CHICAGO — Good vibes reverberated inside the visiting dressing room at United Center late Sunday night after the Penguins capped off their 3-0 road trip with an emotional, memorable and incredibly uncommon victory in Chicago.
Evgeni Malkin seemed to be in no rush to leave, chatting with a Russian reporter after he skated in his 1,000th game — and scored a goal to boot.
Sidney Crosby sat right next to him, satisfied with an imperfect win in that building, where the Penguins had last won back in 2009, his fourth NHL season.
Soon, Mike Sullivan, standing out in the hall, explained why Penguins fans should expect his fellow coaches and him to be sporting mustaches for a while.
“That was the deal we cut with the players if we got all three on this road trip,” Sullivan said. “So we’ve got to live up to our end of the bargain, I guess.”
Apparently, the mustaches must stay until after the Winter Classic on Jan. 2.
With their improved play over the last two weeks, the Penguins are back looking like a team a TV audience will actually want to tune in to watch that day.
Frustration had set in for the Penguins after their seventh straight loss earlier this month. They hadn’t quite reached desperation. But that didn’t feel far off.
It wasn’t just that they were losing. It was that they weren’t even close to winning, with big breakdowns, blown leads and an inability to bear down late in games had them looking like a beer hockey club, not the NHL’s most veteran team.
The Penguins got things pointed back in the right direction on the road. They went 5-0-1 over a couple of three-game trips, with a home loss in the middle.
They know they still have things to clean up. But they left here feeling happy with how they handled the adversity and momentum swings on this last trip.
“I think it’s huge. We win all three games. I hope our confidence is back,” Malkin said. “It was not a perfect game [Sunday]. But two points is two points.”
In Minnesota, they regrouped after coughing up another multi-goal lead in a span of 12 seconds. Their struggling power play pushed them to that 6-4 win.
Saturday’s 3-0 win in Winnipeg might have been their best all season. They played structured, patient hockey and pulled away from the Jets after the score was 0-0 heading into the third. That 32-save shutout from Tristan Jarry helped.
Their 5-3 win in Chicago was an emotional roller coaster, with Malkin’s milestone night and another large lead given away. Crosby was the hero, scoring the winner on an awesome individual effort, then setting up Jeff Carter’s empty-netter to help the Penguins avoid a deflating loss in the last game of their trip.
“We all know that the standard is higher than the way we played [Sunday],” Sullivan said. “But I give the players a lot of credit for finding a way to win.”
In these recent victories, which have pulled the Penguins back into the early playoff picture in the Metropolitan Division, a few encouraging trends emerged.
The goaltending is getting better. Jarry looked like himself in Winnipeg, tracking pucks well, sitting up tall in net and playing with some swagger again. DeSmith let in that soft game-tying goal Sunday but otherwise he was sharp, as well.
The penalty kill is night and day compared to where it was in the first dozen games or so. Teddy Blueger has returned to boost that bunch. Newcomers such as Ryan Poehling and Jan Rutta have a much firmer grasp of the aggressive way Pittsburgh kills. And guys are blocking shots, making net-front worries moot.
All four forward lines are establishing chemistry and hopefully identities. Putting Rickard Rakell back on Crosby’s line has paid immediate dividends; he was the NHL’s First Star of the Week with 10 points in those three wins. And the fourth line of Poehling, Blueger and Josh Archibald was so stingy on the trip.
The Penguins have cut down on the giveaways in dangerous areas, resulting in a decline in odd-man rushes and quick goals scored on the counterattack.
And the shutout in Winnipeg against a hot Jets team reminded them what they are capable of if they stick to Sullivan’s script instead of chasing after scores.
“I think we know how capable we are to play defense really well,” Kris Letang said of that win. “With the talent that we have and the skill that we have, we know that we’re going to score goals, even if we really focus on our defensive game.”
Added Malkin: “Just play right and we’ll have a chance to win every game.”
No, the Penguins didn’t “play right” after they took a 3-0 lead in Chicago. But they won anyway. That was one of many things for them to celebrate Sunday.
“It’s something to build off of,” Crosby said. “We were more happy with our first couple of games on the trip than we were tonight. But we found a way. And you’ve got to do that sometimes. We’ve got to continue to get better here. We’ve got to continue to string wins together and play the right way and keep it going.”
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: November 21, 2022, 5:17 p.m.
