Gobble Gobble, Penguins Feast on Canucks for Delicious Pre-Turkey Day Win
In my season preview, I somewhat naively predicted our Penguins would finish with as many as 94 points (!!), then covered my tracks and said they could also finish with 88 or as few as 76.
Well, all three black-and-gold teams showed up last night at PPG Paints Arena during a 5-4 victory over the Canucks. Rather astonishingly, our first regulation win since November 8 and only our fifth of the season.
For the first half of the game, anyway, our Pens—buoyed by two days of practice—were downright impressive. Their passing crisp and sure, they skated with speed and authority, pounced on loose pucks and battled with vigor. Even our much-maligned defensive corps was reasonably air-tight.
As I watched with equal measures of awe and disbelief, I couldn’t help but think, “Where has this team been hiding all season?” Ours isn’t to ask why, but only to enjoy the moment, however rare.
And there were plenty of moments to enjoy, especially over the first 30 minutes or so as our boys piled up a seemingly insurmountable 5-1 lead. Peppery Blake Lizotte scored 3:59 into his first game back from IR to stake us to an early advantage.