TORONTO — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel will always be the big guns of the Penguins offense, the stars whose production level will be poked, prodded and scrutinized to death when the team stalls for even a fraction of the NHL season.
Their collective salary demands that. They were hired to produce.
It’s the next layer of forwards coach Mike Johnston believes will separate his team in the long run. And after Saturday night’s win at Toronto, it looks like he might be right.
The Penguins got three of four goals from their bottom-six forwards, one on the second power play, another short-handed.