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When Bryan Rust beat Semyon Varlamov on his glove-side during the first period of last night’s Penguins/Islanders game, a lot of people were likely feeling a sense of Déjà vu — like they had seen that goal scored before.
If you were feeling that, you’d be right.
The goal that Rust scored was oddly, eerily, and almost identically similar to a goal scored by another Penguins player over a decade ago.
Rust’s goal was a little more direct and had a little more zip on it, but tell me it wasn’t almost identical to the goal Ruslan Fedotenko scored on Varlamov in Game 4 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals when the Penguins played the Capitals.
Have a look for yourself:
Semyon Varlamov, beaten glove-side with harmless shots thrown on net by Bryan Rust and Ruslan Fedotenko, in playoff games over 12 years apart. pic.twitter.com/OsIn6FE0ZF
— Mike Darnay (@MikeDarnay) May 19, 2021
These are the kind of things you can’t make up when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In the Penguins’ case, goaltending like this from Varlamov would go a long way in helping potentially make this a shorter series than it needs to be.