Empty Thoughts: Penguins 4, Coyotes 3

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-3 win against the Coyotes:

There was a swing of emotions for the normally even-keeled Teddy Blueger.

At 3:39 of overtime, he took a somewhat bogus hooking penalty against Coyotes forward Conor Garland who crooked Blueger’s stick in his right arm and held it against his body. Blueger protested the call but that feedback to the officials fell on deaf ears.

Blueger could have been the scapegoat for the Coyotes getting a four-on-three power play in overtime.

Thankfully for him, several seconds after he was initially called for the penalty, Garland got his stick into the face of Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin during the ensuing delayed penalty sequence and wiped out any hope of the Coyotes getting the man advantage.

A few minutes after that, Blueger was pressed into service as the Penguins had to go deep on the bench for an eight-round shootout.

Blueger took his first career shootout attempt and buried it to give the Penguins a thrilling road victory to cap off a perfect three-game road trip.

“Obviously pretty fortunate there that (Malkin) was able to draw that one and kind of even it out,” Blueger said. “The shootout, obviously I wasn’t expecting to go until probably later on. I started thinking about it, watching their goalie a little bit closer. That was kind of the summary of the game, I guess, battling back and forth and going through a roller coaster of emotions.”

Blueger has entrenched himself this season as the team’s third-line center. In an ideal world with everyone was healthy for the Penguins - surely an academic statement given the reality of this team’s maladies - Blueger is probably centering the fourth line with Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev. That would indicate the Penguins have a really talented third line.

As it is, they have a really effective third line with Blueger at the pivot.

That prompted general manager Jim Rutherford, last week on his radio show with host Josh Getzoff, to proclaim Blueger as the replacement for Nick Bonino, the “B” in the vaunted HBK line.

It might be a stretch to say the A-R - B-T Line (or whatever name you want to affix to it), is as dynamic as the HBK Line, but that trio has done a lot of things in recent weeks to help the Penguins win games while so many of it’s top-tier players are injured. And they go beyond the base offensive numbers.

On Sunday, a shootout goal by Blueger just happened to be the difference.

“Teddy, the goal he scored was a great goal, a great shot,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s probably appropriate too because he’s played extremely well on this road trip.”

What happened

Only 2:43 into regulation, the Penguins claimed a 1-0 lead with a five-on-three power-play goal only 2:43 into regulation. Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin controlled the puck in the high slot and faked a slapper then fed a pass to forward Bryan Rust in the left circle. As Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist drove the crease and tied up Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and opened up a passing lane above the blue paint, Rust took advantage of the opening and fed a pass to forward Jared McCann to the right of the crease. In one motion, McCann swiped a forehand shot past goaltender Adin Hill’s glove hand for his 13th goal of the season. Rust and Malkin netted assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Things were tied, 1-1, at 14:23 of the first period. From in front of the visiting bench, former Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski dumped a puck into the Penguins’ left corner. It rimmed around the end boards and was claimed by Garland on the right half wall. Garland chipped it back behind the net for forward Taylor Hall. Taking the puck, Hall slid the puck to the slot to an onrushing Garland who leaned down and lifted a wrister past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s blocker for his 15th goal. Hall and Goligoski collected assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Another power-play goal 3:51 into the second period restored a lead for the Penguins, 2-1. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Penguins forward Alex Galchenyuk fed a cross-ice pass to forward Patric Hornqvist at the right half wall. Hornqvist then distributed the puck to Malkin low on the end boards. Backtracking behind the cage, Malkin dealt it back to Hornqvist in the left circle where he whipped a wrister past Hill’s blocker on the far side for his 11th goal. Assists were credited to Malkin and Galchenyuk.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The game was tied again, 2-2, at 9:51 of the second. Fighting for a puck in the Penguins’ left corner off a cycle, Coyotes forward Christian Dvorak was able to chip a little pass to the left circle. Getting his stick on the puck a moment before Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, Hall whipped a bad angle wrister on net which found a narrow opening between Jarry’s right arm and the near post. It was Hall’s 10th goal. The lone assist went to Dvorak.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Arizona took its first lead at 11:28 of the third. Chasing down a loose puck on the left half wall, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson flicked a backhanded pass to the slot where forward Derek Stepan was able to whip a wrister past Jarry’s glove hand for his eighth goal. Hjalmarsson had the only assist.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The game was tied yet again, 3-3, at 16:58 of the third. After Penguins defenseman Juuso Riikola boomed a slapper from above the left circle, the puck hit a body in front and bounced to the opposite circle. Penguins forward Brandon Tanev settled the puck and whipped a wrister past Hill’s blocker for his 10th goal. Riikola and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel were credited with assists

(Video courtesy NHL)

Goals by Rust and forward Teddy Blueger in an eight-round shootout gave the Penguins the victory. Hall scored the Coyotes’ lone shootout goal.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins controlled shots, 34-27.

