DETROIT -- Mike Sullivan was asked following Tuesday's 7-4 loss to the Red Wings here in Detroit how much goaltending was a factor in the loss.
"Listen, we win as a team, we lose as a team," he said. "We just didn't get it done tonight."
Nothing was perhaps more emblematic of that than the game-winning goal from David Perron.
DeSmith let in six goals in the loss -- two off high-danger shots, three off medium-danger shots, and the winner from Perron, considered a low-danger shot. It was a soft goal to allow:
To DeSmith's credit, he took the blame for that one when asked about the play after the game.
"I overslid," DeSmith said. "He snuck one through me five-hole, that's one I have to have. That's a huge letdown for me in a big moment. It didn't feel good."
DeSmith can't take all the blame for that one, though. He certainly got enough help from his teammates.
1. The score was 4-4 with 3:48 left in regulation, and this game appeared to be set to go to overtime. The turning point was Bryan Rust's senseless high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone at a time when the Penguins seemed to be in control of the momentum. Even if the Penguins managed to kill off the penalty, it was just a bad penalty to take at an awful time in the game.
2. Chaos immediately at the first drop of the puck on the ensuing penalty-kill. Ryan Poehling wins the faceoff -- something that he's struggled with this season, having only a 40% success rate at shorthanded draws. The puck goes to Poehling's left, straight to Perron, who tries to feed it to Andrew Copp. The pass went straight past Copp.
3. Both Poehling and Jeff Petry start to chase the puck toward the boards. Petry quickly retreats starts to move toward where he's supposed to be at the net-front, but Poehling got himself turned around and lost his footing in the process, just long enough for Moritz Seider to get wide-open with the puck at the blue line. Seider makes the easy feed to Perron, who does his best Alex Ovechkin impression from the left circle.
4. DeSmith slides too far to his right and lifts up his pad just in time for Perron's wrister to sneak through. Perron's got a good shot, but DeSmith made it easy on him.
It's easy to look at that goal and blame DeSmith for allowing a softy. But a whole lot had to go wrong for that puck to get to the back of the net.
