For the Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoffs, so far so good. They’ve been able to overcome fairly drastic adversity all throughout this series. They lost a few key players to injury, but they seem to have taken things in stride. Their offense has been firing on all cylinders, and their defense has been fantastic as well. As of right now, the Pittsburgh Penguins are leading the series against the New York Rangers three games to one.
Of course, any team that hopes to score some goals has to have a solid offense. In the case of the Penguins, they have been immaculate. To put it into perspective, they’ve accounted for 18 of the 20 goals Pittsburgh has scored in the past four games. That is nothing short of astounding as the team clearly has zero troubles finding the back of the net.
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The spotlight has, unsurprisingly, been on the first line. Consisting of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, they’ve put up astonishing numbers. Guentzel has been able to pot an incredible five goals in four games. Adding to that, their line has a whopping total of 20 points accumulating between them. Safe to say, they’ve been the talk of the town.
Then again, there have been some unsung heroes, one of which being Teddy Blueger. He’s not known to put up the points, but instead is used to kill off penalties. He’s done this almost perfectly as the Rangers have only scored on two of their nine powerplays. Although the penalty-killing unit’s success cannot be fully attributed to Blueger, he is regarded as one of the team’s main two-way forwards.
The Penguins’ defense has been performing well. They’ve done their jobs well as they are shutting down some of the Rangers’ best goal scorers, such as Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. Just on Tuesday’s game, both Mark Friedman and Mike Matheson contributed to the scoring as they both tallied their first career playoff goals.
Image Courtesy of Andrew Mordzynski
Pittsburgh’s goaltending situation is one that nobody would’ve ever been able to guess. Tristan Jarry was injured going into the postseason, so eyes were on Casey DeSmith. Then, he was injured, so all the pressure rested on Louis Domingue. He’s been handling it well, safe to say, as he’s been stealing the thunder from the offense. His success could easily be linked to all the spicy pork and broccoli he’s been eating, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been outplaying and outhustling the New York Rangers in most of the games in this series so far. The offense has been firing goals in left and right, and the defense has been able to shut down the elite talent the Rangers are sporting. Then, Domingue has been able to step up to the task. If every facet of their game continues to perform, this series could be a wrap as early as Wednesday.
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