PHILADELPHIA — The uncharacteristically meek crowd at Wells Fargo Center saved most of their boos for Sidney Crosby, their favorite NHL player to hate.
But it was the Penguins’ other big guns who blasted them to Thursday’s 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Bryan Rust buried two more goals. Kris Letang dished out three assists. Jake Guentzel scored twice and has a point in 16 straight. Another strong showing from Tristan Jarry helped their early lead hold up.
The league’s hottest team has won 10 games in a row. This is the just fifth time in franchise history that the Penguins have had a winning streak that long.
“We’re still trying to get better, too,” Brian Boyle, the newcomer, said. “It’s a pretty high standard. … The people driving the bus, the leaders and how hard they work and what they demand of themselves, everybody kind of falls in line.”
Thursday’s win had significantly less drama than the one a night earlier, when they had to rally from two goals down to defeat the St. Louis Blues at home.
If some Penguins felt a bit gassed Thursday night, it didn’t really show. Also in their favor was that the home team had several players, including captain Claude Giroux and workhorse defenseman Ivan Provorov, sidelined due to COVID-19.
“[The win] against St. Louis was an emotional game. It was a big game that we were able to come back into and win,” Letang said. “Knowing we were coming in here on a back-to-back with a team that was going to give its all with all the [fill-ins] they had, we had to be ready. We did a pretty good job right from the start.”
The Penguins pounced on the undermanned Flyers in the first period, scoring at full strength, on the power play and at 4-on-4 to grab a commanding 3-0 lead. Rust had the first two of those goals, giving him seven in his last three games.
After a 10-minute feeling-out period, Brian Boyle’s line drew a penalty with hard work down low and the Penguins got their first power play. They passed the puck around for about a minute before Letang put a pass on a platter for Rust.
“Just a tremendous play to kind of hold the forward there and find Rusty on the back door. … The way he sees the ice, it’s pretty cool to see,” Guentzel said.
Rust made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later when he corralled an off-target pass with his left skate then quickly fired the puck into Carter Hart’s five-hole.
The Penguins would soon make it three goals in three minutes and 55 seconds. It took Guentzel three whacks to get the puck across the goal line after another slick feed from Letang, then a video review to conclude it was a good goal.
Cam Atkinson got the Flyers on the scoreboard midway through the second period when he bombed a shot past Jarry. Jarry, who was making his first start since Dec. 19 due to a bout with COVID-19, kept the score 3-1 as the Flyers pushed late in that period. His right pad save on Derick Brassard loomed large.
Evan Rodrigues, another man on fire, and Guentzel scored on breakaways 40 seconds apart in the third period. At that point, checked-out Flyers fans could barely even register a murmur as they left to purchase dinner at an area gas station.
Crosby, certainly no slouch with two points, and his linemates once again put their fingerprints all over the game. He led all players in offensive-zone puck possession, per Sportlogiq. Guentzel had a few more shots from the slot. And Rust nearly got another hat trick when he hit the crossbar late in the second period.
“They’re a threat almost every time they go over the boards,” Mike Sullivan said.
Rust looks like a different player than he did before the calendar turned to 2022. He twice missed a chunk of the season due to injury. And when he was in the lineup, goals were hard to come by. At times, it looked as if he was pressing.
But with his latest injury behind him, Rust has been on an absolute tear this week. He had a hat trick against San Jose then two goals in each of the wins over St. Louis and Philadelphia. His swagger is back, evidenced by a couple of nifty neutral-zone plays. And then inside the offensive zone he’s going right to the net.
“For some reason, right now the puck is pretty attracted to him,” Letang said.
Letang, meanwhile, didn’t have his sharpest game against St. Louis. But the veteran blue-liner was in complete control a night later, whirling and twirling with the puck on his blade before finding teammates who might not have even known they were open. Letang has now recorded multi-point games in four of the last five.
Boyle chipped in with a short-handed goal before the Penguins got out of town.
Thursday was the start of a season-long six-game road trip for the Penguins. Their next stop is Dallas, where they will visit the Stars on Saturday afternoon.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: January 7, 2022, 2:33 a.m.
