Battered Penguins Bow to Devils

How quickly things can change. Only a few days before our Penguins were riding high on the crest of a six-game winning streak…and climbing the MassMutual East ladder.

Now, crippled by a sudden rash of injuries to key personnel, we’ve lost two in a row and are sliding back into the pack. Watching our game but undermanned boys struggle to keep pace during a 3-2 loss to the Devils last night only confirmed my worst fears.

Might be a while before we win another game.

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort. We fired a season-high 42 shots at Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood (great name for a hybrid golf club), a late substitution between the pipes.

After yielding the first three goals of the game, two on long-range shots through traffic, we battled back. While working on a power play, Jake Guentzel tipped home a Kris Letang blast from center point in the waning seconds of the second period, capping an active 20 minutes (22 shots on goal) for the black and gold. Bryan Rust followed suit, scoring a pretty goal off a faceoff…alas only five seconds before the final horn.

An ‘A’ for effort. But in the end, we just couldn’t get ‘er done.

I confess I had flashbacks to our pre-Sid Pens of the early 2000s. I remember tuning in and quickly being bored to tears watching the likes of Matt Bradley, Shean Donovan and Mike Eastwood mangle the puck. This game had a similar vibe, only the names have changed…Mark Jankowski, Colton Sceviour and Frederick Gaudreau, who actually didn’t look out of place in his black-and-gold debut.

Perfectly understandable for our guys to struggle. After all, four of our top nine forwards are on the shelf. No team can lose that much top-end talent and expect to remain as potent. Still, the game wasn’t exactly a delight to the eyes.

An observation. For all of our shot activity, precious few came from the prime scoring areas. Fewer still were of the high-danger variety. 

Now more than ever, we need to eschew pretty and jam the front of the net. We need the puck to bounce in off an Anthony Angello or a Zach Aston-Reese or a Sam Lafferty. We need ugly.

Hopefully, we’ll see a little more of that in our return match with the Devils on Saturday.

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot their hosts, 42-35, and won 53 percent of the faceoffs. We outhit the Devils, 27-19, including a team-high five by sparkplug Brandon Tanev. Wish we had more guys like him. He’s a special player.

Letang collected assists on both goals. He topped us in ice time (24:25), followed closely by Guentzel (23:27).

Evan Rodrigues centered the second line between Tanev and Kasperi Kapanen. Both wingers collected an assist. The reconstructed third line featured Aston-Reese, Jankowski and Lafferty. Gaudreau anchored the fourth line between Angello and Sceviour.

John Marino (minus-one) returned to the lineup following a four-game absence. Tristan Jarry made 32 saves for a .914 save percentage, but wasn’t airtight.

Evgeni Malkin was placed on IR, retroactive to Tuesday’s game. He’s expected to miss at least three games. Jared McCann and Mark Friedman appear to be close to returning.

The Pens presently hold a one-point edge (37-36) over Boston in the battle for third place in the MassMutual East. However, the Bruins have a better points percentage.

Twenty-four hours after absorbing a 9-0 shellacking by the Rangers, the fifth-place Flyers bounced back to beat the Islanders, 4-3. Philly has 33 points with two games in hand.