A few changes for the Penguins, Harrison Brunicke is in for Connor Clifton, Tristan Jarry gets his turn in the rotation in net. Big changes up front, Filip Hallander is up to the first line and Ville Koivunen is back from the AHL as the Pens look to replace the injured Rickard Rakell.

The visiting Blues have some tough times going on, Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours are out due to injury.

Hopefully everyone got to their seats in the arena or on the recliner early — the Penguins start the game with two goals in the first 55 seconds of the game.

Bryan Rust got the party started 39 seconds in, taking a beauty of an Erik Karlsson cross-ice pass and firing the puck by Joel Hofer. 1-0 just like that.

Why stop there? That’s what Evgeni Malkin and Anthony Mantha said. Malkin skates around the defender, Mantha posts up in front of the net. Somehow Hofer has completely lost his net and there’s no defense to be found. 2-0.

Despite the early strikes, the Blues hang in there. One on play they take advantage of the Matt Dumba and Harrison Brunicke pair. Nathan Walker makes a sweet pass that Dumba can’t divert, and Nick Bjugstad beats Brunicke to the front of the net. Bjugstad heels the shot, but it still is able to slide slowly into the net. 2-1.

Tommy Novak takes a plenty to send STL to the first power play. They hit a post but don’t score, then Novak is sprung for a breakaway out of the box and his shot glances off the post.

St. Louis ties it off the rush, Ben Kindel and Karlsson aren’t on the same page and the puck gets by them. The Blues are on the rush and Brayden Schenn finds Jordan Kyrou for a tap-in. 2-2 game.

Shots are 10-0 Pens for the period. Overall they have to be a little bit disappointed that they allowed their visitors to collect themselves and even out the game after that shocking first minute.

A ref raised his arm at about 14:17 remaining, but the Blues couldn’t touch the puck to draw the whistle. Finally, at 13:23, Parker Wotherspoon picks a corner and scores. 3-2 Pens back in front after the long sequence that wore STL down and eventually caught Hofer not able to get square.

Shots were 10-9 STL in the second in a game that settled down.

The Pens first line is feeling it, great shift capped off by Crosby going low-to-high and Karlsson making a sublime shot-pass that Bryan Rust just has to let bounce off his stick and past Hofer. 4-2 game, the crowd erupts with the announcement of it being Crosby’s 1,700th career NHL point.

In fact, no one seems to notice that Brunicke has taken a penalty. The Pens kill it off but the Blues score soon after, Mathieu Joseph rips a shot short-side on Jarry off the rust. 4-3 game.

As the game gets old, the Blues press for offense. Rust breaks up a pass and touches it ahead for a Crosby breakaway. Hofer stops the shot but leaves a rebound and Crosby cleans up his own mess quickly. 5-3 game.

All doubts were removed and Malkin tacked on an empty netter for good measure just 20 seconds later. 6-3.

  • An LOL from Haley Hunter on Sportsnet Pittsburgh talking during the first period about Ville Koivunen, she said what did the team tell Koivunen after sending him down to the AHL after two games? That he “wasn’t very good. And he agreed!” Nice to see some honest assessment and also that his stint in exile didn’t last very long through being very successful and productive in Wilkes-Barre and getting an injury elsewhere to get Koivunen back for a second chance after hardly any time at all.
  • The Pens look like they’re going with Letang and Karlsson together for offensive zone draws. Interesting to see that start to develop. Sometimes you remember that Pittsburgh as two left shot defenders on their team, and those two players are Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea.
  • And this isn’t the usual platform or time/place for big picture thoughts, but for cryin’ out loud, this team is going to have to find a third LD just for the sake of being functional. Dumba on the left side and a 19-year old Brunicke isn’t going to be the answer. (Neither is Connor Clifton). We’ll see how and when that might get rectified.
  • Pittsburgh scored on the first shot of the game (and the second too, but that doesn’t fit into this point). Anyways, they scored on the first shot last game against CBJ too. Maybe this is retribution of a reverse Jarry from last season where this year the Pens will be frequently scoring early on in games. It’s much preferable.
  • St. Louis hit the post three times in the first period. Not sure if this is a confirmation bias based off key moments that stand out but it seems like the Pens are getting exceptional luck this year with opponents hitting posts and not scoring. The official NHL log has 11 posts or crossbars hit vs. PIT in the nine games before tonight, make it 14 in 10 after tonight and comes to a pace of 115 over a full season for illustrative purposes of how common it has been. Just added up last season’s totals and it was 93 opponent instances of post/crossbar. More an observation than a point due to the random uncontrollable variation of how assorted opponents will shoot, besides maybe another little piece of evidence that a whole lot of uncontrollable factors are smiling on the Penguins so far this season. Long may they continue…
  • Along those lines, tonight marked the ninth consecutive game that Pittsburgh has been outshot by their opponent.
  • A strange and bad incident happened early in the game when a fan fell out of a higher level of the stands. The game was not interrupted, as if no one on the ice and many in the building didn’t realize it happened. Hopefully all will be well there.
  • 1,700 points for Sidney Crosby! What can you say at this point, just continued and sustained excellence on another two-point night generating offense for the Pens. The pass itself wasn’t that remarkable, but Crosby’s work in the sequence leading up to it to corral the puck with his skates and fight off defenders showed a lot of the trademark notes. Same as it has been for 20 years.
  • I always like the plays where Crosby reacts with a little extra, like he’s impressed and managed to surprise himself, which you see every so often. Happened after his goal with the little fist pump and leg coming up and a little woo.
  • Karlsson’s play on that goal was another master piece moment that he can create. Three assists for him on the night, his puck touches have been excellent and varied for how he is able to spin up chances. Karlsson had 45 and 42 assists in each of his first two seasons with the Pens, he’s up to nine assists in 10 games this season and will be throttling the previous numbers if he keeps it up. Right now that’s looking promising.
  • Malkin is keeping it rollin’ too, his 13 assists through 10 games are the most by a 39+ year old player. Fitting way to round out the game by joining the list of multi-point games and flexing a little muscle late.
  • Really good game for Rust, and obviously the three points was the best of his young season. He was quiet rounding back into form after coming back from his injury, lately he’s been right in the mix like always. Two goals and an assist for his efforts a lot – nearly doubling his season point total of four coming into this game.

The home crowd had a lot to cheer for, led by the vintage performance of players like Crosby, Karlsson, Rust and Malkin to push the Pens out towards what ended up being a comfortable win, even though St. Louis was in shouting distance for much of the night. Pittsburgh puts another win on the board and will be riding high going into a four-game road trip that begins tomorrow night in Philadelphia.