The Penguins' game against the Kraken Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena looked to be a defensive battle for the first 40 minutes, and the Penguins seemed to be winning.
No goals had been scored through the game's first two frames. The Penguins had outshot the Kraken by a 20-9 margin, holding the Kraken to just two shots in the second period.
The script flipped in the third period.
The Kraken woke up in the third period and continued to gain momentum through two power play opportunities that period, as the Penguins "beat themselves," as Mike Sullivan put it.
The Kraken outshot the Penguins, 18-4. Though Evgeni Malkin got the game's opening goal, ex-Penguin Jared McCann forced overtime with a late third-period tally, paving the way for Seattle's Adam Larsson to score the game-winner in overtime and deal the Penguins a 2-1 loss.
"A point's great," Brian Boyle said after the loss. "But when you should get two because of the way you let it slip, I think it's more disappointing that way."
The Penguins wouldn't have even made it to overtime and gotten that point had it not been for Tristan Jarry, who faced a unique sort of challenge in the game.
Looking at the box score totals, a 27-save performance by Jarry seems pretty standard. But it's the way those shots were spaced out that made this game more challenging for Jarry.
To my knowledge, Jarry has never spoken about what his ideal shots-faced total is for a game, but with other goalies I've asked the answer is somewhere around 30, with those shots coming in at a fairly steady rate. It's not too heavy of a workload, and it's not too light that it would leave a goaltender stagnant for long periods of time.
Though Jarry's final total of shots faced was right in that wheelhouse at 29, the flow of the game wasn't ideal for a goaltender. He faced only seven shots in the first period and just two in the second period, which left him somewhat stagnant for long stretches of time.
Sullivan acknowledged that a situation like that can be tough on a goaltender, but he thought Jarry handled it well.
"It can, because in the first couple of periods, he didn't see a lot of pucks," he said when asked if that kind of workload distribution presents a challenge. "But I thought his focus was really good."
So even though Jarry may have been somewhat cold heading into the third period, he was on fire when facing the onslaught of 18 shots in the final frame of regulation.
The Kraken got a number of quality chances too, like this stop on a Jordan Eberle breakaway:
"They outplayed us in the third period," Sullivan said. "And (Jarry) made some big saves for us. There was a breakaway, a two-on-one. So I thought he was really solid."
The only goal that beat Jarry in regulation was McCann's team-leading 17th goal of the season, which came in the form of a redirect:
It's hard to fault him on that one.
"He's been great, night in and night out," Chad Ruhwedel said. "We need that to win, and he put in another good performance tonight. Just unfortunate that we didn't come away with the W."
The complete shift and collapse in the third period is what cost the Penguins the game. But it was Jarry's strong play in that frame that ensured that the Penguins were still able to get something out of this game.
"Jarry held us in," Jeff Carter observed. "Definitely not a period that we want to have in the third, but Jarry held us in and we got a point."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Malkin opened the scoring in the third-period with a shot through traffic on the power play that beat Philipp Grubauer:
• Larsson got the game-winner just 77 seconds into overtime:
• The result moves the Penguins into a three-way tie with the Hurricanes and Rangers for first in the Metropolitan Division, though the Hurricanes have three games in hand compared to the Penguins.
• Ruhwedel, Carter and Boyle were the three players who spoke postgame, and by their moods you would have thought they lost a major playoff game. Even though it's just January, they still got one point, and they currently sit where they do in the standings, they're not taking this loss lightly.
• The power play went 1-for-2 and the penalty kill went 2-for-2.
• Jake Guentzel led the Penguins in shots with four.
• The Penguins outhit the Kraken 33-29. There was a tie for the most hits, with five players each recording four: Zach Aston-Reese, Brock McGinn, Mike Matheson, Kris Letang and Carter.
