EDMONTON, Alberta -- The end of the second period could not have come soon enough.
The Penguins had to have been pretty happy with their start, heading to the locker room at first intermission with a one-goal lead off scores from Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby and a 19-9 lead in shots. But it's not an overstatement to say that what followed was one of the worst periods in the 56-year history of the franchise, and they weren't able to recover from such a monumental swing in momentum, falling to the Oilers, 6-3, Monday night at Rogers Place for their first regulation loss after 4-0-1 start.
The second period wasn't a disaster from the start -- Bryan Rust scored on the Penguins' first shot to make it 3-1 at the two-minute mark. The turning point came shortly after when Jeff Petry gave Connor McDavid a push from behind and sent him flying into the left post of the Pittsburgh net. McDavid left for the dressing room for a brief amount of time, while Petry was sent to the box for interference. Tyson Barrie capitalized on the ensuing power play to cut the Penguins' lead to one goal, and that sparked the rest.
Goals from Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl put the Penguins in a two-goal hole, and Tristan Jarry was the reason why that hole didn't become a crater. The Penguins were outshot 26-4 in the second period. Per longtime Pittsburgh hockey historian Bob Grove, that minus-22 shot differential for a period tied for the worst in franchise history, matching when the Penguins were outshot, 26-4, by the Hartford Whalers in an 8-6 loss Feb. 26, 1989.
"We got outplayed," Mike Sullivan said of what changed between the first and second periods. "I thought the guys really came out and worked hard in the first period, but we got outplayed from there."
It wasn't a matter of being unable to get shots, though. The Oilers stifled the Penguins' ability to get opportunities, limiting them to just nine shot attempts at five-on-five in in the second period to the Oilers' 30. They had a lone high-danger attempt at five-on-five, while the Oilers managed eight. They had just three scoring opportunities, and the Oiler had five times as many with 15.
"We just got on our heels," Crosby said. "We didn't forecheck well and gave them some time and space. They're a dangerous team. If you give them time and space, they're going to make plays, and we found that out."
Barrie's power-play goal that started the swing came off of a bad bounce -- or two. Barrie unleashed a bomb of a shot from the point, and Brock McGinn got a piece of it with his skate, but it deflected to the skate of Jan Rutta, and then bounced over the goal line:
"We can't let the momentum go for as long as we did," Crosby told me. "Teams are going to get a bounce. They get a bounce on the power play there. We've got to find a way to grab it back, and we didn't. We let it slide for the entire period."
Luck went the Oilers' way on that one, but the Oilers' continued scoring opportunities throughout the period didn't have anything to do with luck. Kane's tying goal was just one moment in a rough night for the Penguins' top defense pairing:
Nugent-Hopkins' goal came off of a rebound:
Kane said afterward that the key to the Oilers' comeback was to just get pucks to the net, and noted how it would lead to chances like the one that resulted in Nugent-Hopkins' goal.
"I thought we did a good job executing when we had to," Kane said. "I thought a big reason was because we got pucks to the net. It breaks down their coverage, creates some confusion in their D-zone, and we got a lot of second and third chances off that."
I asked Sullivan what his message was to his team after a period like that.
"Well, our message was that we got beat, they outplayed us in the second period, we outplayed them in the first period," he said. "We've got to get back in the fight. We've got to dust ourselves off and get back into the fight."
The third period was far more evenly-matched than the one that preceded it, but the Oilers were still the better team in the third. Shots were fairly even at 12-11 Oilers, but the Oilers had 24 attempts to the Penguins 15, and four high-danger attempts while the Penguins had none.
It was a better showing than the Penguins had in the second period. It just wasn't enough.
"We had a big mountain to climb in the third," Crosby said. "We pushed back, but unfortunately a little too late."
The Penguins have a quick turnaround here. They flew south to Calgary after this loss for the game Tuesday against the Flames. They'll arrive with a fresh reminder of what needs to happen to get back into the win column.
"We've just got to put a full game together," Crosby said. "We can still do a better job of that. We had a better start, but then we don't follow it up. We've got to put a full game together, focus on that, and the results will take care of itself."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins went with a two-defenseman top power play, something they experimented with in practice Sunday. Petry was bumped up to the top unit alongside Crosby, Rust, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. It was the second unit, though, that was the most impressive in this one. P.O Joseph quarterbacked a unit with Rakell, Danton Heinen, Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter, and that group was just buzzing. Extended offensive zone time every opportunity, lots of movement, and they generated more of the scoring chances. They also were responsible for the lone power play goal, with Rakell's first-period tally:
• Jarry slide-tackled Draisaitl midway through the second. There was a delayed penalty call on Zach Hyman, so Jarry was heading to the bench and for some reason Jarry decided to take Draisaitl down on the way there. The Oilers touched the puck right after play stopped, and Jarry was probably lucky he didn't get called for a penalty, because you could probably make a case for tripping, holding, or interference here:
• Jarry did get a penalty in this game, but for something else. He got called for holding Kane's stick earlier, after he just grabbed onto it in the crease and wouldn't let go. He's now up to 16 career penalty minutes, a real goon.
• Jarry also had a secondary assist in this game. His outlet pass found Rakell, who then set up Crosby for the Penguins' second goal:
• Drake Caggiula and Sam Poulin were recalled Sunday, and it was Caggiula who got into Monday's game, slotting onto the left side of the fourth line. He played a team-low 7:28, recorded one shot on goal, one hit and one blocked shot.
• Crosby tied legendary playmaking center Adam Oates for 18th on the NHL's all-time points list with 1,420 points (521 goals, 899 assists).
• I love that the Oilers' press box is just full of snacks that are really only available in Canada. They had ketchup chips, which really just taste like ketchup, but I like them more than I thought I would. There were also Aero bars, which are just lighter chocolate bars with air bubbles. Coffee Crisp bars are good too, those are sort of like Kit Kats with a bigger wafer-to-chocolate ratio and a slight coffee taste. I wasn't crazy about Smarties, which are a totally different candy than what we call Smarties back home. Smarties here are like bigger M&Ms with a thicker candy coating. What we call Smarties, Canada also has but they call them Rockets. What a country.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Rogers Place:
1. Leon Draisaitl, Oilers C
2. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oilers C
3. Evander Kane, Oilers LW
THE INJURIES
• Forward Teddy Blueger has resumed practicing with the team as he recovers from an upper-body injury. He's day-to-day, but he was placed on long-term injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 11. The earliest he can return is Nov. 5 against the Kraken.
• Forward Jake Guentzel is skating with the team in a non-contact jersey in a limited capacity. He joined practice toward the end of the session on Sunday, but didn't participate in any team drills and just worked on individual drills at center ice.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Danton Heinen - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Drake Caggiula - Ryan Poehling - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
And for Jay Woodcroft's Oilers:
Evander Kane - Connor McDavid - Kailer Yamamoto
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Leon Draisaitl - Zach Hyman
Warren Foegele - Ryan McLeod - Jesse Puljujarvi
Devin Shore - Derek Ryan
Darnell Nurse - Cody Ceci
Brett Kulak - Tyson Barrie
Markus Niemelainen - Evan Bouchard
Ryan Murray
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins play in Calgary Tuesday night, with faceoff at 9:08 p.m. Eastern. Because of the back-to-back games, they won't have a morning skate. Sullivan will hold his pregame availability at 7 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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