New-look Penguins finally do what's expected in win against last-place Ottawa

Perhaps the trade seven hours earlier had a little something to do with it. Or maybe what happened was mere coincidence.

In any case, the Pittsburgh Penguins finally proved they can do more than once what almost every other NHL team does rather easily.

They defeated a last-place team Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The 5-3 victory against the Ottawa Senators wasn’t the Penguins’ first against a team in the basement. But they were 1-7-1 before the game and 0-1-1 against the Senators, who are last in the Atlantic Division (19-27-5).

More importantly, the Penguins (28-17-6) collected their 62nd point to move within two of the first-place New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division.

Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel each scored twice, and Teddy Blueger added his first NHL goal.

Matt Cullen, who became the oldest Penguins player to skate in a game (42 years, three months) when he took the opening faceoff, collected his 461st assist and 725th point on Blueger’s goal. It was his 1,485th game.

Goaltender Casey DeSmith recorded his first victory since Dec. 31, stopping 37 shots.

The Senators’ Matt Duchene scored with 4 minutes, 52 seconds left to trim the Penguins’ lead to 4-3, but Guentzel added his second goal two minutes later to ease the tension.

The game may have led the Penguins into their new season within a season after they traded Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan and three draft picks to the Florida Panthers for forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann.

Bjugstad centered Rust’s line, assisted on his first goal and screened Ottawa goaltender Anders Nilsson on the second.

“They are guys I’ve always noticed when I played against them,” Rust said.

He said the trade may have helped the team’s cause as players prepared to greet and play with new teammates who ended up arriving 10 minutes before faceoff.

“It kept every guy a little more focused, knowing there was a bit of a distraction,” Rust said. “Kudos to those guys. Those guys came ready to play. That’s a long day.”

Rust scored one goal through the first two months of the season but has found the back of the net 13 times since then.

“I know when to be a little more patient (with the puck),” he said. “There are times when you have time and times when you have to get things off quick and being able to recognize which is which is a big part of offense.”

He said the trade sent a message into the locker room Penguins management means business.

“This team is in a win-now mode,” he said.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.