How yinz doing?
For a few hours last night, the Penguins held the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card slot. Then the Senators had to go and ruin a nice story — well, not ruin, but I did need to update my observations — by beating the Kraken in Seattle.
Whatever. I’m not about to let that harsh my vibe.
The Penguins’ comeback win over the Kings last night was their most impressive of the season. They scored three goals against a team that allowed two or fewer in 10 of its 12 previous games, nine of those being regulation wins.
The Kings are good. They might be Stanley Cup good. And the Penguins beat them.
Not only that, the win didn’t feel fluky. With about nine minutes left in regulation and the Penguins trailing 2-1, I turned to a colleague in the press box and predicted a tying goal and then a victory. My confidence came from watching the Penguins confound the Kings with disciplined and simple neutral-zone play — and from watching Sidney Crosby.
The captain wasn’t going to be denied, even if he didn’t score. He had that look about him.
His Penguins are starting to, too.
They’re on a 7-2-1 run that is as improbable as any in my 21 seasons covering them. This isn’t their best 10-game stretch, but it’s the least expected. They appeared to be dead on Thanksgiving Eve, with visions of draft lottery ping-pong balls dancing in the heads of folks itching for a full-on rebuild.
Now, it’s plausible given the quality of their next three opponents — two of which are the Predators and Flyers, who are a combined 23-30-10 — the Penguins will be in a playoff position as Christmas arrives.
Numbers n’at
23 — Combined points by the New York Islanders, Rangers and Buffalo Sabres dating to Nov. 23.
The league’s New York state teams were all ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference going on Thanksgiving Eve. They’re a combined 9-15-5 since — a .303 points percentage, compared to the Penguins’ .750 points percentage over the same span.
The Penguins, who had the fourth-worst points percentage going into Thanksgiving Eve, wouldn’t have ascended the way they have without help from several teams. The teams in New York state are doing their part. So are the Detroit Red Wings (4-5-2) and Columbus Blue Jackets (4-6-3) over the last few weeks.
A Rossi Rant
Alarm bells nearly went off after the game.
OK, not really. But a handful of people gasped as WWE Superstar Bron Breakker nearly stood on the Penguins logo on the team’s dressing room carpet while posing for a photo.
That’s a no-no in the NHL, though Breakker didn’t know. This was his first official visit to an NHL game, which came as part of the Penguins’ WWE Night; his other appearances had been for pro or college football games.
Understandably, he was unaware of one of hockey’s truly stupidest unwritten rules.
I’m old enough to remember Canadiens players looking dumbfounded in the mid-2000s as I stretched to avoid standing on their team’s logo in the center of their dressing room in Montreal. At the time, fewer teams forbade people from getting within sneezing distance of the logo. The Penguins were one of them.
I attempted to explain all of this to Breakker, who understandably looked at me with disbelief. Maybe it was because I wore a Macho Man Randy Savage sweater over my dress shirt. Maybe both?
— Rob Rossi (@robrossi.bsky.social) December 17, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Anyway, the sacred logo stuff is still a stupid hockey thing. It’s not like Breakker was about to spear the Penguins’ mascot, Iceberg (though he should have). A team staffer asked him to pose for a photo, and he obliged and headed for the center of the dressing room, where there’s a rounded carpet that looks like it’s there for that exact purpose.
From his perspective, every step he took toward that carpet made sense, as it would for any reasonable person.
Hockey people aren’t reasonable about certain things, and making a piece of carpet sacred is one of those things.
I’m part of the problem, by the way. I screamed “No!” as Breakker approached the logo.
Sigh.
Title time
One of sports’ coolest trophies was at PPG Paints Arena last night, and I don’t mean the Stanley Cup. Fans at the game could snap pictures with the U.S. Open trophy on the first concourse.
The trophy was there as part of the ongoing promotion for next summer’s U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. As if the U.S. Open returning to its unofficial home golf course — Oakmont will host the tournament for a record 10th time in June — needs a ton of hype.
It doesn’t. Oakmont is legendary.
Similar to the Stanley Cup, there’s only one real U.S. Open trophy. The tournament winner is loaned the trophy for a season but then makes do with a replica for the rest of their life.
The best trophies are the ones you have to win again to get your hands on.
Don’t miss
• Pierre LeBrun explores the disappointing Canucks’ trade needs in his latest rumblings column. I’d still make them the favorite to trade for Marcus Pettersson if Penguins GM Kyle Dubas opts to move him this season. That’s been the plan, and Pettersson’s lower-body injury shouldn’t force Dubas to change it. The Penguins continuing to win might, though.
• Reasonable people can agree to disagree. Sean McIndoe writes that the Penguins’ 1992-93 Presidents’ Trophy team was the best of the Mario Lemieux era in this fun story about regular-season champs who fail the next season. I can reasonably say he’s wrong.
The best Lemieux-era Penguins team — the best Penguins team ever — is the one that won (checks notes) 11 consecutive games to end the 1992 playoffs and become a back-to-back champion.
That team beat the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers in a six-game Patrick Division final in which Lemieux was taken out by a hack from Adam Graves in Game 2. Those Penguins beat the team with first- and second-best league records in Rounds 1 and 2 and swept a Chicago Blackhawks team that had also won 11 in a row in the Stanley Cup Final.
The 1991-92 Penguins are one of the most impressive teams since the NHL expanded from its Original Six. They would have swept the 1992-93 Penguins.
(Photo of Rickard Rakell: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
