Penguins lose fourth straight after Capitals capitalize on costly mistakes

"We beat ourselves in a lot of ways," was how Mike Sullivan summed it up.

With Saturday's 6-3 loss to the Capitals at PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins' losing streak is now at four games, matching a season-worst. They're now 2-6-1 in their last nine games. The Penguins are at risk of slipping down into a wild card spot, with the Capitals now four points behind the Penguins for third place, with two games in hand.

Saturday's game presented an opportunity for the Penguins to end this skid and strengthen their hold on their position in the standings. 

It was a series of mistakes by the Penguins that the Capitals were able to capitalize on and come away with the result.

Bryan Rust gave the Penguins a lead just 45 seconds into the game. The lead was squandered in just 16 seconds after Brian Dumoulin turned the puck over in the Penguins' own end, quickly leading to a goal by Marcus Johansson:

Later in the first period, the Capitals gained their first lead of the game with a goal from Dmitry Orlov. I'm not big on the phrase "one he'd like to have back" for a goaltender (don't they want them all back?) but this is one that Tristan Jarry would like to have back. It was an unobstructed shot from the top of the circle. He should have had this one:

With a 3-2 lead after first-period goals from Jeff Carter and Brian Boyle, the Penguins opened the second period with a parade to the penalty box. Kris Letang got hit with an interference call to put the Capitals on the power play. Subsequent calls on Carter for a high-stick and a delay of game on Dumoulin for putting the puck over the glass gave the Capitals extended five-on-three time.

"I thought Carter's penalty was tough, quite honestly," Sullivan said. "He's getting interfered, he's in a foot race. He has a breakaway, he gets interfered. It's probably a high stick, but there should have been an interference call as well. So then Brian Dumoulin shoots it over the glass on a clean win face off, and then all of a sudden now we're in it, right? I thought that was a tough one."

Giving the Capitals that much time on the man advantage ended in the most predictable way possible: A one-timer from Alex Ovechkin from the left circle, tying the game:

"The first five on four, I thought we did a good job killing them," Teddy Blueger said of that stretch of penalties. "We were in the game after that. I don't think that helped the momentum, but I don't think it killed the game or anything."

Tom Wilson's eventual game-winner in the third came off of a Malkin turnover:

"Give Washington credit, they played hard," Sullivan said of the loss. "They were opportunistic on their chances. But tonight, we didn't play well enough."

The Penguins are hitting a rough patch at the wrong time of year. And they're going to need to rely on their veterans to help get back on track.

"We have the leadership in the room to right the ship," John Marino said. "There's enough older guys on the team that they know what it takes to win at this level."

One of those leaders, Boyle, said that he thinks the Penguins need to "focus on details" to get back to finding success.

"We need to start by defending all over the ice," he said. "Those are things that help you get out of things like this, you really have to be disciplined in that, and communication on the ice as well. Adversity, you see which way you're going to go with it. Every team I've been on has hit a rough patch during the season. You learn a lot from it. You'll learn a lot about yourself and your team. You move past that, you learn a lesson, and then it doesn't come back for the rest of the year."

With three weeks left in the regular season, the Penguins have to learn those lessons fast.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Rust opened the scoring, picking up the rebound from Guentzel's initial shot. Evgeni Malkin's secondary assist was his 700th career assist:

• Johansson tied it for the Capitals 16 seconds later.

• Orlov's goal came during a delayed penalty on Crosby for just decking Nic Dowd in the face after the two had gotten tied up on the faceoff:

• Jeff Carter's goal was his 17th of the season:

• Boyle's goal 60 seconds later was his 10th of the year:

• Ovechkin's tying goal on the power play in the second period. Before this game, Jarry was one of three goaltenders (along with Mike Condon and Mathieu Garon) to play seven games against Ovechkin without allowing a goal, per NHL.com's Tom Gulitti.

• Wilson's goal 11:35 into the third stood to be the game-winner.

• The Capitals tacked on two empty netters -- from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin Fehervary -- when the Penguins had the extra attacker on in their late third-period push.

• Jarry finished with 39 saves on 43 shots.

• Jason Zucker made his return to the lineup just eight days after being injured in Minnesota. It was his first full game since Jan. 17, and just his third full game in almost four months. He returned to the Penguins' second line, where he recorded no shots on goal and was a minus-2 in 9:20 of ice time. He led the Penguins in hits with five, and dropped the gloves with Trevor van Riemsdyk immediately after Wilson's goal:

"I thought he was was fine," Sullivan said of Zucker's return. "It's gonna take Zuck a few games to get up to speed. It's not easy. He's jumping on a moving train, so to speak. It's not an easy challenge. But I thought coming back he played pretty solid."

• The Penguins returned forward Filip Hallander to Wilkes-Barre after before the game. With the Penguins having 12 other healthy forwards, the Penguins' only options were to send Hallander back down or to use one of their last two standard recall spots to keep him. Hallander participated in warmups, so he didn't make it to Syracuse in time for Wilkes-Barre's 7 p.m. game.

• Senators senior vice president of player development Pierre McGuire was one of the scouts at the game.

• This game was on ABC. I catch glimpses of the broadcast on the press box screens above us, and the floating skycam still just doesn't make sense to me for anything other than replays. It just doesn't work for hockey. ABC also seemed to switch camera angles at odd times in a few instances. There was a moment in the third in which Guentzel was hit hard in the corner and slow to get up, though he ended up being fine. If you were watching the ABC feed, though, you didn't see it live because they had switched to some odd angle at that exact moment.

•  Actor Joe Manganiello (who also narrated "Sidney Crosby: The Rookie Year" on Audible) was in attendance with his chihuahua Bubbles. Bubbles didn't seem to be enjoying the game as much as Manganiello:

• Crosby's group of friends from Cole Harbour made their annual trip to Pittsburgh for this game. They usually dress up in some way, whether it be wearing different jerseys Crosby has worn in his career or crazy costumes. Last time they were here was the 2019-20 season, when they all dressed as actual penguins for a game in which Crosby scored an overtime winner against the Flyers. This time they were goats:

• The Penguins held a moment of silence for Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins before the game, after Haskins was killed when he was hit by a truck on Saturday morning.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

The Penguins hold a moment of silence for Dwayne Haskins on Saturday.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Tom Wilson, Capitals
2. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Capitals
3. Jeff Carter, Penguins C

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Brock McGinn, left winger, is rehabbing from an injured right wrist suffered on March 11. He has resumed practicing with full contact.

• Nathan Beaulieu, defenseman, was injured before he was acquired from the Jets at the trade deadline and is expected to remain sidelined for at least the remainder of the regular season. He isn't physically in Pittsburgh yet.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Evan Rodrigues - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brian Boyle - Teddy Blueger - Danton Heinen

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino

And for Peter Laviolette's Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Garnet Hathaway
Anthony Mantha - Nicklas Backstrom - Tom Wilson
Marcus Johansson - Connor McMichael - T.J. Oshie
Lars Eller - Nic Dowd - Johan Larsson

Martin Fehervary - John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov - Nick Jensen
Trevor van Riemsdyk - Justin Schultz

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins play the Predators at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Dejan and I will cover that one.

THE CONTENT

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