PHILADELPHIA -- Had Gary Bettman followed through on one of those odd-ball contingency plans and postponed Saturday night's soggy Stadium Series game after two periods, surely the Penguins would not have minded.
Actually, if the Commish had called it a game after 56 minutes, they would have loved it.
Instead, what was a 3-1 lead quickly turned into a 4-3 overtime loss that left the inconsistent Penguins still trying to piece a 60-minute effort together and, at least for the moment, out of the eight-team playoff field in the Eastern Conference.
Save for the final six minutes or so on a dreary night at Lincoln Financial Field, it stood to be the Penguins' biggest feel-good win of the season. If not for a dreadful tying goal, it should have been too. But some perspective, even after an emotional loss, is required:
Naturally, the knee-jerk reaction after such a collapse, especially one just two days before the NHL's trade deadline, is to trade or fire "everyone." Maybe that's because of the fashion in which they lost. Maybe that's because they lost on a big stage in front of 69,620 and Keith Urban. And, well, maybe it's because they lost to the hated Flyers in a city where they hadn't lost since the 2016-17 season.
And sure, by almost any metric -- advanced or traditional -- the Penguins absolutely dominated their rivals. Through two periods they held a 2-1 lead, a 30-17 edge in shots and a commanding 59-41 Corsi For percentage advantage. But the eye test never fails. All you had to do was look down the Penguins' bench to see who wasn't there: Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin.
Letang and Dumoulin, one of the NHL's finest pairings, both left the game with a little over three minutes remaining in the first period due to injuries in just the latest controversial moment in this storied rivalry, hockey's version of the Hatfields and McCoys.
First, Dumoulin was injured after taking a massive hit from Wayne Simmonds:
Then, Letang was injured while trying to stick up for his fallen defense partner:
Without those two, the Penguins probably should have lost. At least sooner anyway. That they didn't is a testament to those who remained: Justin Schultz, Jack Johnson, Marcus Pettersson and Chad Ruhwedel.
While everyone on the Sheetz-loving side of the state was drowning in their IC Light, let's not lose sight of what those four defensemen did to keep the Penguins in the game for as long as they did.
"Tough two guys to replace," Schultz was saying. "Two of the more important guys on this team. To lose them early like that isn't easy."
Playing with five defensemen happens all the time, but four? That's a different animal. Yet during the first intermission, the Penguins didn't wave the white towel, didn't throw it in the ring either. They managed the game.
"We rallied around it," Johnson was telling me in the NFL visitor's locker room late Saturday. "The forwards rallied around the four defensemen that were left playing. We take a lot of pride in trying to hold the fort down. The four of us are disappointed that we couldn't pull off two points instead of one."
Criticize Johnson all you want for his Corsi For, his Fenwick or for signing a lucrative five-year, $16.5 contract last summer, but the 32-year-old certainly earned his keep on this night. He played 31:08, which is 6:08 more than his previous high this season, and his most in five years. In another heated, physical contest against the Flyers, Johnson was throwing his weight around with abandon.
"Jack was really good," Mike Sullivan was saying. "He was physical. He defended hard. He made good outlet passes."
Here, Travis Konecny just bounces off him in the third period:
Not only were the four defensemen good, they were remarkably composed under extreme duress. With the Penguins thin on the blue line, the Flyers threw everything they had at them -- checks, face-washes, whatever -- in the hopes of taking them out or at least drawing a penalty.
"We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game and keeping your composure is a no-brainer going into it," Johnson was saying. "Guys are going to do all sort of things to get an edge, an advantage. It comes with the territory."
Here, Schultz took a hit to make a play in the third period:
The Penguins' four remaining defensemen not only didn't bite, they also provided what woulda, coulda, shoulda been the game-winning goal at 10:01 of the second period. That's when Schultz did this:
Even in the best weather, ice conditions are fairly treacherous for outdoor games and teams have to simplify what they do. With just four blueliners, the Penguins took it another step further for the most part. But when the opportunity presented itself, Schultz aggressively decided to pinch. Wisely, too.
After falling down on his one timer on the sloppy ice at the Linc, Schultz got a second crack and made no mistake, firing a wrister that beat Brian Elliott top shelf to the short side. It was Schultz's first goal since returning last weekend from a fractured leg and first since last spring's playoff series against the Capitals.
Schultz, who missed 53 games, played 30:02, the first time he's cracked 30-plus in a Penguins uniform. So, guess the leg's good.
