Pittsburgh Penguins Prove They're Contenders with Win over Stanley Cup Champs

After making big changes during the offseason, the Pittsburgh Penguins are aiming to get back into the Stanley Cup conversation in 2014-15. They took a solid step in that direction on Thursday night with a 3-0 shutout win over the defending champion Los Angeles Kings.

Last year, the Penguins were a good team whose postseason ended with a whimper after surrendering a 3-1 second-round series lead to the New York Rangers. Coaching, scoring, goaltending and those mysterious intangibles were all called into question as possible reasons for the team's failure to advance, but answers remained murky.

As Michael Traikos of the National Post wrote after the Penguins' season came to an end, "It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly is wrong with Pittsburgh when they came within one goal of reaching the conference final for the second time in two years."

With a new coach and a fresh start for 2014-15, Thursday's meeting with the Kings offered the Penguins their first chance to gauge their progress against the team that ultimately beat the Rangers to win the Cup—and they passed with flying colors.

Los Angeles has a reputation as a physical team that's at its best when intimidating opponents. When it works, the Kings run the rink. When it doesn't, they spend a lot of time in the penalty box. That spelled trouble for the Kings on Thursday against the league's best power play, which converted twice in the first period to give Pittsburgh the upper hand in the game.

The Penguins likely won't be able to keep producing at their current success rate of 39.5 percent, but the sample size is starting to grow. With a cast of characters that has been complemented by feisty Patric Hornqvist wreaking havoc in front of the net, Pittsburgh has scored at least once with the man advantage in seven of nine games so far, including its last three straight wins. The power play has been a consistently powerful weapon and should stay that way right through to playoff time.

Pittsburgh also leads the NHL with an average of 4.00 goals per game, and Sidney Crosby is, as usual, perched at the top of the league scoring race, with 15 points in nine games.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's numbers are also improving. On Thursday, he recorded his second shutout in the last three games and shut down the Kings' sizzling "That '70s Line." Jeff Carter, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli were held off the score sheet, recording just five shots on goal between them.

Fleury outdueled red-hot Martin Jones on Thursday to boost his record to 6-2-0, with a 2.13 goals-against average and .926 save percentage—both well ahead of his career averages.

On Thursday, the Penguins showed that they had no intention of backing down from the Kings' aggressive style. Though Los Angeles leads the league in hits so far this season, Pittsburgh outhit it 33-32. In the third period, an aggravated Evgeni Malkin made a statement that he wouldn't be intimidated when he took down the Kings' Conn Smythe Trophy winner Justin Williams in a spirited wrestling match.

Despite the fact that their toughest defenseman, Robert Bortuzzo, has been sidelined with injury since preseason, the Penguins have been physically effective all year, outhitting their opponents in seven of their first nine games and ranking seventh overall in the league. Young gun Simon Despres is using his body in his increased ice time: He led the Penguins with seven hits on Thursday against Los Angeles and is second on the team behind Chris Kunitz with 33 hits this year—among the top 20 in the NHL.

As Despres is on his way to a breakout season, Pittburgh's team toughness will get another boost when Bortuzzo, who's now medically cleared to play, returns to the lineup in the coming days.

As well as beating the Kings, Pittsburgh has also logged solid victories earlier this season against the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators—currently the two top teams in the strong Western Conference.

They're matching up well against tough competition, which bodes well for their playoff chances next April.