Empty Thoughts: Penguins 4, Stars 2

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-2 win against the Stars.

The story of the Penguins to this embryonic point of the regular season are the injuries up front. For better or worse, they’re beat up. Yet, it’s led to quite a bit of opportunity for so many of their lower-tiered players to contribute.

Zach Aston-Reese had a big two-goal game in Winnipeg on Sunday.

Sam Lafferty is realizing his dream of playing in the NHL with his hometown team.

Jared McCann is getting plenty of chances as a No. 2 center.

Joseph Blandisi and Adam Johnson are cashing NHL paychecks and contributing offense.

The new guys and the incumbents have all found ways to chip into this tidy five-game winning streak.

So is the guy in net.

Matt Murray is usually a quiet guy. He doesn’t like talking about himself that much. Ask him about a save or goal he allowed and he often will give you a bare-bones description of the sequence.

What happened on that save?

Their guy shot it and I just tried to stop it.

What happened on that goal?

It went in.

With the exception of Sunday’s 7-2 win at Winnipeg in which Tristan Jarry started, this winning streak and strong start overall has been in many ways a Matt Murray production. During the team’s winning streak, he has appeared in four games, has a 4-0-0 record, a 2.22 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.

“He’s been huge,” said defenseman Marcus Pettersson. “A couple of games, we’ve scored seven goals. I feel like (coach Mike Sullivan) has talked about those timely saves early (in games) that have given us chances and momentum all around. He’s been stellar. I look forward to seeing him continue like that.”

Murray had another timely save (two actually) which will be described below which keyed this victory. He’s never going to one to put up basic stats worthy of the Vezina Trophy. The Penguins will never be defensive-minded enough for that to happen while Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are involved with this franchise’s fortunes. Much like his predecessor, Marc-Andre Fleury, Murray will often make making that timely save which can offer a course correction to any contest.

It’s more than fair to question Murray given his history of injuries and inconsistency. But it’s also fair to suggest he’s been one of this team’s most stable entities during the early days of the 2019-20 campaign.

“Matt came up big for us,” Sullivan said. “That’s what he does. He makes key saves at key times during games that help us win or give us a chance to win. He did it again for us tonight.”

What Happened

Dallas opened the scoring at 5:10 of the second period. Lugging a puck from behind his own net, Stars defenseman John Klingberg fired a pass from his own left circle up across the ice to forward Jamie Benn on the left wing. From the defensive side of the center red line, Benn distributed a pass that glanced off the stick the Penguins’ defenseman John Marino to the offensive blue for forward Roope Hintz who was streaking into the offensive zone like a comet. As Penguins forward Brandon Tanev and defenseman Jack Johnson gave a futile pursuit, Hintz moved in on Murray and fired a wrister through his five hole. Assists went to Benn and Klingberg.

The Stars had a brilliant opportunity to double their lead at 15:27 of the second but Murray came up with those time saves as mentioned earlier. Dallas forward Denis Gurianov lifted a wrister from the left wing on net which hit off the near post. It deflected between Murray and the cage to the right circle. Stars all-star forward Tyler Seguin had a seemingly wide open cage to bury the puck but shot it low immediately into Murray’s left leg. Following up another rebound, Seguin chopped a shot but the inside of Murray’s left elbow fought it off then smothered the rebound.

A deflection goal tied the game, 1-1, late in the second at the 17:34 mark. Forward Jared McCann lifted a wrister from the left circle which Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin fought off to the left of the cage. Battling Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen for the rebound, Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist was able to backhand the puck, while falling forward, to above the right circle. Defenseman Marcus Pettersson carefully drove a shot/pass to the slot where forward Jared McCann leaned forward and tapped the puck with his forehand past Khudobin’s blocker. It was the third goal of the season for McCann, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous game due to an undisclosed injury. Assists went to Pettersson and Hornqvist.

They nearly took their first lead of the contest 3:50 into the third period. Just as a Dallas power play expired, defenseman Kris Letang sprung Lafferty on a breakaway. With Tanev riding shotgun on the two-on-none rush, Lafferty elected to shoot and put a backhander off the right post:

The Penguins finally went ahead at the 6:34 mark of the third. After Seguin fumbled a puck in his own right circle, Penguins forward Dominik Simon fed a pass from the slot to Letang at the left point. Moving into the left circle, Letang avoided a sliding block attempt by Seguin, advanced closer to the net and waited for Khudobin to slide lift his right leg just enough to allow a forehand shot to slide into the net. It was Letang’s third goal of the season. Simon recorded the lone assist.

A goal by Hornqvist gave the Penguins a 3-1 advantage at 10:20 of the third. Taking a pass at the right point, defenseman Brian Dumoulin lobbed a wobbly wrister which Hornqvist, positioned in the slot, was able to deflect with the shaft of his stick and past Khodobin’s right skate on the far side. Dumoulin and forward Dominik Kahun netted assists.

The Stars pulled within one score at 12:01 of the third. Corralling a puck at the right point, Klingberg whistled a wrister through a forest of bodies and past the left shoulder of Murray on the near side. Heiskanen had the only assist.

Making timely saves is one thing. Being lucky is another. Both are good. Murray was a bit out of position for a deflection by Stars forward Joe Pavelski, one of the NHL’s best at tipping pucks, with 1:08 left in regulation. Fortunately for the Penguins, it clunked off the left post.

Letang airmailed an empty net goal from the red line to secure victor at 19:38 of the third. Assists went to Hornqvist and forward Jake Guentzel.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 33-24.

• Letang and Guentzel each led the game with five shots.

• Klingberg led the Stars with four shots.

• Heiskanen led the game with 25:17 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• Letang led the Penguins with 24:57 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• The Stars controlled faceoffs, 29-19 (60 percent).

