Penguins Bludgeon Banged-Up Panthers, 9-4
Heading into Saturday’s matchup with the Panthers at PPG Paints Arena, I confess to having some concerns. It wasn’t so much our flat-line loss to the Lightning on Thursday night as a fear that we might take the two-time defending Cup champs too lightly.
Despite a burgeoning injury list that included no fewer than eight regulars, including luminaries Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad, the Panthers had scored back-to-back victories over the Bruins and Senators.
Concern No. 2? The prolonged shaky netminding of Arturs Šilovs.
I was thrilled when the Pens jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on tallies by Noel Acciari and Erik Karlsson. Not so when the Panthers struck back to knot the score on goals by A.J. Greer and Seth Jones. The former came on a made-to-order rebound off the pads of Šilovs and the latter on a slapper from downtown.
Reinforcing concern No. 2.
And then the Pens absolutely ERRUPTED in the second period.