NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The experiment was, in some ways, an unqualified success.
Mike Sullivan reconfigured his top two lines for the Penguins' game against the Predators at Bridgestone Arena Tuesday night, with the goal of restoring some offensive balance.
It worked.
Just not necessarily in the way Sullivan had hoped.
By the end of what became a 4-1 loss to Nashville, most of his forward units made similar contributions to the offense. Which is to say, very few. At least contributions of the kind that register on the scoreboard.
Which are, of course, the only ones that really matter.
Nonetheless, Sullivan insisted that he was pleased with what he got from the new combinations, which had Bryan Rust moving from his usual spot with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel onto the second line, alongside Evgeni Malkin and Danton Heinen, and Evan Rodrigues replacing Rust.
"I thought they were good," Sullivan said. "I thought (Rodrigues) did a good job with Sid and Jake. I thought (Rust) really helped (Malkin). We had the balance that we were looking for, hoping for. I thought those lines played hard. We didn't get the results on the scoreboard, but I thought they played well."
There will be a couple of ways to tell in the next few days whether Sullivan and his staff were genuinely satisfied with what they saw from the new groupings.
One is whether those units are still intact for the Penguins' next game, Thursday in St. Louis. Another is whether Ron Hextall parts with a precious asset or two to acquire a top-six winger to work with Malkin before the NHL trade deadline Monday at 3 p.m.
The Penguins did generate 36 shots on Predators goalie Juuse Saros -- 13 by Crosby and his linemates, but just one each from members of Malkin's unit -- and forced him to make enough quality stops to be chosen the game's No. 2 star.
"Their goalie made some big saves," Rodrigues said. "It was just kind of one of those games."
The Penguins got their only goal off a superbly executed set play 14 minutes into the second period, as Crosby won a faceoff in the left circle cleanly from Luke Kunin, pulling the puck back to Kris Letang. Letang slid a cross-ice feed to Guentzel, who had drifted into the right circle and threw a shot past Saros on the stick side for his 29th of the season.
"That (sequence) takes five guys," Guentzel said. "There are a lot of picks and whatnot. It takes a line to do that one."
His goal negated one Mattias Ekblom had scored with 1.5 seconds to go in the opening period, when he was allowed to get off an uncontested shot at Casey DeSmith from the inner edge of the left circle. However, the tie held up for just 100 seconds before Tanner Jeannot deflected a Roman Josi shot past DeSmith for what proved to be the game-winner.
Eeli Tolvanen gave Nashville some insurance by converting a breakaway just 83 seconds after Jeannot's goal, following a near-collision at the Penguins' blue line by Letang and his defense partner, Mike Matheson, and Yakov Trenin put an exclamation point on the Predators' evening by hitting an empty net at 18:10 of the third.
Despite the relatively lopsided final score, the Penguins were adamant that they had played the Predators on even -- or better -- terms.
"We definitely outplayed them for the majority of the game," John Marino said.
Rodrigues offered a similar assessment.
"This one stings a little bit," he said. "Because I thought we controlled the majority of the play."
While the Penguins finished with a 36-25 advantage in shots, Nashville ran up a 36-14 edge in hits. The Penguins, though, contended that they were prepared for Nashville's heavy game.
"That's the type of style they play," Rodrigues said. "We kind of knew, coming into this game, that it was going to be a playoff-type of game, and I think we matched it."
Not hit-for-hit, certainly, but it wasn't Nashville's willingness to deliver hits that cost the Penguins a point or two; it was their own inability to hit the net behind Saros more than once.
"There's not really something to point at that we could have done better," Rodrigues said. "It's just ... they scored more goals than us. Simple as that."
Which is precisely what the Penguins were hoping to avoid when Rust was removed from one of the league's most productive lines and grafted onto another.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• While the outcome was far from fulfilling for the Penguins, the evening could have been much worse -- disastrous, even -- for them. That's because Crosby could have been seriously injured in the first period, when Ekholm's right skate appeared to slice him near the left elbow. The blade cut through Crosby's sweater and prompted him to go immediately to the locker room, but he returned shortly thereafter and played the rest of the game with no apparent problem. Ekholm's skate could have done some serious damage, though, so Crosby and his teammates were fortunate that his sweater proved to be the primary victim of that incident.
• The loss dropped the Penguins into a tie with the Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division; New York has a game in hand, and both clubs are just five points ahead of fourth-place Washington.
• The Penguins entered the game as the least-penalized team in the NHL, averaging six minutes, 44 seconds per game. The Predators, conversely, were the NHL's most-penalized club, averaging 12 minutes, 22 seconds. On this night, however, the Penguins picked up 12 minutes, while Nashville was assessed just 10.
• Crosby's assist on Guentzel's goal made him the 14th player in NHL history -- and the only active one -- to record at least 10 double-digit point streaks with one club. Wayne Gretzky has the league record with 21.
• Kasperi Kapanen's goal-scoring drought has swollen to 19 games. He had an excellent chance to break out of his slump midway through the third period, when Letang sprung him on a breakaway, but Kapanen was unable to beat Saros.
• Sullivan talked before the game about how important it was for the Penguins to try to neutralize Josi. Good idea, but the execution left a bit to be desired, as Josi piled up three assists. His total included the primary assist on the Predators' second and third goals, as Josi showed why he should again be in the Norris Trophy conversation.
• The Penguins' power play failed to score on four opportunities, leaving it in a 1-for-17 rut.
• Rodrigues (5-1) and Crosby (5-4) were the only Penguins to finish .500 or better on faceoffs.
• Playing from behind against the Predators is no way to collect points. Nashville is 26-0-1 when leading after two periods this season.
• With Zach Aston-Reese unavailable because of a non-Covid illness, Rust was added to the penalty-killing rotation, logging two minutes, 19 seconds of shorthanded work.
• Sullivan deviated from his pattern of having Crosby's line on the ice for the start of every period, sending Blueger's unit out for the first shift of the first and second periods.
GETTY
Predators winger Eeli Tolvanen defends Mike Matheson during a Penguins power play in the first period Tuesday.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Bridgestone Arena:
1. Roman Josi, Predators D
2. Juuse Saros, Predators G
3. Tanner Jeannot, Predators RW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brock McGinn, left winger, is week-to-week because of an unspecified upper-body injury.
• Jason Zucker, left winger, had core-muscle surgery Jan. 25 and is week-to-week. He has resumed skating.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Evan Rodrigues
Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Radim Zohorna-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Brian Boyle-Teddy Blueger-Dominik Simon
Mike Matheson-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-John Marino
Mark Friedman-Chad Ruhwedel
And for John Hynes' Predators:
Filip Forsberg-Ryan Johansen-Matt Duchene
Eeli Tolvanen-Mikael Granlund-Luke Kunin
Yakov Trenin-Colton Sissons-Tanner Jeannot
Nick Cousins-Michael McCarron-Philip Tomasino
Roman Josi-Dante Fabbro
Mattias Ekholm-Alexandre Carrier
Ben Harpur-Philippe Myers
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have a scheduled day off Wednesday in St. Louis before facing the Blues at Enterprise Center Thursday at 8:08 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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