Bryan Rust seemed mad at Detroit's coach.
Detroit's coach seemed really mad at Rust.
And sorry, my friends, but that's as substantive a takeaway as anyone could've sought, at least symbolically, from the Penguins' 5-1 rout of the Red Wings on this Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. Way more than the predictable taking of the NHL's two easiest points. Way more than Patric Hornqvist, with equal predictability, responding to a fourth-line relegation the same way he's channeled every challenge in his career.
Because Rust v. Wings became a thing long after this one should've been in the books.
Less than five minutes left in regulation, actually:
That's Rust colliding with Dylan Larkin, the other side's best player, at center red. That's also the only video I could find of the sequence, so it'll have to suffice.
From the visitors' perspective, that was knee-on-knee, judging by Larkin bouncing back up to his skates, then tangling up with Rust for nearly a minute before being sent off with a roughing minor.
Oh, and judging by Jeff Blashill shouting at Rust from the Detroit bench, then snapping when I brought up the hit afterward.
"Yeah, I don't know if 'hit' is the right word," he replied. "I'd call it knee-on-knee. I was super-upset. I get the rest of the period, not calling anything. I get it. When it comes to the health of your players ..."
He shook his head.
" ... that's not OK."
Rust viewed it very differently.
"Shoulder to chest," he told me, emphatically. "And you can quote me on that."
So what had Blashill so agitated?
"I have no idea."
Whatever. Doesn't matter. Larkin's fine. And for what it's worth, based on the only replay showing upper-body contact and based on Rust's completely clean history, I find it unfathomable he'd make any effort to injure anyone, much less a respected player late in a romp over his childhood favorite team.
But this does matter:
That's a period earlier. Same score. Four-goal lead over the league's doormat. And there's Rust dropping to block a Mike Green point shot.
This time, it was the home bench erupting, with the Penguins leaping up to their feet and slamming their sticks against the boards in acknowledgement.
"Anytime you see a player give himself up like that, you appreciate it," Andrew Agozzino told me. "But when it's a great player like that, it's something you really recognize."
See, that's what I'm talking about. Because it wasn't just Rust. It was up and down the lineup.
I don't care that it was the Wings. And again, I don't care about the outcome beyond that it was the necessary one. What I did care about -- and have for the better part of a month now -- is that the Penguins regain the defensive form they'd shown -- relentlessly, religiously -- through mid-January.
They are.
"I think we're getting back to the game that has brought us the most success through the year," Mike Sullivan answered when I asked about this. "I still think there are areas where we've gotta tighten up and be a little more stingy defensively and harder to play against. And we're working on those details with the guys."
They're doing that, too.
A couple players told me Sullivan and his staff have been especially eager in that regard in recent weeks, emphasizing specific examples -- both good and bad -- on video to illustrate what they're hoping to achieve.
As Dominik Simon put it, "We have to play the right way, and the coaches are paying so much attention to it right now."
Few fit that script better than Simon, so expect this to be among the positive examples he's shown in the next session:
Slick, huh?
Simon not only keeps the puck inside the blue line, but deftly backhands it to Sidney Crosby, who, four touches later, rips a deflected blast past Jimmy Howard. All those touches robbed Simon of an assist, but that's the type of possession-sustained plays he makes regularly, points or not.
But here again, like the Rust block, the root of the sequence is in Simon smartly covering for a pinching Justin Schultz, as well as his awareness that Larkin was the looming breakaway threat in his shadow.
"When it's a star player like that -- or anyone, really -- you've got to make sure you're back and doing the right thing," Simon told me. "I'm just doing my job there. I think we all were."
And by all, he meant all:
That was Evgeni Malkin's next-to-last shift of the day. Not a soul among the 18,654 could've cared less if the Red Wings had popped a second goal there, but there's the superstar, aware of his own giveaway deep in the Detroit zone, carving up the ice all the way back to support his defensemen, poke the puck off Tyler Bertuzzi's blade, collect it himself behind the Pittsburgh net, then restart the attack the other way.
Better believe that was noticed, too.
"When you see Geno or other great players make an effort like that, it lifts everyone up," Brandon Tanev, somewhat of an authority on the concept, told me. "I really think we're all getting back to playing that way."
These guys are a point away from first place right now, insane as that sounds with all these injuries and a quarter of the roster still sitting out. But this is how they got there, regardless of opponent, and it's the only way they'll continue climbing.
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