ELMONT, N.Y. -- The Penguins shot themselves in the foot ... and then the other foot ... and then several other extremities in Friday's 5-4 loss to the Islanders here at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.
A number of mistakes led to the three-goal collapse after such domination in the opening two frames.
No sequence perhaps best exemplifies those mistakes that gave the Islanders momentum than the Islanders' first-period goal by Anders Lee.
The tape-to-tape pass made by Marcus Pettersson from behind the Penguins' net would have been a beautiful assist, had it been to a member of his own team. It landed straight on the stick of Mathew Barzal, who fed it to Lee.
I was speaking with Pettersson about the game afterward, and he brought up his own flub unprompted.
"Mistakes cost us tonight," he said. "For example, my mistake when I tried to go off the glass and out. I just couldn't get the puck up. It's really unfortunate."
Casey DeSmith made a sliding save on Lee's shot.
DeSmith laid flat on his back in the crease, thinking the puck was under him. The puck was actually on top of him blending in with the black of his pants. The only players on the ice who knew it were Pettersson, Barzal and Lee, and both Pettersson and Lee had their sticks over DeSmith. Lee used his to swipe it off of him and in:
"That's a first," DeSmith said afterward. "I thought it was under me, I guess it was on top of me."
I asked Pettersson if he actually did see the puck on top of DeSmith, since it sure looked that way from the replay.
"Yeah, I saw it at the last second," he said. "I didn't know what to do. Could I put my hand on it? I didn't want to take a penalty. I thought it was underneath him at first, then I saw it at the last second (sigh). I was stuck in between what to do there. It was an unfortunate play."
Pettersson's turnover alone or DeSmith losing track of the puck could hardly be faulted for the loss. But the mistakes the Penguins made in this game snowballed and proved to be costly.
