Bryan Rust sat at his locker stall late Tuesday night, his mouth slightly open, his eyes fixated at the floor. The next stall over, Dominik Simon had to cover his dewy eyes with his left hand. Across the room, Jack Johnson sat in his full equipment, his face buried in his jersey.
Disappointed? Frustrated? All of the above. Doesn't matter if it's seven games or four. Watching eight months of work go down the drain hurts, especially in Pittsburgh where nothing less than the Cup is expected.
"We had high expectations for this team," Mike Sullivan was saying. "We believe we have good players and had the potential to be a good team. We, obviously, didn't play well enough to win."
No, they did not.
The record will show that these Penguins didn't even come close to a sixth championship and third in four years. They were one-and-done as the upstart Islanders completed their series sweep Tuesday night with a 3-1 win at PPG Paints Arena.
However, the fact is that the Penguins had been grinding out de facto playoff games for the past six weeks just to qualify for the postseason for the 13th straight season. Despite several injuries and sub-par seasons from Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel, they still managed to go 10-3-3 in March. But by the time the calendar turned to April, the tank was empty. They lost three of their last five regular-season games in what was little more than a precursor of things to come.
They were not guilty of looking past the Islanders, who finished ahead of them in the standings. The Islanders were simply the better team and the Penguins had no answers for them. They were beaten in every facet and in every zone, the neutral zone in particular.
"They play such a structured team game," Matt Murray was saying. "You have to give credit where credit is due. They played a heckuva series."
The Penguins most certainly did not play a heckuva series. It's the first time they have been swept since the 2013 conference final against the Bruins and the first time in an opening-round series since 1972 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
What went wrong for them on Tuesday was exactly what went wrong the previous two games. They took an early lead, failed to protect it and then failed to score another goal. Rinse and repeat.
"It seemed like that was the case the whole series," Sullivan lamented. "Every time we'd score and get some momentum, and then we'd give it back shortly thereafter. It's such a game of momentum. When you can hang on to it, it certainly helps your team."
No, the Penguins could not have scripted a better start than Jake Guentzel -- reunited with Jared McCann and Sidney Crosby on the top line -- scoring just :35 into the game. After Crosby doggedly took the puck off Adam Pelech in the corner, he backhanded a nifty pass to Guentzel, who skated into the slot and finally solved Robin Lehner, beating the Islanders' behemoth goalie to the blocker side:
It was Guentzel's first point of the playoffs. Crosby's, too. The gold-clad 18,609 inside PPG Paints Arena threatened to blow the roof off the place. Surely that should have been a good omen, right? It wasn't.
Because just 1:34 later, the Islanders countered on this Jordan Eberle goal off a costly Kris Letang turnover inside the offensive zone. That's all the opportunistic, counter-punching Islanders needed:
Apparently, Sullivan's preaching of patience and discipline with the puck fell on deaf ears. The optics were particularly awful for Letang, who will certainly garner Norris Trophy votes this week. But not only did he get caught trying to force something that wasn't there, he got no help from his forwards. That led to yet another 2-on-1 and another Eberle goal, his fourth in as many games this series.
"We knew the type of game they were going to play and what we were up against," Sullivan said. "We talked about having patience with our game and taking what the games gives us, and making better decisions with the puck so we don't put ourselves in some difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in some difficult circumstances."
That goal merely tied the game, but it was another defensive miscue that gave the Islanders the lead for good. In all, the Penguins held the lead for just 4:51 in the series.
At 18:06 of the first period, Brock Nelson scored a tap-in from the doorstep after Josh Bailey knocked Marcus Pettersson off the puck behind his own net and Garrett Wilson failed to pick up Nelson.
Under normal circumstances, a one-goal lead should be no problem for the Penguins, who averaged 3.33 per game, sixth-best in the NHL this season. However, against a New York defense that allowed the fewest, and coupled with their recent struggles, it may as well have been a five-goal deficit. Once again, the Penguins could get nothing past Lehner, though they did have a couple decent looks.
In a five-minute span midway through the second period, Lehner made pad stops on a Hornqvist tip and a Kessel shot from the left circle. Then, Crosby's shot hit the crossbar (see The Bad). But more times than not, as they were all series, the Penguins were guilty of not shooting even more. Here, in the first period, Malkin had Rust driving to the net but instead of passing or even firing a shot on his forehand, he tried a low-percentage spin-o-rama:
Late in the third period, down by one and the season on the line, Crosby took the puck at the right side of the net and tried an ill-advised backhanded pass across the goal-mouth that was easily intercepted. Seconds later, Josh Bailey hit an empty net to close out the sweep:
"They play hard in the 'D' zone, 1-on-1," Malkin said. "We tried so hard, I think it was our best game of the series tonight and we still scored one goal."
