PITTSBURGH _ It was almost as if the Penguins took the playoff blueprint they used last season and tucked it away somewhere deep inside PPG Paints Arena, where only coach Mike Sullivan and a few select others could see it.
Without the guy you'd prefer to start in goal for Game 1? No big deal.
Bad first period? Don't sweat it. There's always the second.
Bryan Rust, Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino ... of course they're going to score postseason goals.
The Penguins followed a familiar script en route to a 3-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena, the same one they used to capture the franchise's fourth Stanley Cup last spring.
Marc-Andre Fleury played the part of Jeff Zatkoff this time around, the likable good soldier, the guy who smiled his way through a difficult situation, the goaltender who unexpectedly was thrust into duty in a key spot.
Unaware he was starting until after he came off the ice following a warmup that included Matt Murray re-aggravating what appears to be a groin injury, Fleury stopped 31 of 32 shots to give the Penguins a 1-0 series lead.
Game 2 is Friday at PPG Paints Arena.
No information was immediately available on Murray's injury, other than Sullivan calling it a lower-body issue on the TV broadcast.
Murray was visibly affected while stopping Taylor Hall on a breakaway last Thursday and didn't skate with the team again until Tuesday. He left warmup with about five minutes to go after a talk with head athletic trainer Chris Stewart.
Fleury covered for the loss of Murray with an excellent performance that Penguins fans have seen so much out of the fan favorite, but as good as Fleury was, however, Kessel was probably the Penguins' best skater.
He entered the postseason with two goals in his final 26 regular season games _ but a confidence-building, smile-inducing score Saturday in Toronto.
Sullivan has been telling Kessel to shoot the puck, that there's no such thing as a bad shot, that he might just score.
Kessel practiced what Sullivan has been preaching at 3:45 of the second period. With Matt Calvert of Columbus off for tripping and the Penguins enjoying their first power play of the game, Kessel found himself all alone in the left circle. He whipped a shot from the left dot that beat Sergei Bobrovsky glove side to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
Kessel, who led all skaters with seven shots on goal and 10 attempts, led the Penguins with 10 goals and 22 points a postseason ago, but another postseason hero _ Rust _ scored the Penguins' first goal.
Evgeni Malkin gained the offensive zone. Kessel used a neat little soccer play to kick the puck to Rust in the slot. Rust beat Bobrovsky blocker side at 1:15 of the second, his fourth in his last five playoff games at PPG Paints Arena.
Bonino stretched the Penguins lead to 3-0 at 16:25 of the second period with a dirty goal in front of Bobrovsky, who was 3-5-1 in his last nine games in Pittsburgh with a 3.31 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage.
That the Penguins took things over the middle period should not come as a surprise. They scored an NHL-high 106 goals in the middle 20 last season and led the league again with 102 in 2016-17.
The Penguins led in overall goals (278) and third-period scoring (103) during the 2016-17 regular season, but they didn't need to do much. Columbus scored its only goal when Matt Calvert took advantage of a failed clear and converted from the slot at 12:41.
It turned out to be one of the few defensive lapses for the Penguins. They were active with their sticks for much of the game. Sidney Crosby, though he didn't record a point, turned in an especially strong two-way effort. Clearing pucks from in front of Fleury was a particular strength.
Possessing the puck was the issue early, as the Blue Jackets out-shot the Penguins, 16-3, during the opening 20 minutes.
Fleury was strong early and received plenty of opportunity to fine-tune his game. He stopped Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski from point-blank range at 7:23 and used his catching glove to snare a Cam Atkinson attempted at 11:55 of the period.
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