But he wasn't the only one to eat a ton of minutes. Ruhwedel played 24:38, easily a career-high for the 28-year-old "seventh defenseman." Pettersson played 22:41. He'd only played 20-plus minutes three times in his fledgling career. Despite the best efforts of the four who did play, in the end, the loss of both Dumoulin and Letang was just too much.
"It's tough when you lose your top pair for the majority of the game, but those other guys did a tremendous job the rest of the night," Sullivan said.
Where the Penguins defense corps goes from here will be interesting. Certainly, Jim Rutherford will have something to say about it before Monday's 3 p.m. trade deadline.
How long -- if at all -- Dumoulin and Letang will be out isn't known. They are already without Olli Maatta, another member of their top four, with a shoulder injury. If Rutherford was going to make a move at the deadline, a depth defenseman figured to be one. This might expedite matters, though. Forget about left-right pairings, the Penguins need warm bodies. The Penguins still have Juusso Riikola, who has excelled at times, and a minor-league call-up (Ethan Prow?) is certainly possible.
"We have capable guys that are going to give other guys opportunities," Sullivan said. "Hopefully we won't lose anyone of them for any length of time. In the meantime we're going to put in guys that we know are capable of helping us win."
Whoever that is, they can't do much better than what Johnson, Schultz, Pettersson and Ruhwedel provided Saturday. Though Matt Murray was the goat, he was certainly appreciative of the efforts of those in front of him.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Jake Voracek
Flyers right winger
Three-point night for the Gritty look-alike, including the game-tying goal with 20 seconds remaining.
2. Claude Giroux
Flyers left winger
Conspicuously quiet for most of the night, the Flyers captain picked up two points in the final six minutes, including the OT game-winner.
3. Sean Couturier
Flyers center
Couturier tied the score at 1-1 in the first period with a rocket and then won the draw against Nick Bjugstad that led to Voracek's tying goal.
THE GOOD
As expected, Sullivan reunited Patric Hornqvist on the top line with Sidney Crosby in the hopes of awakening the right winger from his recent slumber.
Though Hornqvist didn't end his goal-less drought — now 16 games — he did earn his first point since Jan. 8. That was the same game in which he went down with his latest concussion. Saturday was at least a small sign that he might be getting back on track.
Hornqvist picked up the secondary helper on Schultz's goal, deservedly so, while also providing the screen on Elliott. It was vintage Hornqvist, who also threw a team-high six hits and had two blocked shots. Whether he is truly back won't be known until he cashes in on the power play, but the Penguins didn't have one chance with the man advantage.
"I think we played good," Hornqvist said of his line. "We had some good shifts below the goal line, created some chances. It was a hard game overall. Big part of the game, we were the better team."
THE BAD
Just when you thought Evgeni Malkin's goal was the worst you'd see -- a long-distance slap shot that hit Elliott's glove, went 10 feet in the air above his head and then dropped in behind him -- Murray somehow topped it.
For the second straight game, Murray was guilty of letting in a bad goal. Like, really bad. Sure the weather was awful, the ice was atrocious, Bjugstad took the draw instead of Crosby and the shot first went through the legs of Johnson, but Voracek's tying goal can't go in at any time in a game, let alone with 20 seconds remaining in a tied game.
From the left corner and with little angle, Voracek put a seemingly harmless shot on net from 39-feet out that somehow went through Murray's five hole:
Say what you want about Murray's notoriously leaky glove hand, that's the second straight game that an opponent has beaten him simply because he lost track of the puck and didn't have his stick down. Remember Miles Wood's shuffleboard special Tuesday night in Newark?
"I just didn't see it," Murray said. "I need to do a better job finding it. It is what it is. They throw a lot of traffic at the net, but I have to do a better job."
Other than that goal, Murray was actually otherwise solid in making 33 saves. Sure, Murray could have played James van Riemsdyk's goal at 16:56 of the third a little better, but it came on what was basically a 5-on-3 power play. Giroux's winner was in the gimmicky 3-on-3 overtime and Giroux's, well, Giroux. But that tying goal can't happen. Just can't. This latest misstep comes at a time when there are plenty questioning his consistency, including his GM and coach.
"Obviously we'd like to see him bring a little more consistency to his game, it's going to help us down the stretch," Sullivan said. "Matt's a very good goalie and we believe in him."
However, that small vote of confidence is not going to stop the drum beating for Rutherford to look at who might be available. The Penguins just aren't getting consistent goaltending and that's a big problem.
THE PLAY
The NHL's 3-on-3 overtime format is equal parts perspiration and possession. It's a frantic pace where he who has the puck usually wins.
The Penguins had three shots on goal in overtime, including two good chances for Phil Kessel that Elliott made two of his 40 saves on. Kessel, who had six shots on goal, now has gone a dozen games without a goal.
