The Penguins came out and took this game from the Buffalo Sabres, though they gave the Pens a lot of hell along the way.
This is the View From Where I Sat for the Pens and Sabres tonight...
The Game in Review
My 3 Stars
2. Jeff Zatkoff: I said in the Pregame he'd need to be near perfect tonight and you have to give it to him, he was very, very good. Zatkoff stopped 50 of 53 shots on goal for his first win since the 2013-14 season. The goals he let in were far from his fault and he was perfect on the eight power play shots he faced. Zatkoff will likely only see 15-20 games this year, but I don't worry about him the same way I worried about Thomas Greiss last year. Zatkoff gets better as the game goes on, tonight was perfect proof.
3. Patric Hornqvist: FINALLY HORNY!!!! This guys has played well in 8 of 9 games entering tonight and had nothing to show for it. Tonight, he reaped his reward. Hornqvist and the whole top line looked good. Horny got a nice goal courtesy of Sid in the first and assisted on Geno's power play tally in the second. On the night, he added four shots, four hits and a blocked shot as well. A great game for the always hustling Hornqvist.
Making the Grade
Olli Maatta (B): A better game from the young Fin tonight. He assisted on Hornqvist's goal and had a hit and two blocked shots. He still doesn't look all the way back, but Scuderi isn't helping much there either.
Rob Scuderi (C+): He was great on the PK and much better in the third, but he was directly responsible in the Sabres first two goals.
Matt Cullen (C+): The veteran center was alright tonight, nothing to ride home about. He had one shot but not much else besides solid PK play and winning 54% of his faceoffs.
Brian Dumoulin (B): I thought Dumo took a step back tonight. He got beat on a couple shifts, but he did put up 5 hits and a blocked shot. Overall, I think he was solid, but played much better last night.
Pascal Dupuis (B+): I called it in the Pregame that Duper would score the first goal of the game. He did just that... I better go get a power ball ticket with that skill. Anyway, Duper went on to post another shot, five hits and a blocked shot. Duper's best game by far and that bodes well for the Pens.
Kevin Porter (C+): Didn't care for his game tonight. He was a minus and didn't contribute a ton. I said it last night and I still feel this way, I'd have preferred Plotnikov tonight.
Ben Lovejoy (A): See above.
Nick Bonino (B-): I feel like I didn't see a ton of him tonight, but the box score points to a solid game. He had three shots and three takeaways.
Chris Kunitz (C+): Besides the hits, where he had four tonight, Kunitz was pretty invisible. All I really have to say about him.
Beau Bennett (C+): A step back from the guy we saw last night. Only had one shot on net and like Bonino and Kunitz, didn't see much out of him.
Ian Cole (B-): He was solid tonight but not great. He's had a few mediocre games in a row now.
Daniel Sprong (C+): Continues to be underutilized and misused. One shot and one hit in 9:36. I want him to stay, but is this really helping his growth? I'm not sure it is.
David Perron (B-): Perron played much better tonight. He was fighting like hell to get a goal but came up short again. He still managed four hits and two shots. Better from him in my opinion.
Kris Letang (B-): Was on their for two goals against and could be held responsible for one of them. Other than that, he had two shots and three blocks. So take the good with the bad.
Evgeni Malkin (A-): Would have been my fourth star tonight. Scored a power play goal and had a nice give-and-go with Lovejoy on his first of the season. I like the way Geno is playing right now and particularly like the way him and Phil are playing together.
Patric Hornqvist (A-): See above.
Phil Kessel (B): He was out there for a goal against, but he set up Geno's power play tally and had two take aways. Phil is playing well right now, bet he couldn't be happier with his situation right now.
Sidney Crosby (B): Sid looked great in the first, but faded the rest of the game. In that first 10 minutes though, that top line was lethal. Sid picked up two points and hopefully this game is the jumpstart for him and the other two guys on his line.
My Final Thoughts
Besides that little break at the end of the first, the Penguins played a relatively complete game. They skated well, they fought hard in the corners and they took advantage of rebounds. They really haven't done that consistently since... November of 2014.
I really love the way Kessel and Malkin are playing together. They have eight points together since the lines were changed in Nashville. They are gelling and they need to remain together going forward.
It was great to see a couple guys get off the schnide and get a goal. I was pumped for Dupuis to get one, but I was really happy for Patric Hornqvist. He has played his heart out all season and had nothing to show for it, but not on this night. Two points and a great goal from the Pens best net front guy. Glad to see it.
Same can be said about Ben Lovejoy. He has played really well the last few games. His chemistry with Brian Dumoulin continues to grow and they are developing into the Penguins shut-down pair. Wouldn't have thought that would be possible in September, but here we are.
Zatkoff was great. He played incredibly well tonight. It is not easy to not see game action in over a month and real NHL action in over a year. What makes it even more impressive is he didn't face the occasional shot, he stopped 50 shots. Fifty! That pretty impressive.
The top line played really well in the first, but seemed to disappear a little bit as the game went on. Hopefully, they continue to play well more than disappear.
And I cannot forget, way to go Consol! Loud tonight thanks mostly to Mikey, Big Bob and the FS section. Also, PARTY HARD GOAL SONG!!!! I'm sorry, but that makes me happier than a pig in mud.
The Penguins have won six of their last seven games and three straight. Tonight, I felt was one of their most complete games this season. They will hit the road for a trip across Canada over the next week. The trip should be a good one for the Penguins. They will play a struggling Leafs team Saturday, an up-and-down Vancouver team on Wednesday before playing back to back games Friday and Saturday against Edmonton and Calgary respectively. Six out of eight points is not out of the question and a clean sweep of the road trip would be huge going forward.
Thanks for stopping by to enjoy the post game and earlier in the day for the Pregame. Just a reminder, I will not have a post game on Saturday, but I WILL have a Pregame. So be sure to check in for that.
That's it for me, good night everyone. Lets Go Pens!