Penguins celebrate Kris Letang, then beat Flyers

Sunday was a big night for the Pittsburgh Penguins on two levels.

First, they had to recognize a monumental figure in the organization as Kris Letang was honored before a home contest at PPG Paints Arena, the 1,000th game of his prodigious existence as the franchise’s greatest defenseman.

Second, they had to be mindful of their immediate future and secure a victory against the rival Philadelphia Flyers.

Mission accomplished on both fronts.

Buoyed by the celebration of Letang’s milestone before the opening faceoff, the Penguins defeated their rivals, the woebegone Flyers, 4-2, and inched back into the final wild-card position of the Eastern Conference.

With Sunday’s result, the Penguins (38-29-10, 86 points) moved ahead of the idle Florida Panthers (39-31-7, 85 points) for that spot. Additionally, they moved closer to the New York Islanders (39-30-9, 87 points) for the top Wild Card seed.

Letang’s moment, which included an elaborate pregame ceremony with his family, was the fulcrum for the Penguins’ securing a vital triumph.

“It’s important as an organization that we acknowledge that,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It gives us an opportunity to rally around it and get excited about it.

Related:

• Penguins' Kris Letang at 1,000 games: 'Tangerisms', meatballs and dedication
• Penguins honor Kris Letang's 1,000th NHL game

“We’re trying to win games. We’re trying to get points.”

The jubilation was marred, albeit slightly, by Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin accumulating an obscene 28 minutes in penalties, a career-high as well as a league-high for the 2022-23 season (according to Hockey-Reference).

The bulk of those were accrued at 1 minute, 49 seconds of the third period when Malkin was high sticked by Flyers defenseman Cam York and protested the lack of a penalty — too vehemently, apparently — to referee Chris Schlenker, who doled out a game misconduct, a 10-minute misconduct and an unsportsmanlike conduct minor.

“He’s, obviously, an emotional guy,” Sullivan said of Malkin, who had three minor penalties in the second period alone. “His emotions got the best of him in that circumstance. (Malkin) and I will have a conversation about that. He’s got to do a better job of controlling his emotions because we need him.”

Penguins forward Rickard Rakell, appearing in his slightly less anticipated 646th career game, opened the scoring with two goals in the first period. His first came through unconventional means 11:40 into regulation.

After Malkin won a draw in the Flyers’ right circle against rookie forward Noah Cates, Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin settled the puck on the right wall and centered the pass to the high slot where Rakell golfed a one-timer that was well off the mark and took off like a turboprop at Allegheny County Airport. The puck clunked off the glass behind the cage and then fluttered into the right hip of rookie goaltender Samuel Ersson before rolling into the cage for Rakell’s 26th goal of the season. Dumoulin and Malkin had assists.

“I was just as surprised to see it go in,” said Rakell, who offered a dubious suggestion of “3 feet” in trying to estimate how much his shot missed the cage by. “I’ll take it.”

Rakell indeed took another one on a power-play opportunity at 14:53 of the opening period.

Accepting a pass above the Flyers’ right circle, Malkin faked a slapper and then coolly distributed the puck to Rakell in the slot. Positioned between the hashmarks, Rakell chopped the puck with the heel of his stick past Ersson’s blocker. Malkin and forward Sidney Crosby collected assists.

“We have huge games coming down the stretch here, and I want to do my part to help our team,” Rakell said. “I don’t care about the numbers. Just every game, I want to score.”

Penguins forward Bryan Rust scored his 19th goal of the season in his 500th career game at 13:23 of the second period off a give-and-go sequence with Crosby.

After Flyers forward Nicolas Deslauriers lost a puck in the Penguins’ zone, Rust took possession and transitioned into a two-on-one offensive rush by dealing the puck to Crosby who hustled through the neutral zone, crisscrossed with Rust and gained the Flyers’ blue line on the right wing. Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo opted to pressure Crosby, leaving the slot unguarded. That allowed Rust to surge to the open ice, accept a pass from Crosby and attack the net, lifting a backhander past Ersson’s blocker. Crosby and defenseman Jeff Petry claimed assists.

That gave Rust three goals in two games. He had been limited to one goal in his preceding 14 games before this small outburst.

“The expected goals (advanced metric), I think it was minus-11 or something a few days ago,” Rust said. “That must mean my finishing wasn’t up to par this year. It’s nice to see a few go in this weekend. I’ve got to try to keep that going, try and help this team win games.”

