The Penguins entered tonight's game against Philadelphia with four players already in COVID protocol - Sidney Crosby, Brian Dumoulin, Chad Ruhwedel and Marcus Pettersson - and are still without Bryan Rust (lower body) and Evgeni Malkin (knee surgery).
And shortly before their matchup against the Flyers, the Penguins learned they'd be without Mike Sullivan, as the head coach tested positive for COVID and is symptomatic. That forced assistant coach Todd Reirden to take the reins in his absence.
With the odds stacked against them, the Penguins pulled out a 3-2 overtime win over the Flyers, to snap their three-game losing streak. Brock McGinn opened the scoring just 16 seconds in, while Jake Guentzel scored in the second period and Kris Letang got the OT winner.
"It's just kind of what we've done all year," Guentzel said. "When guys go down, we're having guys step up, and it didn't stop with the coaches today. So just an overall good effort tonight."
While there were a number of positives to take from the victory, Reirden said what made him proudest was how the team responded after allowing the Flyers to tie the game at 2-2 with less than three minutes left in regulation.
"When you're having a tough time getting a win, that's not a real great thing to have happen to a team that's not really sharp and fighting it a little bit," Reirden said. "Really was happy with our response from our team, to be able to gather that point, not give in while the opposition's pushing pretty hard there, and then ultimately get our second point.
"To me, going through the adversity that we've gone through and being able to come out of it that way was something I pointed out to the team, and something that I was really proud of how we handled it."
Although Reirden didn't have much advance notice that he'd be at the helm, he did have plenty of experience behind the bench to draw on. As head coach of the Washington Capitals from 2018-20, Reirden led the team to back-to-back Metropolitan Division Titles.
"Todd coached at Washington for a few years, and they had big-time players," Letang said. "He has that experience, so we're pretty comfortable with him. He brings a lot of energy to the meetings, and the way he comes in between periods. I think guys are confident with him."
And Reirden is confident with them, as he credited Sullivan for doing a terrific job of empowering his assistants and making sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the message that is being delivered to the team in terms of their structure and details.
"Coach Sullivan has done a great job of putting me in situations and delegating responsibility to me so that if this were ever to happen, this would be something I wasn't uncomfortable or not prepared for," said Reirden, who is in his second stint on Pittsburgh's coaching staff.
"Fortunately, I was extremely confident going in front of our group, having dealt with them in a number of different scenarios last year, parts of this year and then even years ago. It's something I'm excited about getting the opportunity, and proud the players played as hard as they did for us tonight."
Sullivan always preaches about controlling the controllables, and that's exactly what the Penguins are doing in this particular situation.
"You have to just embrace the challenge, and you show up to the rink and you might have a bigger role that night," Letang said. "You just have to live up to it and try to do your best. So I thought the team was cheerful. It was business as usual. Guys were focused, and they were ready to go. We saw that from the get go, we got a big goal right off the bat. So you have to live with it. That's it."
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From On the Ice to Behind the Bench, Pens Continue to Step Up - NHL.com
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