• Blueger and Kahun each led the game with five shots.

• Stepan led the Coyotes with four shots.

• Defenseman Kris Letang led the game with 29:37 of ice time on 34 shifts.

• Defenseman Jakob Chychrun led the Coyotes with 25:30 of ice time on 26 shifts.

• The Coyotes controlled faceoffs, 30-23 (57 percent).

• Stepan was 12 for 20 (60 percent).

• Malkin was 8 for 21 (38 percent).

• Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers led the game with three blocked shots.

• Defenseman Jack Johnson, Letang and Kahun each led the Penguins with two blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• Hornqvist (249 points) surpassed forward Jordan Staal (248) for 33rd place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• This was tied - with three other games - for the second-longest shootout in Penguins history. The longest such game went nine rounds, a 3-2 home loss to the New York Islanders on Nov. 14, 2005.

• Malkin (642) surpassed forward Jaromir Jagr (640) for third-most assists in franchise history.

• Goligoski, a member of the Penguins’ 2009 Stanley Cup title, recorded his 400th career point.

Randomly speaking

• The Penguins went 2 for 4 on the power play. It was only the fifth time this season they had multiple power-play goals in the same game.

• Malkin took a cross-checking minor at 20:00 of the first period. He now has penalties in nine of his past 10 games. In his first 23 games, only took penalties in five of those contests.

• The Penguins are now 3-0 in shootouts this season.

• Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson returned to the lineup after missing 43 games due to a broken leg.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan spoke about his team’s power play taking a basic approach to this game and getting rewarded for that:

“We’ve been preaching that all year long with our power play. But just I think it was just about making good decisions and execution. The five-on-three was really good. That’s something that we’ve worked on a fair amount. They were sharp, they made good decisions with the puck and they executed. The five-on-four goal was the same thing. We were sharper, we made better decisions. As a result, we gave ourselves some pretty good looks.”

• Sullivan was asked why the power play has largely struggled this season, even when talented players such as Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel or Justin Schultz have been available:

“I wish I had an answer for you. Power plays, I think they’re one of the more challenging things to coach because sometimes as coaches, when you’re coaching offense, there’s always a fine line between overcoaching and players becoming robotic (or) undercoaching in the sense that you don’t give them enough structure so that they can be somewhat predictable for one another. We’ve always, as a coaching staff, tried to find that sweet spot where we try to give them a sound foundation and some structure. But we also give them some latitude, because we believe in that. We want to give them latitude to act on their instincts and to go off the grid a little bit. That’s what separates some of the players that we have on our team from others. We’ve always been believers in that. … That’s one of the more challenging parts of coaching is coaching the offense because you’re always walking that line.”

• Malkin spoke with reverence for Jagr when informed he had passed him on the career assist list:

“Finally, finally. He’s still playing. He’s like at almost 2,000 points. It’s like too far for me. He’s an unbelievable player. He played in Pittsburgh and fans loved him. He wins two (Stanley Cup titles). Win everything, all (individual) trophies. It’s so nice to be the same line (company) as him.”

• Sullivan kind of explained the “strategy” of coaching a shootout that goes eight rounds:

“It’s hard to predict how shootouts are going to go. They usually don’t go that long. But that was a deep one. When you get down to that part of the bench, there’s not a huge body of work to lean on to say, ‘Okay, this guy is 40 percent or this guy is 20 percent.’ So it becomes more of a feel thing. We have the numbers on our guys in how they do in the shootouts in their careers, the last one season, the last three seasons. We try to use as much science, I guess, as we can to make those kind of decisions. But when you go that deep into a shootout, there’s no data to go on. It’s more about a coach’s feel.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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