Kris Letang blew the game.
He also tends to generate far more good than bad on any given night.
Both things can be true, vexingly enough, and it's been part of the general Letang experience since the first time he laced up the skates in the Igloo. He's high-risk, high-reward, capable of an erratic range from elite to ... I don't know, however anyone would care to characterize this:
That's overtime of the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Sharks on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, an outcome claimed on Brent Burns' power-play blast shortly after the Letang penalty above.
And yeah, that's a blatant dive by Logan Couture. The instant he feels Letang's stick against his left shin, he milks it for all it's worth. Throws both skates out behind him. Even glances over to his left -- while still sliding forward on all fours, no less -- to check that referee Furman South had his arm raised.
But that's not what's pertinent, is it?
Nope. Because Letang had zero business putting that stick against that shin.
As the second angle above illustrates, the puck was well ahead of Couture, and Couture, being a left shot, had no play to make even if he'd won the footrace. He couldn't cut back to the inside going that hard and that deep into the zone and, even if he somehow had, Tristan Jarry has an easy time sticking him away.
Oh, hey, also: Letang's shoulder-to-shoulder with the guy.
There's no play for Couture. No reason for Letang to try to slow him in any way, much less illegally.
So ... why?
The correct and only answer, as ever: Who knows?
The Penguins' locker room was open to media within five minutes of the final horn -- faster than the norm -- and even then, Letang was out of there before we'd had a chance to enter. And it's not as if any of the remaining players were in position to explain it.
Not that much would've been forthcoming. Letang had pretty much expressed himself on the ice by barking at Furman, as captured in the photo atop this column by our Matt Sunday, and continued doing so all the way to the box. Given ample precedent, more of that is all Letang would've offered had he stayed at his stall. He's as honest as anyone I've ever covered, often brutally so, but he also honestly doesn't see the same occasional flaws in his game that others do. He wouldn't have after this, either.
He'd actually have seen as much awry with the overtime penalty as he would've with this ill-advised step-up in the first period to hand the Sharks a two-on-one:
That, my friends, is a one-handed poke at a charging Evander Kane, one of the game's most powerful skaters with the skill to match. So when Kane elegantly chips the puck by Letang for the eventual two-on-one feed to Timo Meier, only Jarry spared him from an additional earlier embarrassment.
There was more bad. And, again, there was good. There's always good, usually enough to more than offset the bad. Because Letang led all players with 25:10 of ice time, was on the ice for 18 scoring chances for the Penguins against eight for the Sharks, including an 8-2 advantage in high-danger scoring chances.
For the full season, Letang's five-on-five Corsi For percentage -- the most intricate, reliable measure of a player's 200-foot performance -- is 56.37, fifth-best among all NHL defensemen.
Why the meltdowns?
Why at seemingly rotten times?
If I were that smart, I'd be behind the bench rather than Mike Sullivan. And I don't think even he's that smart.
• South, the referee in question, was born in Sewickley and graduated from both Quaker Valley High School and Robert Morris University. That call didn't go the Penguins' way, meaning South easily could've evened up the minors by sending off Couture for embellishment. Other calls didn't go the Penguins' way. That's because these guys are complete professionals. They're inconsistent, and they're overseen by a legion of dinosaurs, but they don't play favorites.
• Marcus Pettersson's candid -- and correct -- assessment of how the Penguins played in our talk afterward: "I think we played a good game, and I thought they did, too. We know they're still a good team, and we knew they were coming off a tough loss and desperate to get a win."
No doubt. There are tough losses, and then there's losing, 2-0, in Detroit, as the Sharks did Tuesday night. Yikes.
• Only issue here with the Penguins was with the three two-on-ones the Sharks had in the first period.
I brought those up with Sullivan, and he replied, "Two of them, I think we could've made better decisions, one with the puck and one without," referring first to a rare hiccup by John Marino, then the just-cited miscue by Letang. "And the other," Sullivan continued, "was just a reload by one of our forwards," referring to Bryan Rust. "That's hockey. We'll learn from those. But that's not something we've done a whole lot of. I don't think we've given up three two-on-ones in our last 10 games."
I was thinking about a month, so we were on the same wavelength. This hasn't been an issue, and it wasn't one after the first intermission.
• Just as the Penguins immediately learned from those, so, too, can they learn from Patric Hornqvist, who scored both their goals, the second of which came from richly familiar territory:
Although the Penguins wound up outshooting the Sharks, 38-31, and San Jose's Aaron Dell made several solid saves, there were a few too many non-Hornqvist approaches to the front of the net. Including by a few players who can ill afford to not go there.
• Another annoying thing from the scene above: Watch how badly Hornqvist wants the puck up there when Alex Galchenyuk first gets it in the left corner. Then watch Galchenyuk ignore him for the little dump behind to Rust.
Yeah, it ends up being a goal, but only because Rust does exactly what Galchenyuk should've done.
It's been a long, long time since the Penguins have had a player who thinks the game as east-west as Galchenyuk does. And I dare say that's reason No. 1 he isn't fitting.
• He will not last on that first line, by the way. Not judging from Sullivan's severely tepid assessment afterward, and not judging by what was actually witnessed. For the gazillionth time, Evgeni Malkin needs straight-ahead wingers.
• Malkin was magnificent. I don't care that there were no points on his ledger. He made more exceptional passes in the third period alone than the rest of the roster's made in weeks. Looked like a point guard who'd taken the court alone.
• Anyone else noticing how sound Juuso Riikola's been?
If not, here's as stark a statistic as I could uncover: In all 18 games he's played this season, he's been on the ice for six even-strength goals-against. In the seven games since rejoining the lineup after Justin Schultz's injury, he's been on the ice for three even-strength goals against, as well as 13 high-danger scoring chances allowed.
Seems to have gotten over the headless chicken problem from early in the season, to say the least.
• The Sharks are another year older, another year slower with essentially the same cast they've rolled out for the past decade, but they're still loaded with talent. So even though they got Peter DeBoer fired a month ago, and even though they'd gone 2-5-1 under Bob Boughner, I expected they'd give the Penguins trouble.
What I didn't expect was that they'd emerge from the 2-2 tie at the second intermission with energy to match the home team. But they did, and I asked Patrick Marleau about that:
• Speaking of Marleau, he and the Bruins' Zdeno Chara on this same date became the NHL's only active players to have played at least one game in the 1990s and, thus, the 12th, 13th and 14th players in league history to play at least one game over four or more decades.
"Just means I've been around a long time," Marleau said.
• Same with Joe Thornton, whose assist on Burns' goal pushed him past Adam Oates for seventh on the NHL's all-time list:
Looking at that list, and half of the six players above Thornton having been prominent Penguins, I'm reminded that yet another should've been atop all lists.
• My goodness, did Burns ever murder this poor puck on that goal, and through a thick Kane screen on top of that:
Burns is that dude you hated on the school playground because he was so big, so strong, so fast, so talented he could do everything just so much easier than everyone else. Probably slap the lunch money out of your hand, too.
• Jarry remained a rock. He absolutely should start again Saturday in Montreal, leaving Sunday at home against the Panthers to Matt Murray. And no, Jarry can't do both. The Sunday faceoff is 5:08 p.m.
• Sidney Crosby with no beard, all of a sudden?
Very much a Taylor Haase exclusive, one that I would imagine portends well.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Sharks, PPG Paints Arena, Jan. 2, 2020 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS