In one of my articles this summer, I questioned how our Penguins might fare when they weren’t at the top of their game. Kind of a like a pitcher in baseball who didn’t have his best fastball.
Would we be able to grind out wins?
For 57 minutes and change at the Bell Centre in Montreal it appeared we would do just that.
Like the aforementioned pitcher, we clearly didn’t have our best stuff last night. In stark contrast to our first two games, we had precious little hop. Instead of pressuring the Canadiens with an incessant attack, we spent the better part of the evening chasing the puck and the play, not to mention those sporting bleu, blanc et rouge jerseys.
In those rare instances when we did carry the play, there was little puck support. A lot of one and dones. A lot of perimeter.
The fact that we were able to salvage a point was due largely to the supreme efforts of Evgeni Malkin and especially backup goalie Casey DeSmith.
Resembling the Geno of yore, the rangy Russian struck for two second-period goals.
