Penguins Season Slip Slidin’ Away

Slip slidin’ away. Slip slidin’ away. You know the nearer your destination the more you’re slip slidin’ away.

The lyrics to the old Paul Simon song could easily be adapted to describe the plight of our present-day Penguins. The nearer they are to winning, the more they let games slip away.

And so it was with last night’s 3-2 loss to the Kraken at PPG Paints Arena. Our seventh in a row for those keeping track.

The Pens certainly didn’t play horribly. You might even say we were a bit unlucky. Bryan Rust missed giving us an early lead by a fraction of an inch when his rising wrister slammed off the iron seven minutes in. Later in the period Kasperi Kapanen, he of three goals in his past 51 regular-season games fame, missed a crack at a yawning net from the side of the cage.

It doesn’t help that bottom-six centers Teddy Blueger and Jeff Carter remained sidelined. Or that an illness is snaking its way through the locker room at precisely the wrong time.

However, a lot of our problems are self-inflicted. A team that’s built to score isn’t. Sans Carter, the third line has morphed into a black hole. The top power-play unit has fallen into bad old habits. Five monoliths passing the puck around the perimeter looking for the perfect shot. For good measure, they conspired to yield a 2-on-oh (my goodness) that Tristan Jarry somehow managed to thwart.

Key defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Jeff Petry are struggling. The former was victimized on the Kraken’s second and third goals. Dumoulin was so good for so long, a veritable Rock of Gibraltar on the back end. Perhaps rehabbing a knee injury over the summer prevented him from training properly. Whatever the reason, he’s being beaten time and again like Mike Lange’s rented mule, to the extent that long-time partner Kris Letang has to cover for him. Talk about surreal role reversals.

Someone commented that it’s like watching Rob Scuderi’s second black-and-gold go ‘round and I agree. I feel as badly for “Dumo” as I did for “Scuds.”

As for Petry? He’s a minus-six during our seven-game slide. Minus-122 for his career. Granted, a lot of that was complied with a bad Oilers team. But still…

Topping the list of negatives? A soul-crushing (and points squandering) inability to play with and/or protect a lead. When Sidney Crosby scored on a scorching one-time slapper from the slot 5:24 into the second period, it took all of 2:24 for us to cough up the lead. That can’t happen. At least not as often as it does and especially not when we’re so desperately in need of a win.

Unfortunately for our boys, the load doesn’t get any lighter. Seven of our next nine games are on the road, including two more sets of back-to-backs. (Thanks NHL schedule makers.) Although there’s forlorn hope the team will bond and start to figure things, it’s a lousy setup for turning a season around. Which the Pens most certainly need to do…and pronto.

There’s a time-tested NHL trend. Teams that are in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving generally qualify for the postseason and those that aren’t don’t. We’re rapidly running out of time.

In the meantime, we’re 0-6-1 and counting. And our once-promising season is slip slidin’ away…

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot the Kraken, 37-28, and won 57 percent of the faceoffs. According to Natural Stat Trick, we enjoyed a whopping edge in shot attempts (76-46).

Shaking off an illness, Jake Guentzel was credited with our game-tying goal at 9:51 of the third period when his pass from the left wall deflected in off the stick of Matty Beniers.

Vince Dunn, Yanni Gourde and old friend Brandon Tanev scored for the Kraken. In addition to his game-winner with 3:39 left to play, “Turbo” picked up an assist and was a plus-three to earn top-star honors.

Crosby recorded his 900^th career assist on Guentzel’s goal, becoming the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to reach that rarified mark. Letang registered his first power-play shot on goal of the season. Let that sink in for a moment…

Josh Archibald, one of the few Penguins on a roll, sat out with an undisclosed injury. Sam Poulin dressed in his place and was a minus-one in 6:18 of ice time. Drew O’Connor skated just six shifts (4:32 TOI).

When it comes to playing the kids, coach Mike Sullivan appears to be firmly wedged between a rock and a hard place. With his team desperately in need of a win, he obviously doesn’t trust them enough to give them more significant roles. But the youngsters won’t develop this way, either. Can’t score from the end of the bench.

One Young Turk who does appear to be blossoming is Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Skating sheltered minutes on the third defense pairing, POJ’s second on the team in plus/minus (plus-five) behind defense partner Jan Rutta.

I was kind of hoping the Pens might put in a claim for forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel, recently waived by Toronto, but the Capitals beat us to it. Drafted by Pens GM Ron Hextall when he was in Philly, Aube-Kubel’s a 214-pound tank of a right wing who’s been known to throw a body check or two. As a member of the Cup-winning Avalanche last season, he scored 11 goals and 22 points in 67 games.

On Tap

The Pens have a four-day break before starting a three-game road trip against the Capitals on Wednesday night. At 5-6-2 the injury-riddled Caps are struggling, too. Hopefully we won’t be their panacea…