Bad Hab(its) Return, Penguins Fall to Canadiens in OT

If you’d told me before our Penguins embarked on their recent road trip we’d garner five out of a possible six points, I’d have been more than pleased. However, last night’s come-from-in-front 5-4 overtime loss to Montreal left a sour aftertaste. Not so much that we lost but how it happened.

Following two solid efforts, some old bugaboos resurfaced. The Pens had trouble keeping up with the speedy young Canadiens and spent most of the game chasing the play and the puck. Since it was our second game in two nights and third in four, I’ll give us a pass on that one. (Thanks again, NHL schedule-makers.)

Although for the most part outplayed, we showed a lot of moxie, coming from behind once and grabbing the lead on three separate occasions, the last on a tally by Brock McGinn with just under six minutes left in regulation. Reverting to our losing streak ways, we couldn’t keep the Habs at bay.

After we battled to forge a 2-1 lead through two periods, Cole Caufield evened the score for Montreal 49 seconds into the third period. Red hot Evgeni Malkin countered for us on a backhand snipe at 3:19, only to watch our lead evaporate 50 seconds later courtesy of Nick Suzuki. A mere 40 ticks after McGinn’s would-be game winner, Sean Monahan knotted the score again.

Although nearly all of Montreal’s goals were aided by net-front traffic and/or watery d-zone coverage, Tristan Jarry bears at least some of the responsibility. When your team’s swimming against the current, you need your goalie to make a game-saving stop. A case in point, Mike Hoffman’s sharp-angled OT winner.

While we’re assigning culpability? Our top line of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust has been mostly MIA of late. Following a hot start, Sid has only five points in his past nine games…Mike Johnston era production. Jake’s been holding his own scoring-wise, but his last two markers have been softies of the empty-net variety. And Rust, pointless in his last five games, seems to have fallen off a cliff, a dip that roughly coincided with being placed on Sid’s line.

And what’s going on with Kris Letang? He hasn’t been this ineffective since 2017-18 when he was recovering from disk surgery. On the Suzuki goal, he corkscrewed himself into the ice while the Montreal sniper whizzed past for a point-blank shot. And Tanger’s interference penalty at crunch time opened the door for Monahan’s game-tying power-play goal.

I didn’t see this coming, especially on the heels of arguably his finest season.

I’ll toss our first power-play unit on the fire as well. Dreadful.

The good news? We earned a point last night. But there’s still plenty of work to do, especially for Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff.

Puckpourri

The Canadiens dominated, topping the Pens by a wide margin in shot attempts (67-47) and shots on goal (42-24). Again, understandable given our schedule. The black and gold controlled the faceoff circle (54 percent) and outhit the Habs, 20-15.

Thank the Lord for a hot Malkin. Once again his line carried the freight. In addition to Geno’s goal (his seventh), second-star Jason Zucker collected three assists and Rickard Rakell a goal and an assist.

Houston, we have a third line. McGinn continued his hot streak with a goal in his third straight game. The resurgent winger has six points in his past six games. (Maybe he and Sid switched jerseys.) Jeff Carter’s been strong since his return to the lineup, especially on draws (65 percent).

Jeff Petry tallied the first Pens goal on the power play at 1:46 of the second period when his pass into the slot deflected in off the stick of Jake Evans.

Chad Ruhwedel once again dressed in place of Pierre-Olivier Joseph (lower body injury). Kasperi Kapanen subbed for Filip Hallander, who was ill. Filling in on the fourth line, Kappy had a block and a shot on goal in 7:19 of ice time.

Over his last five starts, all losses or overtime losses, Jarry’s yielded 24 goals to go with an .870 save percentage. Yikes.

WiFi

The Canadiens have a rookie defenseman of Albanian descent named Arber Xhekaj (pronounced jack-EYE, nicknamed WiFi). Twenty-one years old, left shot, 6’4” 238 pounds. A physical presence who can play as well (12 goals and 34 points in 51 games during his final year of junior). DESTROYED the very tough Zack Kassian in his first NHL fight.

Montreal signed him out of…Costco. I’m not kidding. Xhekaj was stocking shelves and collecting shopping carts at the retail giant when the Habs signed the hulking free agent to a three-year deal last October.

Now he’s playing a steady brand of defense while shielding the Canadiens’ talented young core from abuse.

Why (oh why) can’t we ever sign kids like that?

On Tap

The Pens (6-6-3) return home for a rematch with Toronto on Tuesday night. Then it’s back to the road to take on Minnesota, Winnipeg and Chicago.