A would-be goal by Flyers forward Morgan Frost at 16:58 of the second period was immediately waved off after officials ruled Flyers forward Joel Farabee interfered with goaltender Casey DeSmith on the sequence.

The Flyers did score a legal goal at 5:57 of the third period when Deslauriers collected his sixth score of the season.

In the left corner of the Penguins’ zone, Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk beat Petry to a puck and rimmed it along the end board to the opposite corner for DeAngelo who allowed things to develop for a moment then snapped a forehand pass to the top of the crease. Deslauriers charged in and tapped a forehand shot past DeSmith’s blocker. Assists went to DeAngelo and van Riemsdyk.

It became a one-goal game at 17:31 of the third period thanks to forward Travis Konecny’s 29th goal with Ersson pulled for an extra attacker.

Off some precision puck movement, Frost accepted the puck below the goal line on the right wing then immediately swept a forehand pass to the right hashmarks for Konecny who leaned down and swiped a shot over DeSmith’s left shoulder. Frost and Farabee tallied assists.

Any notion of another late collapse for the Penguins was euthanized by forward Ryan Poehling’s seventh goal on an empty net at 18:48 of the final period. Forward Mikael Granlund and Dumoulin had assists.

“We’ll take the wins right now,” Rust said of the Flyers’ late surge. “Obviously, there’s some things that we’ve got to clean up. We’ve got to stop getting that deer in the headlights look in the third period there. We’ve just got to be on our toes a little bit more.”

DeSmith, whose record was boosted to 15-16-4, used his toes and just about every other appendage at his disposal to make 31 saves on 33 shots. A handful of his denials could have been characterized as larcenous.

It was a resolute performance for DeSmith, who was diced up in a 7-4 road loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.

“Had a few good days of practice here,” DeSmith said of trying to rebound from his latest outing. “Some good morning skates as well. Just working on some things. Some things that I wanted to focus on. That put me in a really good position to feel good.”

The Penguins felt really good on Sunday night for a couple of reasons.

“It was a special night,” said Letang, who logged a season-best 30:34 of ice time on 29 shifts. “A lot of emotion. But you have to refocus and say the two points are more important right now.

“It was cool to get the win.”

Notes:

• The ceremony honoring Letang:

• Letang became the 10th player drafted by the Penguins to reach the 1,000-game barrier:

Jaromir Jagr - 1,733

Mark Recchi - 1,652

Sidney Crosby - 1,185

Jordan Staal - 1,166

Markus Naslund - 1,177

Doug Bodger - 1,071

Evgeni Malkin - 1,058

Alex Goligoski - 1,040

Brooks Orpik - 1,035

Kris Letang - 1,000

• Letang, Crosby and Malkin became the second trio in NHL history to reach the 1,000-game mark with one franchise. Los Angeles Kings forwards Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and defenseman Drew Doughty were the first.

• Malkin’s 28 penalty minutes set a high-water mark for the entire NHL season. Stars forward Luke Glendening racked up 27 penalty minutes in a 4-1 road loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 26.

• The last Penguins player to take as many penalty minutes as Malkin was forward Steve Downie who had 29 in a 4-3 home shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 12, 2014.

• Malkin’s previous career high of 16 penalty minutes came in a 1-0 home win against the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 2, 2014.

• Defenseman Russ Anderson still holds the single-game franchise record with 51 penalty minutes in a 5-2 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Jan. 19, 1980.

• Dumoulin (137 points) surpassed forward Stu Barnes (136) and defenseman Zarley Zalapski (135) for 66th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• DeSmith (58 wins) surpassed Greg Millen (57) and moved into eighth place on the franchise’s career goaltending wins list.

• The Penguins swept a regular season series against the Flyers for the third time in franchise history:

2022-23 - 3-0-0

2017-18 - 4-0-0

2006-07 - 8-0-0

• The Penguins’ scratches were forward Alex Nylander (healthy) and defenseman Jan Rutta (suspected left knee)

• Per Sullivan, Rutta as well as fellow injured defensemen Dmitry Kulikov (suspected left foot), Marcus Pettersson (undisclosed) and forward Nick Bonino (lacerated kidney) all skated Sunday morning. All four players could return to the lineup by the regular season finale (March 13) according to Sullivan. Kulikov, Pettersson and Bonino are all designated to long-term injured reserve.