Last night was bonkers.
After seven straight losses against the New Jersey Devils, the Pittsburgh Penguins first looked destined to make it eight.
Heading into the third period, the Penguins found themselves down 3-1 in the Garden State, and the Devils were surging after scoring twice in the second frame.
Low and behold, however, a brand new Penguins team. One that we haven’t seen in…god knows how long. Pittsburgh scored five unanswered goals to flip a 3-1 deficit into a 6-3 win, shocking the crowd, fans at home, and maybe even themselves.
Sidney Crosby reached his 19th consecutive point per game season, tying him with Wayne freaking Gretzky. Evgeni Malkin returned to form, Erik Karlsson chipped in, Rickard Rakell looked alive, and just about everyone else helped in that electrifying third.
That includes goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, who was playing on back to back nights for the first time in his Penguins career.
Josh Getzoff and his group of merry men (last night, Mike Rupp joined him in the booth) often like to say “mark that one down” when a Penguin goaltender makes a save while the team is losing.
They were saying that several times about Nedeljkovic last night, and how could you not with stops like these?
Last night was Nedeljkovic’s sixth straight start for the Penguins in a span of nine days. Tristan Jarry, struggling through a poor performance post-trade deadline, took a backseat to Ned in recent days, before suffering with a bout of illness that is apparently making it’s way through the locker room.
Jarry’s illness forced the Penguins to dress an emergency backup goaltender on Monday against the New York Rangers, and call up Joel Blomqvist from the AHL last night.
That only further entrenched Ned as the team’s starter for now, and he has routinely given the Penguins chance to win games. Has the team always taken that chance? Absolutely not. But he gives them a chance.
With their win over New Jersey, the Penguins, somehow, are back in the playoff race. As of Wednesday, April 3rd, Pittsburgh sits three points back of the second wild card spot with seven games left to go. The best part? They have a head-to-head matchup against three of the teams ahead of them.
The Penguins, right now, seem eerily similar to the Florida Panthers of last season. Allow me to explain a little:
Florida made the biggest trade of the summer two years ago, when they acquired Matthew Tkachuk from the Calgary Flames. They were supposed to be this big-time contender in the Eastern Conference, but instead, they struggled way more than they probably should have.
The Panthers were at 81 points with seven games to go last season, still scratching and clawing to try and make it to the dance. Florida was struggling with starter Sergei Bobrovsky in net. He just wasn’t himself at that point, and the team relied on Alex Lyon to try and save the season.
Through Lyon’s outstanding performance, the Panthers charged all the way back and snuck into the playoffs, and proceeded to make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
Though Bobrovsky reclaimed his role in the playoffs, the backup Lyon played a pivotal role in giving Florida that berth. Lyon played the team’s final eight regular season games in net.
Now fast forward a year. Matthew Tkachuk is now Erik Karlsson. The underperforming Panthers are now the woeful Penguins. And Alex Lyon is now Alex Nedeljkovic.
The Penguins have two less points than the Panthers did at this same time last year.
Even though Jarry is seemingly healthy, given that Blomqvist was sent back down, there is no way that the Penguins cannot continue to keep Ned in net.
In his last five games, Ned is 4-0-1 with a .928 save percentage. You cannot shelf that type of performance for any amount of time when you are fighting for your playoff life.
This new found hope could all be dead by tomorrow night, when the Penguins visit the nation’s capital to play the Washington Capitals. This is the definition of a must-win game.
Tristan Jarry has started all three games vs Washington so far this season. To his credit, he recorded a 19 save shutout in that first game all the way back on October 13th. However, he has been yanked early in his two more recent starts against the Capitals.
Even if Jarry had a good track record against the Capitals this season, I would lean with the hot hand in Nedeljkovic. Considering Jarry’s recent outings against Washington, they have to go with Ned.
Stick with Ned until the wheels fall off. He’s helped get you to this point.
(Featured photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)
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