Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Who are these Penguins?
Evgeni Malkin. Sidney Crosby. Tyler Kennedy. Ty Conklin. Two of those names were predicted to be major contributors for this year’s Pittsburgh Penguins. The other two were not expected to be anything but role players, if that. All four played a major role in the Penguins’ 6-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night at Mellon Arena, the team’s seventh consecutive win.
Malkin alone outscored the Leafs, netting a hat trick against former Devils’ backup Scott Clemmensen. Getting Malkin going is almost as vital to the Penguins as having a productive Sidney Crosby, simply because Malkin has shown the talent to be the elite scorer that the Penguins so desperately need. He further displayed this again and again against the Maple Leafs as he constantly tried to stick another puck in the net.
Tyler Kennedy further demonstrated how he is this year’s Colby Armstrong (a rookie showing a nice scoring touch), taking a nice feed from the slumping Jordan Staal and scoring on an impressive backhand in what has to be one of the best individual efforts this season from a Penguin not named Malkin or Crosby. Kennedy is the type of gritty, third or fourth line player who still puts up points that the Penguins need. His ability to step up and change the momentum of the game has established him as on the of the most important players for the Penguins right now.
It was not, however, Kennedy’s goal that is being given credit for the change in momentum tonight. No, it is the one scored by Jarko Ruutu, the winger who broke the Penguins out of lethargy and broke Darcy Tucker’s nose in the same punch. Players and Coach Michel Therrien noted that the Penguins looked a little bit lazy at the start of the game, but as soon as Ruutu faced off against Tucker, the Penguins seemed to regain their life and scored four unanswered goals over the next fifteen minutes of game action.
Ruutu showed why the Penguins picked him up off of the free agent market two summers ago by being the sparkplug player that a third or fourth liner should be. When the stars are not doing the job, it is the responsibility of the Ruutus of the world (and not just his brother Tuomo) to step up and make something happen. And, on this team, at this moment, that role is understood and is being fulfilled.
(And, of course, I must give the requisite props to Ty Conklin who continued to just win in goal for the Penguins. I am going to *knock on wood and not that synthetic crap that they’re making sticks out of nowadays* say that I was wrong about Conklin and that he definitely deserves a spot in the NHL and on this roster. The trick is, as it is with many players, to not let him become comfortable with his situation. If Therrien allows Conklin and Marc-Andre Fleury to both constantly believe that they are in competition with the other, he will receive the best possible performance from both.)
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