PITTSBURGH — Hockey fans who strolled down Centre Avenue to get inside PPG Paints Arena on Saturday — and looked up from their phones for a few seconds — might have noticed the familiar faces dangling from light poles outside the Highmark Gate.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust were the four Penguins chosen to have their scruffy mugs printed on those promotional banners.
Inside the building, those guys were nowhere to be found, nor was Jeff Carter, another who has quickly become a fan favorite. All five players — arguably among the team’s top seven or eight entering the season — were sidelined because of illness or injury when the Penguins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
So of course the Penguins rolled to an easy victory. The final score was 7-1.
Toronto had the more talented team. But puck luck was overwhelmingly in Pittsburgh’s favor as the hockey game turned into a pinball game. Their first four goals all hit something before caroming behind Leafs goalie Jack Campbell.
In the first period, Drew O’Connor was credited with the opening goal after Marcus Pettersson’s point shot hit him in the pants and dropped into the net. Then a bevvy of fortunate bounces helped the Penguins pull away in the second.
Defenseman Mike Matheson’s wraparound try hit Justin Holl’s stick and ramped over Campbell’s left pad. Fifteen seconds later, Jason Zucker’s attempted pass nicked the boot of Timothy Liljegren and took a detour behind Campbell.
At that point, the visitors called timeout. Instead of regrouping, they seemingly agreed it wasn’t their night and that they should just get back to Canada healthy.
The Penguins had full control of the game when O’Connor whipped a back-door pass in the direction of Mark Friedman that went in off Jake Muzzin’s skate.
It was the first career two-goal game for O’Connor, a 23-year-old forward.
Pettersson made it 5-1 late in the second period with a goal on an actual shot. The blue-liner was the 14th Penguins player to score this season — an NHL high.
Brian Boyle and Evan Rodrigues scored in the third to make it a laugher.
Five games in, the Penguins have earned at least one point in every game. And based on the circumstances, this was easily their unlikeliest outcome to date.
The Penguins learned Thursday that Carter had COVID-19. Two days later, Letang tested positive, though there was hope it was a false positive and he will only miss one game. Throw in the fact that Crosby was still not ready to return from wrist surgery, and the Penguins were seriously undermanned on Saturday.
It was the first time since April 9, 2017 — a meaningless regular-season finale — that the Penguins played with Crosby, Malkin and Letang all out of the lineup.
The one piece of positive news in the preceding 72 hours was that starting goalie Tristan Jarry was cleared from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol and could step back in net against Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and a talented Toronto team.
Jarry made 15 saves in a run-and-gun first period and finished the game with 28. The only Leafs goal was scored by Jason Spezza on a mad scramble in front.
Entering Saturday night’s game, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, with the growing list of inactive players, had no choice but to toss his lineup into the blender.
Rodrigues, who was a healthy scratch at the end of last postseason, was his first-line center. In his 14th NHL game, O’Connor had to move from left wing in the middle. John Marino jumped up to the top pair. And Sam Lafferty and Friedman were back in the lineup after both players had been idle for more than a week.
But the Penguins, with few banner names in that reshuffled lineup, sent the listless Leafs back over the border to face scrutiny from the Toronto media.
The Penguins are back on the ice Tuesday, when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena. They beat them, 6-2, in the Oct. 12 season opener.