The extra session lasted just over two minutes when the Flyers regained possession and Nolan Patrick dropped a pass back to Giroux, who entered the zone at full speed. Using a stutter-step on Schultz to get a better angle, Giroux fired a 21-foot wrist shot that beat Murray to the five hole for his 18th of the season:
“It was great. I’ve got goosebumps right now," said Giroux. "I’ve been in this building a few times to watch the Eagles, and to get a chance to play here is unbelievable.”
Murray was so incensed, he and a handful of teammates stormed off the ice without even going through the handshake line.
"I feel like s--- for that last one," the goalie said. "We battled hard. Tough conditions. Two 'D' were down and our 'D' did an unbelievable job all night. It sucks. Sucks to not get that extra point."
THE CALL
Matt Cullen had just 12 penalty minutes in 50 games this season. He's never had more than 47 PIMs in any of his previous 21 seasons. And aside from cheating on faceoffs, they all do, he's one of the most respected veterans in the league.
However, it was his untimely slashing penalty on Phillipe Myers in the neutral zone that set in motion the Flyers' comeback at the 15:40 mark of the third period:
"I thought they were kind of looking for something there," said Jared McCann.
Yep, in a game with one questionable hit and scrums after every other stop in play, it was kind of a ticky-tack call to make in a 3-1 game. Cullen, who does not typically say anything controversial, voiced his displeasure afterward.
THE OTHER SIDE
Before Rutherford acquired Bjugstad and McCann earlier this month, plenty of Pittsburgh fans had been clamoring for the Penguins to acquire Simmonds. After Saturday, they might be a little less enthralled with the Flyers' right winger.
But in the Flyers' dressing room, Simmonds was being hailed as a hero, and not just for his hit on Dumoulin. Saturday was likely the pending unrestricted free agent's last game with the Flyers, as he's likely to be dealt before Monday's deadline. In eight seasons in Philadelphia, Simmonds has been a favorite of both fans and teammates alike. In fact, after Giroux passed over the Flyers' player-of-the-game helmet to Voracek, he handed it over to Simmonds.
“You savor it a little more,” Simmonds said. “This has been my home. I’ve lived in Toronto in the offseason and Philadelphia. I can truly say I’ve given everything I’ve had to Philadelphia the last eight years.”
With 65 points, the Flyers aren't mathematically eliminated but they are a long-shot to reach the playoffs. Saturday's win over the Penguins in front of a packed house is probably as good as it's going to get.
THE DATA
• In game No. 66 against the Flyers for Crosby, the player Philadelphia loves to hate picked up his 99th point with a goal and an assist.
• The Penguins, who took a 1-0 lead on Crosby's goal, had been 20-11-5 when scoring first this season. Teams that score first dropped to 15-8-4 in the NHL’s 27 regular-season outdoor games.
• The Flyers became the fifth team to ever stage a multi-goal comeback to win an outdoor game. They are the only ones to do it all in the third period.
• Six of the NHL’s 27 all-time outdoor games have required overtime, with four decided in the 5-minute extra session and two determined in a shootout.
• The 80 combined shots on goal (43-37 in favor of the Penguins) tied an outdoor game mark. It was also done at the 2009 Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Blackhawks at Wrigley Field.
THE INJURIES
• Letang, defenseman, was being evaluated for an upper body injury suffered in the first period after he was wrestled to the ice by Shayne Gostisbehere.
• Dumoulin, defenseman, sustained a concussion after absorbing a hit from Simmonds in the first period and did not return.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder and is expected to miss a month. He's on IR.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines/pairings for this game:
Guentzel - Crosby - Hornqvist
ZAR - Malkin - Kessel
McCann - Bjugstad - Rust
Pearson - Cullen - Wilson
Dumoulin - Letang
Johnson - Schultz
Pettersson - Ruhwedel
• And for Scott Gordon's Flyers:
Giroux — Patrick — Konecny
Lindblom — Couturier — Voracek
Raffl — Laughton — Simmonds
van Riemsdyk — Varone — Bailey
Provorov — Sanheim
MacDonald — Gostisbehere
Hagg — Myers
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are off today. They will practice at 11 a.m. on Monday in Cranberry. They are back in action Tuesday night in Columbus against Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel and the new look Blue Jackets. Taylor, Sunday and myself will be traveling to central Ohio for that game.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything, including Dejan Kovacevic's column, Sunday's View from Ice Level, and Taylor Haase's piece on the weather effect.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins at Flyers, Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Feb. 23, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS____________________
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