• Penguins forward Sidney Crosby was 12 for 20 (60 percent).

• Stars forward Joe Pavelski was 5 for 6 (83 percent).

• McCann led the game with three blocked shots.

• Defenseman Esa Lindell led the Stars with two blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• Hornqvist (239 points) surpassed forward Ken Schinkel (236) for 36th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Guentzel (165 points) surpassed forward Phil Bourque (164) for 54th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

Randomly speaking

• The Penguins winning streak has been exclusively against Western Conference foes.

• The Penguins lead the NHL with 16 second period goals.

• Pettersson and Simon each have a tidy three-game scoring streak.

• Crosby failed to score a point for the first time this season. He had a streak of seven games.

• The Penguins’ penalty killers are getting it done:

For the first time in 3 seasons, Pens have held opponents without a PP shot in consecutive GP. They have not allowed a PP shot in the last 126:40 of play.

— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) October 19, 2019

• After missing Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Avalanche due to an injury, McCann returned and made a clear impact with his goal. He logged 14:30 of ice time on 21 shifts, including 47 hard seconds on the penalty kill. He even got banged up a bit after being struck in the left arm with a puck and heading to the bench for a little attention from athletic trainer Chris Stewart. McCann had three shots on three attempts and was 2 for 9 in the faceoff circle (22 percent).

• Kahun recorded his second point as a Penguins with his assist on Hornqvist’s goal. After recording a season-low 10:35 of ice time in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Avalanche, his ice time bumped up to 13:18 on 19 shifts. He also recorded a shot on net and blocked one.

• The Stars are off to a wretched 1-7-1 start. Ick.

Publicly speaking

• Hornqvist was effusive at how important Murray’s saves on Seguin were:

“Huge. Yeah, it’s a 2-0 game there and we’re probably not standing here laughing right now. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks.”

(Murray, by the way, is a pending restricted free agent. Maybe Hornqvist can serve as his agent.)

• Pettersson did a nice job of explaining what a timely save means:

“You kind of grow as a team when you see those saves and kind of catch momentum. Small things like that. It gave us a chance to score at the other end.”

• Murray was succinct in describing the saves on Seguin:

“It was like a low two-on-one. The guy shot it. I got a piece of the post and in behind me. I just tried to get something over there.

“That’s all I try to do is just make every save that I can no matter what time in the game. I feel like that’s my job is to help my team and make those saves.”

• Pettersson kind of called himself (and defensive partner Justin Schultz) for their play on the sequence leading to the saves:

“Yeah, it was huge. It was kind of a fluky play. Me and (Schultz) were kind of late to the puck. It ended up bouncing to Seguin. That was two big stops. He saved the rebound too and gave us a chance to score on the other end.”

“You know he’s back there to cover for you. We just try to be aggressive off the rush. You know they’re a skilled team up front and they’ve got big bodies. We tried to be as aggressive as we could be. Sometimes, you’re not going to get there. We have Matt to bail you out.”

• Letang broke down how he scored his first goal:

“I know I was getting close so I had to try to make him open a little bit. So I made a move to the right to make him move and it opened the five hole.

“It’s just instinct when you get that close to the net. You just try to pick the right time to shoot or try to make a play.”

• Sullivan was impressed by Letang’s first goal:

“It was certainly a goal-scorer’s goal. We have a few them on our team that I could probably point to that have the same level of patience. It was a terrific play by (Letang).”

• Hornqvist lauded the defensemen involvement in the offense:

“They were great. You see Marcus there, he’s holding onto the puck and finding McCann to get us going. Then (Letang) there on the second goal, he’s staying with it, staying with it. Then (Dumoulin) shot it off my stick and it went in. Then (Letang) scored the fourth one. We’re playing really good hockey. We’re all supporting each other all over the ice, we’re playing for each other and it’s a great feeling.”

• Sullivan is high on how his defensive group is contributing to the offense:

“When you look at our defense corp. and how it’s built, we have the ability to generate offense from that group of six. (Letang) obviously is an elite defenseman. Justin Schultz is a real good offensive defenseman. We think some of these other guys have an offensive dimension to their games as well. Marcus has really evolved in that area of his game. (Dumoulin) has evolved in that area of his game. Those guys, they don’t always pile up points but they certainly help us generate offense. Jack and John Marino have the ability to do it as well. (Gudbranson) the same for him. We have a group of defensemen that for sure help us generate offense. They don’t always end up in the score sheet but it’s nice when they do.”

• Letang admitted he is trying to shoot a bit more this season:

“A little bit. Especially with the power play with the group that we have right now. We try to simplify things. We’re shooting more. Maybe a little bit. In the previous years, you could look at a guy like Brent Burns or Erik Karlsson, they’re shooting the puck a lot. It’s paying dividends. They’re scoring or they’re creating offense from it. It’s the only way to generate offense.”

• Sullivan spoke about his team’s emphasis on tipping shots or re-directing pucks:

“We’re always looking for different avenues to get the puck to the net. The way the game is being played today, there’s a lot of good shot-blocking teams. Sometimes, there’s layers of shot blockers in the shot lane. So you’re looking for that off-net stick or that off-lane stick that defensemen can just deliver pucks down to those areas. It’s just another opportunity to get the puck to the net. We work on that stuff a lot with the different strategies or the concepts that we’re trying to implement since training camp. That one tonight for Patric to get his stick on that puck, you’ve got to give Patric a lot of credit. He works on those things daily. Whether it’s net front or that one in the slot tonight, that’s an acquired or developed skill that guys spend of time on that over their entire career. We’ve got some of the best deflection players in the game I think between Patric and Sid and Jake.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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