NEW YORK — After bemoaning their grueling schedule for the better part of this season and the 19 back-to-back games in it, the Penguins should only be glad they can quickly make amends for Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the last-place Islanders.
Surely, they would like to forget this night at the Barclays Center.
The Penguins will host the Canadiens on Wednesday night and not a moment too soon. And if a certain current trend holds up, they will win. They have now alternated a win with a loss their last five games.
Inconsistent?
“Yes,” an absolutely livid Mike Sullivan said after Tuesday’s loss.
Concerned at this late stage of the season?
“Yes,” Sullivan said, his face turning red.
Here, I’ll let him explain:
“This is not our best game, what can you do about it now?” Patric Hornqvist said. “Only thing you can do is have a better game tomorrow and come out with a better effort. Our mindset has to be better and I know we will be.”
Here’s my five thoughts on Tuesday’s thoroughly awful performance:
1. The Penguins lacked discipline early.
Nothing infuriates a coach quite like penalties and needless to say that Sullivan was none too pleased with his teams’ endless trips to the penalty box.
The Penguins took six penalties, five of them in the first 30 minutes of the game. Not exactly sound strategy when your best players — the Crosbys, Kessels, Malkins — are relegated to spectators for most of the night.
The six power play opportunities against were one short of the season-high seven they killed on Jan. 13 against Detroit. In a bit of a twist, four of the penalties were taken by the Penguins’ six defensemen. For what it's worth, only Justin Schultz and Chad Ruhwedel did not.
Not only did the Penguins expend a lot of energy on the kills, the line combinations were a jumbled mess after them.
“Every time we tried to get into a flow we took another penalty and it’s hard to win that way,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t have nearly the discipline that we needed to have to be the team that we want to be. We beat ourselves.”
And of those six penalties, none were of the aggressive, get-your-money’s-worth variety. It was holding, interference, slashing, tripping, cross-checking and, a curious unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Hornqvist, who, apparently, said something he shouldn’t have to Wes McCauley.
Now, Hornqvist makes his living in the gray areas and plays with great emotion but he’s got to be smarter there. Hornqvist said the call on him at 6:47 of the second was for “making a scene” for a non-highsticking call against him, but added that it was a “good call.”
“I took a very bad penalty, we took some other not bad penalties but penalties, they get the momentum off that,” Hornqvist said. “They’re really strong and their power play is one of the top (ninth) in the league. We just have to find a way to be a little more consistent with our work ethic and stronger on pucks and don’t let a bad shift let us down in a game.”
2. All in all, the PK did its job.
Given the sheer volume of penalties taken, the Penguins can count themselves fortunate to have only given up the one power play goal. Naturally, that Anders Lee goal — a beautiful short-side backhander that Murray had to have — proved to be the back-breaker (Here's more on Murray's comeback game).
But the Lee goal was the result of an Evgeni Malkin tripping penalty (see undisciplined penalties above). See? It wasn't just the defensemen who were undisciplined.
It’s the fifth straight game that the Penguins have yielded at least one power play goal but an improvement — again, given all the penalties — after allowing six goals on 10 chances against in their previous four games.
“I think we had some good spells,” Riley Shehan told me. “I just think we have to focus a little more on pressuring a little harder and shortening shifts maybe. Focus on our dumps. We’ve got to get the puck out when we get an opportunity."
It’s also worth noting that Josh Jooris made his Pittsburgh debut on the PK, playing 3:48 shorthanded. No one knows what the future holds for Jooris, who is up on emergency recall, but he continues to impress in all situations. Jooris nearly had a shorthanded breakaway chance but the puck rolled off his stick as he was entering the zone.
A lot of Penguins could tell similar stories …
3. Can’t say they didn’t have their chances.
No team gives up more shots or more goals per game than the team the Penguins just lost to. That makes Tuesday’s loss to the Islanders even more disappointing. The few great looks they had, they missed.
“We did, obviously, we had chances but I don’t think we’re happy with the game we played,” said Sheahan, who was denied on a shorthanded break in the first. “We are turning the puck over at the wrong spots, just making lackadaisical errors. That’s what happens when don’t play a consistent game.”
Here's Sheahan's miss:
For the most part, the Penguins — who were out-shot (40-37) and were even in possession at five-on-five — were held to the perimeter. But there were some chances.
In the first period, Carl Hagelin had a 2-on-1 break but shot right into the chest of Christopher Gibson, who can now say he’s stopped 84 shots in two games against the Penguins after making 37 more saves Tuesday:
Bryan Rust, playing on the top line, missed on two great chances late in the second period.
And Phil Kessel, well, he just wiped out entering the zone in the second period. It was a microcosm of the Penguins’ night.
The only guy to beat Gibson on Tuesday was … Conor Sheary. Go figure.
Sheary took a nice centering pass from Kessel at 17:41 of the second to pull the Penguins to within one. It was Sheary’s 15th of the season and third in six games. It’s not a lot to go on, but the Penguins can only hope that he’s starting to find his game.
4. Derick Brassard is starting to heat up.
If you look hard enough, that might be the biggest positive to take away from Tuesday’s loss. Brassard earned the secondary assist on the Penguins’ lone goal with a nice pass to Kessel, who fed Sheary like the Gerber baby.
Much criticism has been leveled Brassard’s way locally for not making an immediate impact but he now has points in three straight games. Most importantly is that he’s starting to find real chemistry with Kessel.
Give him time. Again, don’t judge this trade or waste your breath pining for Ian Cole or Ryan Reaves until this season is over.
5. Nope, they didn’t deserve to win.
It was a poor start — where have we heard that before? — that gave the Islanders an early 2-0 lead. Sure, the Penguins have the firepower to overcome such a deficit but it can’t be counted on nightly.
The first two Islanders goals — scored by Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech — were courtesy of turnovers in their own end.
The first was by Kris Letang, who had a schizophrenic night. One minute he's making a great individual effort to backcheck and stop a potential John Tavares 2-on-0, the next he's coughing the puck up.
The second brutal turnover was by Jake Guentzel, who got absolutely worked over along the boards, failing to get the puck out of the zone and leading directly to Pelech’s goal at 10:33:
Goals like that one, and the Penguins' lack of size on the wings should be a cause for concern.
To quote Sullivan: “We didn’t defend hard. And, if you don’t defend in this league, you don’t win. And we didn’t defend hard enough.”
Agreed.