That made it three goals over the final three games of a disappointing series. Two of those goals came from Erik Gudbranson, a third-pair defenseman, and the other from Wilson, a fourth-liner, in Games 2 and 3. That is a perfect recipe for a first-round exit.
"They made it hard for us," Rust said. "I think that's basically the end of the story. They made it hard for us. They capitalized on their chances. We didn't."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Jordan Eberle
Islanders right winger
Think the Oilers could have used this guy? Eberle has to be among the early favorites for the Conn Smythe.
2. Robin Lehner
Islanders goaltender
A good goalie with a great personal story. Had a 1.47 GAA and .956 save percentage in the first round.
3. Josh Bailey
Islander left winger
Two-point game, including a 156-foot empty-net goal with 37.7 remaining that sent the Islanders to the second round.
THE GOOD
After 21 seasons and 1,649 games, playoffs included, Matt Cullen likely skated in his last NHL game. The 42-year-old returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year contract and it's hard to envision him returning for one more season as the Penguins will look to get younger and faster.
Obviously, retirement was far from his mind shortly after Tuesday night's game ended:
But if this was it, it was a remarkable run for one of the game's truly good guys. Cullen was coaxed out of retirement last summer by Jim Rutherford to provide character and leadership to the room. Say what you want about Cullen's declining skills, but he certainly brought intangibles to this year's team.
Cullen had seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points and surpassed Mike Modano for the second-most games played by an American-born player this season. In Game 4, Cullen played 9:06, 2:38 of it shorthanded as the penalty kill went a perfect 3-for-3.
"It really hurts for all of us," he said. "You invest a lot in the season and going into the playoffs with high hopes, and we weren't able to get it done. It hurts a lot. It's a tough one to take. We have to take some time here."
THE BAD
Along with Murray, Crosby is the biggest reason why the Penguins even extended their playoff appearance streak. The captain enjoyed his sixth 100-point season and carried his team for long stretches.
However, Crosby's goal-scoring touch ran dry late in the season and never quite recovered. For a team that was already getting next to nothing from Malkin, Kessel and Hornqvist, that was a death blow. Playoffs included, Crosby scored just two goals over the final 16 games this season.
Though he did have the assist on Guentzel's opening goal, Crosby had more right wingers (3) than shot attempts (1) on Tuesday. That lone attempt was a good one too. Midway through the second period with the Penguins on the power play, Kessel reversed a backhanded pass to Crosby at the left side of the net. Though he was handcuffed a little bit, Crosby had the entire short-side open. Instead, his shot clanked off the crossbar:
"Personally, I have to be better," Crosby said. "Have to find a way to contribute and find a way to produce and help us find a way to win. It's disappointing. For how well we finished the year and the things we went though to put us in this position, it's going to be hard to sit on this one."
Crosby's previous worst postseason was in 2015 when he recorded four points -- two goals and two assists -- in a five-game loss to the Rangers.
THE OTHER SIDE
Taylor Haase has the Islanders' remarkable story.
THE DATA
• Crosby did manage to win 17 of 25 faceoffs (68 percent).
• The Islanders held a 50-34 edge in hits. Predictably, Matt Martin led the way with 11.
• Crosby, Guentzel and McCann played 8:40 together and had a team-best Corsi For percentage of 86.67. They were disbanded in the second period.
• With Johnny Boychuk missing the third period, Ryan Pulock played a team-high 24:05, 1:33 more than his postseason average.
• Letang had four shots on goal but had six blocked and two misses.
THE INJURIES
• None.
THE LINEUPS
• Sullivan’s lines and pairings as they finished:
Guentzel — Crosby — Simon
Rust — Malkin—Kessel
McCann — Bjugstad — Hornqvist
Aston-Reese — Cullen — Wilson
Dumoulin — Letang
Johnson — Schultz
Pettersson — Gudbranson
• Trotz’s Islanders finished with a forward rotating through the fourth line and all five defensemen rotated after Cal Clutterbuck and Boychuk, respectively, went down late in the second period:
Lee — Barzal — Eberle
Bailey — Nelson — Kuhnhackl
Beauvillier — Filppula — Komarov
Martin — Cizikas
Leddy
Pelech — Pulock
Mayfield — Toews
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have exit meetings with the coaching staff and will hold a locker clean-out day later this week. Sullivan and Jim Rutherford will likely address the media at that time. We'll have all your coverage from the Lemieux Complex.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Islanders, Game 4, PPG Paints Arena, April 16, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
