Another Third Period Collapse, Another Penguins Defeat

I confess, Tuesday night’s ugly 6-5 OT loss to the Bruins left me feeling angry and frustrated with our Penguins. You may have noticed when reading my game summary.

However, following last night’s come-from-in-front 6-3 skewering at the hands of the Sabres, I have a decidedly different emotional reaction. I mostly feel bad for our favorite team and the coaching staff.

Indeed, as the camera panned to Mike Sullivan at the end of the game, I felt a tug on my heartstrings. You could sense how troubled he is by the team’s unexpected malaise and how much he cares.

“This one stings,” he admitted afterward. “Without a doubt.”

Call me crazy, but I thought our Pens deserved a better fate. For most of two periods we played the way we need to play. I’m not enough of an X’s and O’s guy to know if Sullivan and his staff made any adjustments, but we were playing “the right way” to coin a phrase. Guys were in better position and were supporting each other and the puck. The forwards were backchecking with diligence and helping out the defense. The ‘d’ was doing their best to keep the sightlines clear for Casey DeSmith.

We were rewarded with a 2-0 lead.

No, it wasn’t sexy. But it’s the way we need to play in order to win. Tighter, more buttoned down, less chaotic. In fact, we were doing such a good job I had dreams of a shutout dancing in my head.

Somewhere around the 35-minute mark those dreams were dashed as the game began to open up. Almost on cue, the sloppiness that’s pockmarked our play during this six-game winless streak resurfaced. Given more room to operate, the Sabres pulled to within one with 69 seconds left in the period on a drive from the top of the right circle by J.J. Peterka.

You had to like our response. Working on a carry-over power play early in the third period, Kris Letang found Jake Guentzel with a 100-foot stretch pass right up the gut. Jake steamed in on a breakaway and beat Eric Comrie to restore our two-goal edge.

Looks like we’re finally going to win one, I thought. I’m sure the Pens thought so, too.

Then the floodgates burst.

Tage Thompson beat DeSmith from the left dot for a power-play goal at 3:21. Three minutes later our tiring troops simply couldn’t clear the zone. Rookie stud defenseman Owen Power fooled everyone, including DeSmith, with a pinpoint no-look pass to Victor Olofsson. The Sabre sniper rifled the puck into a wide-open net.

And just like that, our hard-earned lead went…pfft.

The Sabres proceeded to snatch their first lead of the night just past the 10-minute mark thanks to an offensive zone turnover by Guentzel. Jeff Skinner moved the puck quickly to Thompson, who found a breaking Alex Tuch to the right of our net. To quote Darth Vader from The Empire Strike Back, “All too easy.”

Buffalo tacked on a pair of empty-netters in the closing minutes to run the final score to 6-3.

A disappointing result for sure. But perhaps a shred of hope in the way we played through the first two periods. If we can just duplicate that for a full 60 minutes…

Puckpourri

The Pens opened the scoring at 6:28 of the first period. Moments after flattening Rasmus Dahlin with a stiff open-ice check, Evgeni Malkin set up Jason Zucker in the right circle off a 2-on-1. “Zucks” buried the puck high glove side, then celebrated with a Jaromir Jagr-type salute in honor of our throwback “robo-Pens” jerseys.

Our second goal resulted from a 2-on-1 as well. Ryan Poehling set up Josh Archibald with a slick pass to the right of the net. “Archie” drilled it home for his second goal in two games (and third on the campaign).

The metrics mavens may not like Archibald, but I do. One of the few Pens to play with fire, the feisty winger became embroiled in a shoving match with Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt at the end of the game. Wish we had a few more guys willing to stick up for the team.

Although he finished minus-two, I thought Malkin (two assists) played a strong game. Ditto Brock McGinn, who picked up his third assist in two games. He was one of the few penalty killers to actually clear the puck. Pierre-Olivier Joseph (plus-one) is showing flashes with his skating and passing.

On the flip side? I thought Sidney Crosby had one of his most lackluster games in recent memory. Make that the last several years. Although he and linemates Guentzel and Bryan Rust drove possession (57.14 Corsi), that’s about all they did. Each finished a minus-four.

Likewise, our big three defenseman Letang (minus-three), Jeff Petry (minus-two) and Brian Dumoulin (minus-one) finished on the wrong side of the plus/minus ledger.

In general, way too many passengers and not enough guys hauling the freight.

On Tap

The Pens have two desperately needed days off to regroup and lick their wounds before hosting the Kraken on Saturday night. Then it’s back to the road again in seven of our next nine contests. Sheesh.