I'm going to start off this blog entry with a nearly mind-blowing statistic.
Mike Rupp has scored as many goals this year as Evegni Malkin.
That's right.
Malkin has 8 goals.
And after his hat trick last night in New York against the Rangers led the Penguins to a 5-2 victory and sweep of their home-and-home series against the Blueshirts, Rupp now has 8 goals as well.
Rupp has snuck up on just about everyone this year. When Pens' GM Ray Shero signed him to a free agent contract in the off-season, the signing probably didn't even show up on the radar of 90% of Penguin nation.
Rupp was a big forward who could skate fairly well for a guy his size, and was willing to drop the gloves and be a physical presence for his teammates.
Nobody, and I mean nobody expected what he's given the team so far this year.
That includes his teammates, and probably even Rupp himself.
This from Jordan Staal, who Rupp played with last night on the 3rd line subbing for suspended LW Matt Cooke:
"I had no idea how good he was [before this season]. I mean, 'Rupper' is a really good player."
After his performance last night, Rupp has twice as many goals than a more notable free-agent signee (returnee), Ruslan Fedotenko, who has only 4 tallies after getting more ice time with better players.
Last night, #17 just got better and better as the game went on.
It started off, however, with a 1-0 Rangers lead and a goal in the 2nd period by superstar RW Marion Gaborik -- New York's prize offseason free agent signing.
Gaborik was inexplicably left alone in front of the net by Pens' defenseman Kris Letang and, after the puck came to him, got off a great uncontested shot that Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury made a great blocker save on. Then, Letang whiffed at a stick check on Gaborik's rebound instead of taking the body and let #10 get another near uncontested shot from the lip of the crease.
Gaborik made no mistake this time, going even higher on the blocker side to score.
About 10 seconds later, the Penguins' hottest forward -- center and Captain Sidney Crosby -- tied the game when he took a quick pass mid-flight from RW Bill Guerin, stormed into the Rangers zone and tossed a backhand high, near glove side past stunned New York goaltender King Henrik Lundqvist.
After last night's performance, Crosby has 8 points in his last 2 contests, and 16 points in his last 10.
He's now tied for 3rd overall in league scoring, 4 points behind San Jose Sharks' Center Joe Thornton.
After Crosby tied the score, Rupp began his onslaught.
He converted a set play off a faceoff when lefty Jordan Staal took a draw in the right faceoff circle and surprisingly went forward towards the net. All the New York players on the face-off must have instantly went color blind because even though Gronk won the draw rather cleanly, they all started skating the other way as if they had the puck.
Staal quickly passed the puck across the crease to Rupp, lined up on the left side of the circle and immediately breaking to the net on the drop of the puck.
Rupp -- also a lefty -- got off a nice backhand effort that Lundqvist stopped, but with nobody there to check him, he got off another nice backhand on the rebound that went off the post and in to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.
Before the period was over, though, Gaborik was heard from again, scoring his league-leading 21st goal of the season (by the end of November, folks), again being somewhat left alone to Fleury's left and depositing a wrister by #29.
At that point, I wanted to send a Memo to the Penguins defense:
HOW DO YOU POSSIBLY FORGET WHERE GABORIK IS?!?!?!?!
Rupp made that point moot, however. After sustained what appeared to be a meaningful left knee injury, he returned to the ice and gave the Pens' a 3-2 lead by leading a 3-on-2 rush down the far boards, letting Staal and Kennedy drive to the net, then veering towards the net before depositing a top shelf wrister past Lundqvist.
Crosby quickly got the Pens' 4th goal by deflecting a Mark Eaton point shot off the ice and behind Lundqvist, before Rupp finished his magical night off with a deserved hat trick by getting the empty netter.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 of 31 shots for his league-leading 16th win -- again, the Pens' first in New York since March 1, of 2007.
The Pens' are 3-0 against the Rangers this year, and have taken 6 straight overall from them dating to last season.
With their 7th win in 9 games, Pittsburgh now has an 19-8 record, and remains tied with Washington atop the Eastern Conference standings. No team has more wins.
They also are 3 points up on New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.
The Pens' will be tested in their next 2 contests, against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday and Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. Each of those games will be at The Igloo.
Both of those squads have 35 points, although the Avs' have cooled somewhat after a hot start, and will be playing in Florida against the Panthers the night before they face off against Pittsburgh, so that can only help the cause.
NOTES: After returning to the lineup on Saturday night against the Rangers, defenseman Alex Goligoski did not make the trip and did not play last evening. He either sustained a recurrence of his prior lower body injury or sustained a new one -- related or not. He's listed as day-to-day right now, but I wouldn't expect to see him again this week. Defenseman Jay McKee took his place in the lineup, returning after missing 6 games for an infected finger.
Pittsburgh's power play wen o-for-5 on the night, missing a chance to blow the game wide open in the second period with multiple consecutive man advantages. Here's a thought for Head Coach Dan Blysma: How about putting Rupp on the power play?
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