• The Kraken do a hat as their MVP of the game award. Though Larsson got the game-winner, McCann got the hat for his revenge goal against his former team.
canner revenge game ✅ pic.twitter.com/tkdtHO3ksQ
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 28, 2022
• Before the game Frank Seravalli reported that Drew O'Connor's injury is a collapsed lung suffered in San Jose. Sullivan was asked about the report following the game and he declined to comment or confirm, only reiterating that it is an upper-body injury and O'Connor is considered "week-to-week."
• McCann and Brandon Tanev (who wasn't even on this trip because he tore his ACL and is out for the season) didn't receive tribute videos, but that's to be expected. Ever since the back-to-back Cup wins, being part of a Cup-winning team has been the bar for a player to receive a tribute video here.
• Carter spoke Thursday for the first time since signing his contract extension on Wednesday, calling it an "easy decision" to re-up in Pittsburgh.
"I'm getting to the end of my career here and I want to win," he said. "So you look at the team we have and the group we have in there, it's got a lot of potential to do something special. That was a big part of it. The other side is that my family really likes it, they've adjusted well. It's close to a lot of my wife's friends and family and my family as well. So it's been a good fit all around for us. It was really just an easy decision for us."
• Boyle was asked about his between-the-legs goal that he scored last game, and he had some jokes.
"My friends, I guess they were impressed," he said. "Some were a little puzzled. That was the only play I really had. So it's a cool feeling when it works. Tanger tried to copy me today, but I'll work with him on that."
• Earlier Thursday I covered Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's practice at the Lemieux Complex, with the team stopping there in Cranberry on their way to Cleveland for this weekend's games. I asked head coach J.D. Forrest, who was Boyle's teammate at Boston College, what he thought about the goal.
"I didn't know he could bend that way still," Forrest quipped. "Pretty impressive for the big guy. It was nice to see him contort his way into that one, that was a nice goal."
• Former Penguins assistant general manager Patrik Allvin, named the Canucks' general manager Wednesday, was still in town Thursday afternoon and was at the Lemieux Complex to say goodbye to those players and staff. He had a long chat with Alex Nylander on the bench.
• The Penguins are in no rush to replace Allvin, who also served as Wilkes-Barre's general manager in his role. Forrest told me that he doesn't yet know who will take over those duties while the Penguins search for Allvin's replacement. He spoke highly of Allvin and his level of involvement with Wilkes-Barre.
"He was fantastic," Forrest said. "He was great to me. We communicated on a daily basis. When you're in those positions, you're extremely busy. And you've got a lot of things going on. And he made it a point to talk to me on a daily basis. He was a good, good listener, a good guy for advice. I can't say enough about how he managed our team and how he just helped me along the way here. I'm really happy for him. I think he'll do a great job. But you know what, we'll miss him a lot."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Adam Larsson, Kraken
2. Jared McCann, Kraken
3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Forward Drew O'Connor was put on LTIR retroactive to Jan. 15. He's week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Frank Seravalli reported Thursday that it's a collapsed lung, which Sullivan would not confirm or comment on after Thursday's game.
• Forward Jason Zucker underwent surgery to repair a core muscle on Jan. 25 and is week-to-week.
• Goaltender Louis Domingue was put on IR after he was struck in the right foot by a puck in last Thursday's morning skate. He is considered week-to-week and is using a scooter and wearing a boot.
• Forward Teddy Blueger underwent surgery to repair a fractured jaw on Jan. 24 and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Kasperi Kapanem
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese - Brian Boyle - Dominik Simon
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel
And for Dave Hakstol's Kraken
Marcus Johansson - Jared McCann - Jordan Eberle
Calle Jarnkrok - Yanni Gourde - Mason Appleton
Ryan Donato - Alex Wennberg - Joonas Donskoi
Karson Kuhlman - Riley Sheahan - Colin Blackwell
Mark Giordano - Adam Larsson
Vince Dunn - Will Borgen
Haydn Fleury - Jeremy Lauzon
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will play the Red Wings at 7:08 p.m. on Friday at PPG Paints Arena. Because of the back-to-back starts, there will be no morning skate. Mike Sullivan will meet with reporters two hours before the game.
THE CONTENT
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