Mark Madden: Kasperi Kapanen's effort, scoring a welcome sight in Penguins victory

When Sidney Crosby got put on the NHL’s covid list Tuesday with Philadelphia arriving in Pittsburgh for a three-game series, things looked ominous for the Penguins. A shaky season seemed teetering on the brink despite an 11-8-1 record that was more fluky than decent.

But the Penguins stepped up and won 5-2 in Tuesday’s first game. Their performance wasn’t good, just good enough. A “sellout crowd” of 2,800 at PPG Paints Arena didn’t complain. An overwhelming majority had never seen the Flyers win the Cup.

The Penguins showed signs of life that offer hope beyond fifth place in the East division. Not championship hope. But take what you can get, especially with Crosby out.

That’s what these Penguins do: They take what they can get. They have just five wins in regulation. They have trailed in 11 of their 12 victories. In that context, it’s easy to credit their success to luck. But when it keeps happening, perhaps guts and resilience are bigger factors.

The Penguins are also 8-1 at PPG Paints Arena. Dominance at home can go a long way.

Tristan Jarry was a big factor Tuesday. He made 40 saves, including 11 out of 11 shots faced when Philadelphia was on the power play. The goaltender has to be your best penalty killer, and that’s never been truer than with the Penguins’ putrid penalty-kill, which ranks 24th in the NHL. The PK was 5 for 5 on the night, taking it up five notches. Jarry did that.

Mike Matheson provides an X factor. Matheson can be a defensive liability but skates well and has imagination offensively. He scored a late goal with Flyers goalie Carter Hart half in, half pulled that invoked David Beckham dialing long distance. He and Kris Letang have led an offensive surge by the defensemen. That group had four points Tuesday. They join the rush constantly, so they need to produce.

Evgeni Malkin didn’t stink, his dumb tripping penalty with 15 seconds left in the second period duly noted. He had an assist and was plus-1. You take what you can get.

But the big story Tuesday was winger Kasperi Kapanen.

Given a proper chance, he could be an even bigger story.

It’s unfair to say coach Mike Sullivan dislikes Kapanen. But Sullivan is certainly more demanding of Kapanen than he is others. (Or maybe Sullivan just doesn’t like Kapanen.)

When the host Penguins beat the New York Islanders, 3-2, on Feb. 20, Kapanen started the game on the first line, got dropped to the fourth line and ended on the bench. Kapanen played just 19 seconds in the third period.

Kapanen is a team-best plus-10. He’s got five goals and seven assists in 18 games. He netted twice against the Flyers on Tuesday.

Kapanen is fast, energetic, skilled and provides jolt after jolt. But he’s not exactly a coach’s favorite, and that precedes him playing for Sullivan. Sullivan often demotes Kapanen in mid-game. Coach, player and everyone else won’t say why. But it rarely happens to anyone else.

Kapanen just seems to rub coaches the wrong way. Kapanen was a healthy scratch in Toronto last year, where he once slept through practice. He did the same in the minors.

But Kapanen can be a difference maker, as he showed Tuesday. He provided a wake-up call. That’s ironic in the cheesiest of fashions.

Kapanen needs to stay in the top six. The Penguins aren’t gifted with a lot of options in that regard. With Crosby and Jason Zucker out, they don’t really have six. They have Kapanen, Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and a couple guys pretend. Heck, a few of the other forwards are pretending to be NHL players.

It’s hard to imagine Kapanen getting demoted in that context. But if anyone can, he can.

Yet there Kapanen was Tuesday, leading the team in power-play time and scoring a PPG. He took a team-high five shots on goal and was a team-best plus-3.

Kapanen was the Penguins’ best player and the game’s No. 1 star. It was much needed, because the player that’s usually their best was unavailable.