Penguins Update: Never, Never on a Sunday

According to the Holy Bible, Sunday is a day of rest.

It appears our Pittsburgh Penguins heeded that time-honored spiritual truth yesterday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. While the Detroit Red Wings came ready to play—the black and gold appeared to take the day off en route to a dismal 5-2 defeat.

“They outcompeted us,” said Pens forward Tom Kuhnhackl. “If you look at them, they played not even 20 hours ago. They had an afternoon game yesterday (Saturday). You would think we would have more juice than them, but they just outbattled us.”

To a man, the Penguins didn’t have their legs. Most likely a delayed reaction to playing a pair of physically grueling and emotionally charged contests against Winnipeg and Columbus on Thursday and Friday night. Indeed, while playing three games within a 70-hour window didn’t seem to bother the schedule-makers, it hardly was what the doctor ordered.

Mike Sullivan refused to make excuses for his bone-weary troops.

“Every team goes through it,” the Pens’ coach told Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We’re no different than any other team. Our challenge is we have to find ways to be successful.”

Still, it was painfully obvious from the opening draw the Pens were flat as a proverbial pancake. They spent most of an unfruitful afternoon trying in vain to find the on-switch to their game.

Near the nine-minute mark of the first period, Evgeni Malkin slipped a pass to Cameron Gaunce high in the Red Wings’ zone. Gaunce promptly fell down, enabling Detroit’s Nick Jensen to beat Matt Murray cleanly on the ensuing 2-on-1 break.

Kuhnhackl briefly restored the Pens’ hopes—not to mention a little life to the building—with a nifty shorthanded tally at 14:09. His third goal of the season and first since December 8. However, the Pens afforded Steve Ott about a day and a half to tee up a backhander from the slot at 16:29, and the Detroit disturber cashed in.

“I thought we gave them a couple tonight where they didn’t have to work very hard for their opportunities,” noted Sullivan.

The Pens held their ground during the second period while outshooting the visitors, 11-6. But Wings goalie Petr Mrazek was up to the task, robbing Nick Bonino with an outstanding glove save midway through the frame to preserve his team’s 2-1 lead.

Then Tomas Tatar ripped the puck past Murray 27 seconds into the third period off a pretty give-and-go—courtesy of a dreadful turnover by rookie Jake Guentzel—and that was all she wrote. Sidney Crosby struck seven seconds after an unassisted tally by Thomas Vanek to make the score 4-2, but the Pens rarely threatened after that, producing only six shots on goal during the final 20 minutes.

Obviously a tired, if not exhausted, hockey team.

The loss to Detroit—the second in the past five weeks—reinforced a trend of playing poorly on Sunday afternoons and in matinee games in general.

What are the lyrics to that old Petula Clark song? Never, never on a Sunday?

Seems like an appropriate theme for our Penguins.

Ice Chips

Chris Kunitz had an especially tough day. The 37-year-old winger registered six hits, but was a minus-4 in 14:42 of ice time. Kris Letang was minus-three; Crosby, Malkin and Trevor Daley each were minus-two.

On the flip side, Kuhnhackl, Ian Cole and Chad Ruhwedel were the only Penguins to finish the game a plus. Patric Hornqvist paced the team with five shots on goal and seven hits, both game highs.

The Pens out-hit Detroit, 32-28, but had another poor showing in the faceoff circle (45 percent). The locals held a slight edge in shots on goal (26-24).

Gaunce dressed in place of Steve Oleksy, a healthy scratch along with Carter Rowney.