The Pittsburgh Penguins never fail to surprise. Thursday, they may have surprised themselves, but they certainly put a charge into home fans and the Florida Panthers, too. <\/p>\n
The Penguins were never out of control, and even when Florida tilted the ice in the second period, the Penguins did not chase the game. Ultimately, the Penguins shut out Florida 4-0 at PPG Paints Arena. <\/p>\n
As it was, the mix-and-match Penguins lineup was well matched. Coach Dan Muse<\/a> put together lines that clicked, mostly. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think things aren\u2019t going your way, the hope is that it could be an opportunity to come together and correct things that you know you need to see improved and improve our overall team game, and I thought (it\u2019s a) huge credit to the players,\u201d Muse said. \u201cI think that\u2019s what we saw here tonight. I really thought we had contributions from throughout the lineup. Obviously, Artie (Silovs) was great \u2026 we talked about consistency. That\u2019s right up there. I think for me, in terms of that, it was the most consistent game of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n In the shadow of the scary cloud that was Ben Kindel\u2019s health episode<\/a> Tuesday, top-line winger Bryan Rust\u2019s significant lower-body injury that will keep him out for at least six weeks, and the dark clouds of one of the ugliest four-game losing streaks in franchise history, the Penguins had four new lines and were facing plenty of adversity.<\/p>\n Instead of imploding, the Penguins played one of their most connected games of the season, remained structured\u2026.<\/p>\n Xs and Os<\/p>\n Connected. The Penguins. Who knew it was possible?<\/p>\n In short, once again hockey wisdom rang true, and Team USA coach Herb Brooks\u2019 line immortalized in Miracle is true: \u201cI\u2019m not looking for the best players, Craig (Patrick). I\u2019m looking for the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the constant (and necessary) line shuffles this season, for a moment coach Dan Muse seemed to find a team that looked like a professional squad sans silly turnovers, catastrophic breakdowns, and mind-numbing lapses. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we were doing the right things \u2026 It doesn\u2019t matter who you\u2019re playing, whether it\u2019s on a back-to-back or no matter what the situation is, you don\u2019t want to be doing things that give easy offense to the opponent. And I thought we did a good job controlling things that way, and when it was time to defend, I thought we defended hard,\u201d Muse said. \u201cFor the most part, in terms of just driving pucks in, getting pucks behind, just being a little harder to play against, I thought there were more elements of that in our game there tonight, and I think that\u2019s always going to be important.\u201d<\/p>\n **The Penguins\u2019 first goal was a microcosm of their vastly improved game with the new lineup when the fourth line scored. Nick Robertson\u2019s backcheck created a turnover. He sent Kris Letang<\/a> ahead on the rush. Instead of looping, Robertson stopped and started to trail the rush. Elmer Soderblom dragged a couple of defensemen to the net, which created space. Letang made a nice cross-ice pass to Connor Dewar, who held the puck for a moment before he spotted Robertson as a trailer. <\/p>\n Robertson was wide open, toe-dragged around a defender to create a clean shooting lane, and scored. <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, you can take what you get,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate it\u2019s going in the direction it is, but I want to focus on how I got those goals, you know, playing the right way, and kind of the details, the kind of things that people overlook, and just keep focusing on that.\u201d<\/p>\n When Robertson scored the empty-netter, he upped his season goal total to six. <\/p>\n **Also, the Penguins\u2019 second line without Egor Chinakhov<\/a>, who is out day-to-day with a lower body injury, and Tommy Novak, who joined the top line as a winger, was also far more effective than it has been. <\/p>\n