BOSTON -- "I think we got on our heels a little bit when they started pushing. It’s a tough one. We’ve had a few blown leads. We’ve got to figure that out."
That was a disheartened Marcus Pettersson after the Penguins lost, 2-1, to the Bruins in the Winter Classic here at Fenway Park in Boston on Monday.
The Penguins made the curious choice to trot out an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup against the Bruins. It's possible that contributed to the stark contrast in the Penguins' performance from the first half to the second half.
"We have a lot of reasons why we do what we did, I’m not going to share them all with you," Mike Sullivan would say of the decision after the game. "We chose to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen tonight for a number of reasons."
I won't speak for Sullivan, but here are a couple of reasons that he might have been alluding to:
1. Ryan Poehling did not play due to injury. If he would've played, he would have slotted in as the Penguins' No. 4 center. Without him in the lineup, the Penguins could have bumped Teddy Blueger back down to that spot, but it would have meant shifting Jeff Carter back to center on the third line right after finally moving him to the wing. Drew O'Connor is the only extra forward the Penguins had available, but it's becoming apparent that he's viewed more as a winger than a center.
2. It's possible that a defense pairing of Brian Dumoulin and Ty Smith going up against one of the best -- and heftiest -- teams in the league struck a bit of fear into the coaching staff, so dressing Chad Ruhwedel would provide the Penguins a bit of a failsafe if things weren't playing out favorably on the backend.
Whether right or wrong, both reasons hold some merit.
Here's why, in practice, it didn't go the way Sullivan hoped:
• Bryan Rust played a team- and season-high 26:06 after playing 20-plus minutes only three times all season.
• Sidney Crosby played 23:51.
• Jake Guentzel played 23:31.
• Evgeni Malkin played 21:40.
• Kasperi Kapanen played just 7:31 despite attempting two quality shots during that time, one of which served as the Penguins' only goal.
• Danton Heinen played a team-low 5:07 despite attempting four shots during that time.
Not following yet? Stick with me.
The Penguins got off to about as strong a start as they would've liked without taking a lead into the first intermission. They outshot the Bruins, 14-10, and generated exactly 1.0 expected goal while limiting the Bruins to 0.62, per Natural Stat Trick.
Crosby's line with Guentzel and Rust was so dominant in the first period that they out-attempted the Bruins 15-3, a good chunk of which came against Patrice Bergeron's line.
They were playing simple, straight-ahead hockey, and it was effective.
Although it came halfway through the second period, just look at the fashion in which Kapanen scored:
Two in on the forecheck, one awaiting in close support. It's picture perfect, simple hockey.
Aside from the first few minutes of the second and a couple other flash-in-the-pan shifts throughout, though, it was mostly the Bruins controlling play from that point forward. In the second and third period, the Penguins were outshot, 19-13, while generating a paltry 0.67 expected goals to the Bruins' 1.78 expected goals.
In the third period alone, the Bruins created eight high-danger chances. The Penguins? Zero.
It's fair to wonder if the Penguins' best players were simply getting worn down and fatigued as the game rolled on due to starting a forward short, then minimally playing Kapanen and Heinen. The Penguins were essentially rolling three lines, but even then, a third line of Brock McGinn, Blueger and Carter isn't all that offensively inclined. And let's be real here, none of those three players are possession dynamos.
That's a lot to ask from your top-six against this Bruins team, even more so in that kind of environment.
"It’s a fine line," Crosby said. "We had a couple chances, we don’t extend our lead and they hang around and get a power-play goal, and then it’s next goal wins from there. Ideally, we would’ve found a way to extend our lead and not let them hang around and be one shot away."
The Bruins are well coached, systematically sound, deep all around, and have one of the current best goalies in the league. On one hand, it could be viewed as a positive that the Penguins were just an extra second away from sending the game to overtime. On the other hand, it's hard not to feel as if lineup decisions and in-game management held the Penguins back from taking this game in regulation.
"I just think it’s such a game of momentum," Sullivan said. "We had it for stretches, they had it for stretches. I don’t think there were a whole lot of high-quality looks on either side. … It comes down to some subtle details and some timely plays. For me, that was the way the game went."
It's hard to focus on the subtle details and capitalize on timely plays when you're gassed. It just is. Each shift, and each game really, you get diminishing returns the more the tread gets worn down.
In addition to playing simple hockey in the first half of the game, the Penguins were strikingly zoned in on the forecheck and in the defensive zone. Crosby's line, especially, was sending wave after wave of relentless pressure to keep the puck in the offensive zone, even if it was just grinding the Bruins down. Until they weren't.
Had the Penguins rolled with 12 forwards and six defensemen, or even played Kapanen and Heinen a bit more, there's a decent case to be made that things would've shook out differently for them.
"There’s a fine line between winning and losing," Sullivan said, "and we ended up on the wrong side of it tonight."