When the week started, the Penguins had a growing list of concerns. They had just dropped two of three to the lowly New Jersey Devils and their forward ranks had swiftly been depleted. Another important one went down Wednesday.
Could they get enough goals and would their defense and goaltending hold up long enough to keep them in playoff position until reinforcements arrived?
Leave it to the Buffalo Sabres to come in and briefly wash their cares away.
The Penguins improved to 4-0-0 this season against the last-place Buffalo Sabres by cruising to a 4-0 win Thursday at PPG Paints Arena. Making his NHL debut, Radim Zohorna got his first NHL goal on his first shot. Jared McCann scored twice. And Casey DeSmith shut out the Sabres for the second time in as many weeks.
Oh, and Sidney Crosby added three assists to reach 1,300 career points.
In their back-to-back wins Wednesday and Thursday against the Sabres, who are playing out the string in March for the 10th straight year, the Penguins out-scored them, 9-2, and for long stretches of both games led by multiple goals.
We’ll see if the Penguins can keep it going against upcoming opponents that aren’t total tire fires. But credit to them for seizing all four points in the East Division standings after a week of setbacks, on the ice and in the training room.
Less than two hours before the puck dropped, coach Mike Sullivan announced that Kasperi Kapanen is week to week with a lower-body injury. Kapanen joined Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Blueger, Jason Zucker and Brandon Tanev in street clothes.
Another injury or two and Sullivan may have to lace up the skates himself.
The Penguins, who lost four of their top eight forwards in a 10-day span, used Zach Aston-Reese and Evan Rodrigues on the second line. They gave a sweater to Zohorna. Five forwards skated in the minors or on the taxi squad in 2021.
If any of the Penguins, after the latest announcement of long-term injury news, found themselves on Thursday wondering how their luck could get any worse, they just needed to tiptoe into the visiting dressing room at PPG Paints Arena.
The Sabres’ 16-game winless streak is the NHL’s longest since the “X Generation” Penguins in 2003-04. Injuries forced them to give another start to Dustin Tokarski, Pittsburgh’s fourth-string goalie last season. And embattled general manager Kevyn Adams had to coach the team Thursday due to a COVID protocol situation.
We haven’t even mentioned yet that Jack Eichel, Buffalo’s lone star, is still out.
So even with the Penguins missing more than $22 million’s worth of firepower up front, they still had a significant talent advantage over the Sabres. Crosby has nearly three times as many career points as Buffalo’s entire starting lineup.
The Penguins, despite all the injuries, continue to play with a heaping of heart, too. That was evident during a first-period penalty kill when Brian Dumoulin sprawled to break up a pass then Bryan Rust dropped to a knee to kick out a shot.
And then for the second time in as many nights, the Penguins got a big goal from their bottom-six. This time it was from a mystery man making his NHL debut.
With 2:39 left in the first period, Zohorna snapped a shot past Tokarski’s glove after Anthony Angello hit him in the slot with a nice pass. The rookie leapt into Angello’s arms and let out a jubilant scream as Frederick Gaudreau, who was with him in the American Hockey League earlier this month, hugged him front behind.
Zohorna signed with the Penguins last April after six seasons playing pro hockey back home in the Czech Republic. He started 2021 with the AHL club, getting used to North American hockey. Tuesday was his first full practice in Pittsburgh.
The 24-year-old is a big boy at 6-foot-6 and 223 pounds. He has been praised for his soft hands and surprising playmaking ability for a man his size. He skates well enough to keep up with the play and put those to use in the offensive zone.
The Penguins scored a power-play goal to push it to 2-0 early in the second period. Crosby scrambled to keep the puck in at the blue line and seconds later it was on the stick of Jared McCann, who wristed home his first goal since March 6.
DeSmith took care of it from there. His 36 saves included point-blank beauties on Sam Reinhart and Eric Staal. With the win, he improved to 8-3-0 in 2021 with a .928 save percentage that ranks among the league leaders. Not too shabby for a guy who shared the net with Tokarski in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season.
McCann added an insurance goal in the third, scoring again on the power play. Then Jake Guentzel hit an empty net, helping Crosby pick up his milestone point.
The Penguins on Saturday will host the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena. That kicks off a two-game set against the East Division’s first-place squad.
