from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe,

The power this season, at least so far, resides in the East.

Entering the weekend, Tampa Bay and Florida were battling for the Atlantic and the top of the overall league standings. Washington, the Rangers, and Carolina are right behind, 3-4-5 in points. Toronto was seventh.

And don’t sleep on Pittsburgh, which had won 10 in a row and was still fourth in the Metropolitan, ninth in the league.

Sidney Crosby is on one of his runs (22 points in his last 14 games). Fellow 34-year-old Kris Letang (26 assists in 29 games) isn’t slowing down, either. No one between Jan. 1 and Friday had more goals than Bryan Rust (seven). Tristan Jarry (.933 save percentage) has forgotten his dismal 2021 postseason. The Penguins’ penalty kill is No. 1 in the league (90.2 percent as of Friday).

Oh, and Evgeni Malkin (June knee surgery) is expected back soon.

The Penguins also have arguably the top breakout player in the league, and we’re not talking about Danton Heinen (on track for a career-high 22 goals). Evan Rodrigues, the ex-Boston University Terrier, has become a force at age 28.

He has played nearly every forward spot, including first-line center in Crosby and Malkin’s absence. Rodrigues scored his first hat trick last Sunday against San Jose, one of the goals coming by picking the right time to fly the zone, collecting an outlet, and using a sharp cut to the slot to snipe through traffic. On Wednesday against St. Louis, he was on Pittsburgh’s top power-play unit, and thundered home a knee-down one-timer. The next night in Philadelphia, he made Carter Hart look silly with a cutback finish on the breakaway.

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