If you are a youngster trying to make an impact on the coaching staff, choose wisely who you stir up when you do so. Niko Mikkola, playing in his 54th career game, thought bloodying this generation’s best player would get his coach’s attention. Sidney Crosby proved that this was a major mistake. The two got offsetting minors, before a Brayden Schenn crosschecking penalty led to a Bryan Rust goal. Then, the Sidney Crosby show began. After Colton Parayko made it 3-1 for St. Louis, Crosby made a beautiful pass to Rust to make it 3-2.
Starting the third down 3-2, Crosby got the tying goal from the top of the crease in front of Jordan Binnington. Berube trusted his crying goalie’s complaints of goalie interference and challenged the play. The review deemed that Crosby was outside the crease and the goal stood. On the ensuing power play, Crosby continued his dominance, by winning the faceoff forward. He drove the puck deep and began the power play rotation. Eventually, Kris Letang found Evan Rodrigues to give the Pens their first lead of the game.
Brock McGinn added the dagger, when Teddy Blueger intercepted a lazy clear attempt and found McGinn for the tap-in goal.
Schenn and Jordan Kyrou scored the two earlier goals for the Blues. Both Brian Dumoulin and Letang were quite woeful on both of these tallies.
Casey DeSmith started for the Pens, but did not finish the second after allowing three goals on 16 shots.
Tristan Jarry earned the win, while stopping all 13 shots he faced.
Miner’s Musings
TNT Broadcast is really good. I can’t personally attest to tonight’s broadcast, as I was working and only caught the condensed game highlights. I have enjoyed the few games I have seen from them though. Their intermission panel of Wayne Gretzky, Rich Tocchet, Anson Carter, and Paul Bisonette is the best in the business right now. I wasn’t super fond of having Darren Pang, a St. Louis Blues regional analyst, doing the color commentary for the national feed.
Goaltending rotation raised my eyebrows. I know that playing Philadelphia will always garner some attention. However, the Flyers are in the midst of a bit of a roster crisis right now. They have several key players out with Covid and injuries, and their AHL affiliate is in a similar way. So deciding to start DeSmith against a Blues team that is a playoff lock, while saving Jarry for a “rivalry” game against a hobbled Flyers team really had me perplexed. It is becoming clear that the Pens desperately needs to address the backup situation, especially when the schedule tightens up down the stretch.
Jake Guentzel continues torrid pace. November 11th. That’s the last day that Guentzel went pointless in a game. He has posted at least one point in 15 straight games. He has 31 points in 26 games played and leads the team in goals with 16.