue line, he’s been asked to skate on the right side as a left-handed shot.

• Jared McCann has lined up at center most of the season due to injuries to Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. That’s prevented him from largely playing on the left wing where management believes he’s more effective.

• Rust, Simon and Dominik Kahun have skated on both wings at times this season.

• With Brian Dumoulin sidelined, Kris Letang has been moved to his offside as a right-shooting defenseman to make life easier for rookie John Marino on the right side of the top pairing.

• Sam Lafferty has slid from right wing to his original position at center when needed.

This is nothing new for the Penguins or even exclusive to them. But having players who can and are willing to move out of position has allowed them to contend with the considerable injuries the’ve faced this season.

“I kind of view it as a positive thing with the way we’re handling it,” defenseman Jack Johnson said. “Hopefully, sometime in early January maybe we’ll get a healthy lineup. If we can keep rolling and then get a healthy lineup going, we can make some serious headway here and go into the second half of the season really rolling. The way we’ve handled, we kind of view it as a positive thing. We’ve faced some adversity and handled it well.”

What happened

First period? Nothing.

Second period? Nothing.

Third period? Nothing.

Overtime? A goal!

Following three-plus periods of really boring and tepid hockey, the Penguins used what remaining skill they had in the lineup to overwhelm the limited Blue Jackets.

After defenseman Kris Letang drew a hooking penalty from Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois at 1:25 of the overtime frame, the Penguins sent out a four-on-three power-play attack with Guentzel, Rust, Letang and Schultz.

From the high slot, Letang fed a pass to Guentzel in the right circle. Guentzel then dealt the puck back to Letang, now above the right circle. As Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno leaned forward with a poke check, Letang chopped the puck in hopes of keeping it away from Foligno. The puck bounded into the slot above the crease where Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones attempted to claim and clear it but Rust was able to lift Jones’ stick to keep the puck free. In one motion, Rust spun to his backhand and whipped the puck through the five hole of goaltender Joonas Korpisalo. Assists went to Letang and Guentzel.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins controlled shots, 32-17.

• Rust led the game with six shots.

• Forward Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Blue Jackets with three shots.

• Jones led the game with 27:20 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• Letang led the Penguins with 25:47 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• The Blue Jackets had a 23-22 edge in faceoffs (51 percent).

• McCann was 9 for 14 (64 percent).

• Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner was 8 for 16 (50 percent).

• Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard led the game with five blocked shots.

• Johnson and Marino each led the Penguins with three blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• The Penguins’ last overtime goal against the Blue Jackets came in a 5-4 road win, April 5, 2018. Forward Phil Kessel had the game-winning score.

• The Penguins’ last shutout of the Blue Jackets came in a 3-0 home win on March 7 of this year. Matt Murray made 25 saves in that victory.

• Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry made 17 saves in this shutout. The only other goaltender in franchise history to make fewer saves in a shutout was Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Right smack dab in the middle of the “dead puck era,” Aubin made 16 saves in a 2-0 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 17, 1999.

• That game included a Jiri Slegr-Chris Gratton fight for some reason:

• Rust (133 points) surpassed defensmen Dave Burrows and Brooks Orpik (132 each) for 68th place on the franchise scoring list.

• Johnson played in his 900th career game.

Randomly speaking

• He’s probably had harder games in recent weeks just based on volume of shots, but Jarry was strong in this game as well. Especially in the third period when he stopped a handful of breakaways. That led to him recording his third shutout in four games.

(Video courtesy NHL)

• Over his past nine games, Jarry has a 9-2-0 record along with a 1.54 goals against average, a .946 save percentage and three shutouts.

• Galchenyuk keeps doing everything he can to offer a greater offensive contribution but continues to hit a brick wall. He’s got a great shot and produced four on six attempts in this game. But so many of them were right into the chest of Korpisalo. The same thing happened on Tuesday against Montreal’s Carey Price. The frustration for Galchenyuk and management is quite evident.

• Galchenyuk opened the game on the first line and in the coveted right circle spot of the top power-play unit which normally goes to Malkin or occasionally Crosby. He did little of note with either assignment.

• Joseph Blandisi was an emergency recall today after Malkin came down with an illness which has already hit a few of his teammates. Primarily used on the fourth line, Blandisi logged 9:04 of ice time on 11 shifts and had one shot. He was 0 for 2 (0 percent) on faceoffs.

•Korpisalo should get lauded for his play. He looked completely in control most of this game and really challenged the Penguins’ shooters. He deserved a better fate.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on the team finding a way to win despite Malkin’s absence:

“It just speaks volume for the character of the guys. They rallied around it. It’s tough when you lose a guy like (Malkin) given some of the guys that we’ve already had out. Today, we get that thrown at us. I just think the players do a terrific job of rallying around it. I can’t say enough about this group. They’re great character guys and they don’t look for excuses. It wasn’t the prettiest win by any stretch but I thought we defended hard. We competed. We made it a hard game for Columbus. They had some moments, especially in the third period. We got a couple of big saves from Tristan. So it’s a real solid team win.”

