There was not much to write home about after the Pittsburgh Penguins dropped an important Eastern Conference matchup on Saturday.
The Ottawa Senators – who were just three points behind the Penguins in the standings coming into this game – came into town and beat the Penguins, 5-0, in a pretty one-sided special teams affair.
The Penguins went 0-for-7 on the power play, and the Senators scored two power play goals. Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic surrendered five goals on just 17 shots and was pulled in favor of Tristan Jarry, who stopped the only five Ottawa shots he faced in the entire second half of the game.
The Penguins gave up a shorthanded goal to Shane Pinto, and they were bleeding odd-man rushes all night long both on their power play and during five-on-five.
“I just think we got outplayed tonight,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We didn’t play well enough.”
The players echoed the same sentiment as their coach did.
“They were better than us today,” forward Rickard Rakell said. “We didn’t deserve to win.”
Captain Sidney Crosby took it a step further.
“We just weren’t good enough, for whatever reason,” Crosby said. “We didn’t execute well, we didn’t win battles, we got outworked… and you can’t win like that. It’s good that we’re playing tomorrow to be able to get back at it, but we just didn’t deserve that one.”
He added: “They were just better. You don’t like to say that after a game. You want to give yourselves a chance every single night, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Here are some thoughts and observations after Saturday’s loss:
– The Penguins challenged Ottawa’s first goal for goaltender interference. Tim Stutzle was in the blue paint – along with Penguins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk – and he appeared to impede Alex Nedeljkovic with his stick and make contact with his leg.
However, the call on the ice stood, Pittsburgh was charged with a penalty, and the Senators scored on the ensuing power play. Beyond being dissatisfied with the call – GM Kyle Dubas got an explanation from the league, which said Nedeljkovic’s ability to play his position wasn’t impeded – Sullivan is not a fan of the rule that assesses the challenging team a penalty if they lose the challenge.
“It’s tough, you know?” Sullivan said. “We get scored against, we challenge a goalie interference… we thought it was a really fair challenge… we don’t win the challenge, they score on the power play. It’s a two-goal swing. That’s why I’ve never been a big fan of the rule, quite honestly. It’s pretty punitive for something that is a difference of opinion. In other words, it’s not black and white, right?”
Sullivan did not agree with the league’s assessment, saying he thought Stutzle was in the blue paint of his own accord. I would tend to agree.
– This was a very chippy game that began to border on nasty. Blake Lizotte was boarded dangerously by the notoriously dirty Nick Cousins. There were several brawls that broke out during the game – Nedeljkovic was even involved at one point near the Penguins’ bench – and Michael Bunting was at the center of a lot of it.
Sullivan wasn’t particularly pleased with the last tripping penalty Bunting took and called him out for it in his presser. And defenseman Erik Karlsson said that the stuff away from the whistle probably got them away from their game.
“We lost our control and our temper, and we focused on a lot of things not involved in playing hockey and playing our game,” Karlsson said. “That’s on us, and that shouldn’t happen, no matter what happens in the game. There are some things we can control and some we can’t. They scored two goals. Could have been zero. That’s obviously unfortunate for us. But it shouldn’t throw us sideways the way that it, unfortunately, did today.”
The Senators play a playoff-like brand of hockey. The Penguins need to learn how to control their emotions and the momentum better in these games.
– The power play – which came into this one ranked fourth in the league – was the story tonight and, probably, the central reason they lost this game.
They had seven power plays and did not score on any of them. They could not get anything generated. To Ottawa’s credit, they were not allowing any clean zone entries for the Penguins and were really clogging up the top of the attacking zone, forcing the Penguins back to the neutral zone.
But the Penguins did themselves no favors on the few times they did establish possession. There was little movement, guys holding onto pucks too long, and a lack of cohesiveness.
The good news is that the power play has been really good, and it’s entitled to the occasional off-night. The bad news is that special teams are so crucial in stretch runs, and the Penguins can’t let either of their units cause them to lose points in the standings.
– Speaking of which, the Penguins are at a point where they need to address their lineup and their penalty kill. They have now surrendered eight power play goals in the eight games since the holiday break.
I said this after the game against Edmonton, but if your “fourth-liners” – who are, primarily, deployed in defensive zone situations and on the penalty kill – are not getting it done in the details that they’re supposed to excel at, it’s time to make a change.
Kevin Hayes can kill penalties. Bryan Rust can kill penalties. Drew O’Connor can kill penalties. Blake Lizotte can kill penalties. Noel Acciari can kill penalties.
Matt Nieto does not need to be in this lineup when Evgeni Malkin and Phil Tomasino return, nor should he be. Acciari has also been on the ice for six of those eight power play goals against.
– On another related note, Owen Pickering has not been deployed much on the penalty kill since returning from his injury after the holiday break. P.O Joseph has been deployed instead.
Pickering was doing fine on the PK. I think Karlsson has been generally fine as well, and Joseph has been okay.
However, Marcus Pettersson has not. I realize this is the penalty kill – and he is one of their top penalty-killing defensemen – but he, like Acciari, has been on the ice for six of the eight power play goals surrendered. There have been multiple instances of failed net-front defense, missed clears, and poor postioning.
I don’t expect this to happen, but I’d give Pickering a look in Pettersson’s place right now.
– Something else that is reaching a breaking point is the Penguins’ goaltending situation.
Fourth time Nedeljkovic has been pulled by Pens, first time since 4/13/24 v. Boston.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) January 11, 2025
Both Nedeljkovic and Jarry have been inconsistent and haven’t been able to string together a sustainable run of good games so far this season. They’ve also combined to allow the first goal on the first shot nine times this season.
It’d be one thing if the organization didn’t have options. But it seems like there are at least two guys in the Penguins’ system who may be better options than one or both of the guys at the NHL level right now.
If they have any aspirations of making the playoffs, they need to do something fast. And, even if they aren’t pushing for the playoffs, there’s no point in keeping two veteran goaltenders on your roster when two younger guys in Filip Larsson and Joel Blomqvist are playing well in the AHL and don’t really have much left to prove at that level.
Larsson is slighty outperforming Blomqvist in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, but Blomqvist has still been the best goaltender at the NHL level this season.
One of them needs to get here ASAP, however that has to happen.
– Crosby rarely gets testy with the media, even after tough losses like this. But that wasn’t the case in the post-game on Saturday.
Will Graves, a reporter for The Associated Press, asked Crosby why consistency has been such an issue with this team. Crosby, evidently, did not like the question.
“I don’t know if I agree with you there,” Crosby said. “Where have we been inconsistent?”
Graves clarified that they played well against Edmonton – one of the best teams in the league – and that they “just didn’t have it” against Ottawa. Crosby continued.
“Yeah, I mean I think every team in the league tries to be consistent. That’s the biggest challenge over 82 games. I think we’ve responded the right way in situations like this throughout the year. I don’t think there’s been a ton, to be honest with you. I think there was a couple earlier in the year where you can say that we came in after the game and talked about how we didn’t give ourselves a chance. But, besides that… lately, I think every game we’ve given ourselves a chance to win, and done some good things for the most part.”
“So, I don’t agree with you there. But, maybe, you can ask someone else and see what they think.”
The captain was furious after this loss. Hopefully, this ignites something in them on Sunday.
