Arturs Silovs did not let Cooper Black’s record-setting debut turn into a storybook night for Florida.
Silovs turned aside 25 shots, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled past the Panthers 4-0 on Thursday, handing Black a rough ending to the tallest goalie ever to appear in an NHL regular-season game. The 6-foot-9 netminder made 18 saves in his first NHL start, but Pittsburgh kept finding ways through and Florida dropped its second game in as many nights.
Nick Robertson led the offense with two goals, while Hendrix Lapierre and Evgeni Malkin each chipped in a goal and an assist as the Penguins finally snapped out of a miserable Western Conference road trip. Pittsburgh had been badly outplayed in losses to Chicago, Colorado, Vegas and Utah before returning home and getting a much cleaner effort.
The trip itself ended in strange fashion on Tuesday, when 19-year-old forward Ben Kindel collapsed during the flight back to Pittsburgh. Kindel spent the night in a Salt Lake City hospital for observation before returning to the Penguins’ facility on Thursday. The team placed him on injured reserve, though it hopes he could be back at practice as soon as next week.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse changed up his lines looking for a spark, and the move paid off quickly. The Penguins solved Black three times, giving the rookie no margin for error in his first appearance since being called up from Florida’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte after Jacob Markstrom sustained a shoulder injury.
Black was steady early, especially with Florida trying to settle in a night after an emotionally charged loss in Ottawa. But Pittsburgh kept building on the edge it created, and Lapierre made it 2-0 at the midway point by finishing a rush feed from Ville Koivunen.
Malkin’s goal, his third in four games, stretched the lead further and was more than enough for Silovs, who rarely had to stand on his head while collecting his second shutout of the season and fourth of his career.
Up next, the Panthers continue their four-game road trip Sunday in Chicago. The Penguins host Nashville on Saturday.
In Other News...
Brady Tkachuks Ottawa Return Came With An Unexpected Rivalry Jab
Brady Tkachuks first trip back to Ottawa since joining the Florida Panthers already carried plenty of built-in emotion, and it picked up a little extra bite before the game even started. On the other side of the rink, Senators center Tim Stutzle added a small off-ice wrinkle to the reunion, offering a glimpse of the lighter, stranger edges that can show up around a matchup like this.
Stutzle noted he has a personal chef, Michael Hauschild, and the setup became part of the pregame banter when Hauschild took to Instagram and tagged Tkachuk with a pointed message of his own. It was a harmless jab, but the kind that fits a rivalry atmosphere in Ottawa, where a familiar face was back in town and everyone seemed to have a take on the homecoming. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Raised A Bigger Road Concern In Ottawa
A trip to Ottawa was supposed to be a chance for Florida to keep building on a three-game winning streak, but it instead exposed a road issue the Panthers will have to sort out quickly. Brady Tkachuk did give Florida the opening goal and extended his point streak to five games, yet the Panthers could not do much else offensively, finishing with just 18 shots and going 0-for-4 on the power play as the Senators controlled the rest of the night.
Tim Sttzle and Stephen Halliday each finished with a goal and an assist, while Jake Sanderson helped drive Ottawas attack with two assists in the win that snapped Floridas run. For a Panthers team that has been trying to find more consistency away from home, the concern is less about one bad night and more about how quickly the game slipped out of reach after that early lead. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Loss Put One Frustrating Question On Floridas Defense
The Panthers came out of their loss with one lingering question on the blue line: where the defensive support really came from when the game tightened up. Jordan Spence logged nearly 19 minutes, chipped in two shots and two hits, and helped create a scoring chance, while Nikolas Matinpalo absorbed plenty of physical play and still found a way to stay involved in the action. Carter Yakemchuk had a rougher night defending, though he did manage four blocks in a game where the margins kept shrinking.
Nikolas Matinpalo also got caught with a high-sticking penalty, a reminder of how thin the line was for Florida on a night when every shift seemed to matter. The goaltending side gave the Panthers some stability, with Linus Ullmark in good position and making key saves despite dealing with a lower-body strain, but the broader issue remained whether the defense in front of him could do enough to keep games from slipping into the kind of late scramble that tests a teams structure. [Read more 🡒]