• Rust was asked about the defensive nature of the contest.

“It’s a good test for us. It’s one of those playoff-type games. Tight checking. Not a lot of space out there. Both teams are playing hard defensively. Our ability to show our patience there was key.”

• Sullivan on the defensive nature of the game:

“It’s team defense. Our defensemen are certainly doing a great job as a part of that but I just think our team defense is a whole lot stingier. That’s been a point of emphasis since day one of training camp. That was one of our challenges to the guys coming right out of camp is we have to be harder to play against. We’ve got to make sure we value play away from the puck and the decisions we make with it s we make it hard for teams. That has to be part of the fabric of our team identity. The guys are buying in. They’re playing together, they’re playing hard for one another. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win but I give our guys a lot of credit. They competed hard.”

• Johnson on the defensive nature of the contest:

“I wasn’t surprised that it was kind of a defensive slugfest like that. Part of that too is that’s their style of play as well. So I’m not surprised it was that way. We were fully prepared for that going into tonight.”

• Rust was asked if games like that are boring or exciting or tedious or nerve wracking from a player’s perspective:

“A little bit of all of those. Anytime there isn’t a ton of offense or a ton of scoring chances, I think that can test your mental fortitude a little bit. But I think we did a really good job of kind of just staying even keeled and taking what the game gave us.”

• Johnson spoke about the mental demands of a boring game:

“You just can’t lose your concentration. The first team to crack is probably the one that’s going to go home unhappy. When we did bend, (Jarry) bailed us out. It’s more a test of your patience and your discipline than anything.”

• While noting his workload wasn’t heavy, Sullivan said Jarry certainly didn’t have a night off by any stretch:

“It’s a different type of challenge for a goalie. He didn’t get a lot of shots but he got some high quality chances that he had to make some big saves on, especially in the third. I do think that’s an indication of his mental toughness or his focus or his stick-to-it-ness or however you want to describe it. That’s an important aspect of being a goaltender. It’s hard to win I this league if you don’t get that timely save and Tristan’s done that for us.”

• Jarry gave props to his defense:

“The guys did a great job tonight. They limited the shots and gave me the easy ones from the outside. So it was a great job. We didn’t have many rebounds and we were able to get a lot of pucks out.”

• Rust on Guentzel at center:

“Jake look good. He did pretty good on faceoffs. He was out there on the penalty kill too quite a bit. He did an unbelievable job stepping in there.”

• Sullivan spoke about Rust’s developing offensive game:

“He’s just a real solid two-way player. We use him in so many situations. He’s been great on the penalty kill. But I think offensively, he probably has more confidence right now than he’s ever had. He’s really seeing it. He’s got some chemistry now with Jake. His speed is just so influential, no matter where we put him or how we utilize him. But offensively in particular. He’s making more plays now, he’s hanging onto pucks. He’s doing a lot of the little things that offensive players do that help us score. Hopefully, he can continue that for us.”

• Rust on the team’s injuries and other ailments:

“It’s just one of those things you’ve just got shake your head at it, laugh it off and keep going with who you’ve got.”

• Rust said the news of Malkin’s malady came early in the day:

“He didn’t come in this morning. He obviously wasn’t feeling great and he was sick. … I don’t think anybody knew. We just came to the rink this morning and we all just found out that he was sick. We were just like, “Well, there’s another one. Let’s just try to go out and win a hockey game.”

• Sullivan on the injuries:

“The injuries hit a lot of teams. We’re no different. They’ve hit us pretty hard in the early part of the season but in a lot of ways, it helps us find out about ourselves. We’ve got to find ways to continue grab points here. If we compete hard and we play within structure and we trust one another, then we’re going to be in a lot of games and give ourselves a chance to win. And that’s how we’ve got to play. We’ve got to make sure we don’t beat ourselves. We did a good job of that tonight.”

• Foligno lauded the Penguins’ effort:

“They just worked. They knew they were banged up and they worked extremely hard. Early on, we did not match that intensity at all. That’ unacceptable on our part there. It’s a 0-0 game. It could kind of go either way. We had moments but not enough sustained pressure. Not enough what we bring.”

• Johnson quipped about his 900th career game:

“I think I’m halfway to Cully (former forward Matt Cullen).”

(Note: Cullen had 1,516 career games before retiring this past summer.)

• Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was petulant after the game when asked if the 17 shots on net were disappointing. Before the second part of that question could be levied, he snarled:

“Just thrilled with it. Just thrilled with it. That’s a great question too.”

• Tortorella just wasn’t in a good mood. Which is pretty normal.

“I don’t have any words to describe it. I don’t know what to tell you guys. I hope you asked them (the players) the questions. You got enough information from them? You don’t need me. I hope they answered you honestly.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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