The Penguins appeared to be sucking dirty pond water when they blew a two-goal third period lead in Vegas, and then scored on themselves in an ignominious loss to Arizona last week. But Pittsburgh pulled the nose up by salvaging a point in the standings with a last minute Evgeni Malkin goal on Friday against Florida and then taking the win in overtime against Montreal to suddenly give them three points in the last two games.
Surveying the East, that’s better than a lot of the Pens’ rivals can say. Philadelphia dropped a fifth straight game on Saturday against Boston and are down their starting goalie for what could be a long, long time.