Most Pittsburgh Penguin fans and observers know that defenseman Sergei Gonchar will be an unrestricted free agent after this season.
The Penguins have been negotiating with Gonchar for a little while now and, by all accounts, aren't making tremendous progress thusfar.
If Pens' GM Ray Shero's goal is to try and find a way to fit a new deal for Sarge under the salary cap for next season, last night's virtuoso performance by #55 certainly didn't help Shero's bargaining position.
Gonchar returned to the lineup last night for the Penguins to start a 5-game road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs for a Hockey Night In Canada game at the Air Canada Centre and promptly demonstrated how critical he is to Pittsburgh's success with two goals and 1 assist in a 4-1 Penguins victory.
The Pens' defenseman was front and center all game long -- particularly in the 2nd period, when a very unusual 3 minute sequence with Gonchar at the helm basically decided the game.
At the 14:44 mark, with Pittsburgh on the power play, Gonchar lashed a shot from the point that blurred past Toronto netminder Jonas Gustavsson so quickly, the officials couldn't make out the fact that it didn't just CLANG off the post like they heard, but also went under the crossbar and in before bouncing out.
The zebras let play continue and, about 15 seconds later, Maple Leafs' forward Alexei Ponikarovsky found himself behind the Penguins' defense on a breakaway.
Ponikarovsky didn't score but was fouled -- by Gonchar -- and the officials ruled the infraction worthy of a penalty shot because Ponikarovsky was in the clear.
However, before making that official, the referees consulted the instant replay in conjunction with the NHL office in Toronto. Not surprisingly, they saw Gonchar's shot cross the goal line and awared Pittsburgh the goal.
At that point, consistent with NHL rules, they had to rewind the clock back to when Gonchar's shot went in. That action did not, however, wipe out the penalty to Gonchar. BUT, because it's impossible under NHL rules to award two goals at the exact same time, they could not award the Maple Leafs the penalty shot, and instead forced Gonchar to serve the minor.
30 seconds after the Penguins killed the penalty, Gonchar finished off a 4-on-3 rush with another howitzer over Gustavsson's shoulder for a 3-1 lead that stunned the Maple Leafs.
Sidney Crosby scored in the third period and, with Gonchar's 2 tallies and Bill Guerin's first period goal, that was more than enough for Marc-Andre Fleury, who finished the game with a whopping 42 saves on 43 shots and bounced back nicely after being pulled from Thursday's home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Toronto is a team that always launches a lot of shots on the net and Fleury was sharp from beginning to end last night, rejecting several good scoring chances and frustrating the Maple Leafs all night long.
About the only bad news for Pittsburgh last night was that defenseman Brooks Oprik left the game in the first period and did not return.
Head Coach Dan Blysma did not sound overly optimistic after the game, saying only that he hoped Orpik's injury -- the nature of which remained undisclosed -- wouldn't keep him out for an extended period.
Still, the Penguins did a much better job last night than they have in recent games. They had 39 shots themselves, were generally more sound in their own zone, and made better decisions with the puck all over the ice. Admittedly, they caught the Maple Leafs in their 4th game in 5 nights -- which is basically unheard of in the NHL except in an Olympic year when the schedule is so compressed -- but I don't think the Penguins are going to lose a minute's sleep about that.
They have to start getting back on the horse, so they'll definitely take last night's win and try to build on it going into the 2nd game on their trip -- a nationally televised contest on Monday against a Minnesota Wild club that will be coming off a highly emotional win over the Western Conference leading Chicago Blackhawks last night that saw them erase a 4 goal deficit and win in a shootout.
That contest will be the 2nd time the Penguins see the Wild this year, having lost to them on Halloween at Mellon Arena, 2-1.
I'll preview that one on Monday.
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.
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