Penguins Outclassed, Fall to Devils, 5-1

As I watched our Penguins evaporate in the face of a hungry, young Devils squad last night at the Prudential Center, my first reaction was outrage. Not that I expected us to win, mind you. But I at least hoped we’d make a game of it. Maybe even steal a point.

How we could turn in such a languid effort (I use that word loosely) at such a critical time of the season is beyond me. To borrow a phrase from Mike Lange coined during better times, I didn’t know whether to cry or wind my watch.

I was all set to write a scathing summary when I remembered the observations of our friend and long-time contributor, Jim.

Months ago he stated, matter-of-factly (and as it turns out, quite accurately), that we simply aren’t that good. Jim noted that we’ve been passed by…or more accurately left in the dust…by a host of rising young teams such as the Devils.

Indeed, with the exception of our gifted but aging core, we’re a mediocre team heading south in a hurry. Last night’s debacle fairly screamed our also-ran status from the rooftops.

Sadly, nearly every move GM Ron Hextall has made over the past couple of seasons aside from signing our core and acquiring Rickard Rakell has backfired. In the process making us older, slower and more brittle.

Horrible luck has played a part, too. Who could’ve envisioned trade deadline acquisitions Nick Bonino and Dmitry Kulikov going down practically the moment they set foot on the PPG Paints Arena ice? Or half our defense for that matter.

Contrary to how it seemed last night, it isn’t that the guys don’t care or aren’t trying. If anything, they try too hard to make things happen at times. Case in point, when Chad Ruhwedel abandoned his defensive position and jumped into the slot to fire a shot on Vitek Vanacek with about two minutes to play in the second period. Leading directly to a breakaway by Miles Wood. Or Jeff Petry’s well-intentioned but terribly ill-conceived pinch in the first period, resulting in a clean 2-on-1 and the Devils’ first goal.

As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

How many times have we watched this bunch slog out of the starting blocks only to turn it on with a frenzied (and usually) fruitless finish? One of Mike Sullivan’s pet sayings is “Playing the Right Way.” We seem to do anything but. At least some of that falls squarely on the shoulders of Sully and his staff.

The maddening thing is, every once in a while we do put it all together and play a really strong game. Crisp, sure, detailed. The most recent example, our thoroughly impressive 5-2 triumph over the defending Cup champion Avalanche on March 22. You wonder why we can’t do that more often.

Alas, for every gem we serve up a stinker like last night.

Every team has ups and downs over the course of an 82-game grind. But ours are extreme.

Again, maybe it’s a reflection of who we truly are. A fading and aging former champion hurtling toward the twilight of a long and glorious run.

Although our chances aren’t looking too good right now, we may yet rally to eke out a wild-card spot. Stranger things have happened. But anyone who thinks this bunch is going to magically pull itself together and win a playoff series, especially against an elite team like Boston or Carolina, is delusional. They’d be lucky to squeeze out one 60-minute playoff-style effort, let alone seven.

They simply don’t have it.

The Goals

Dougie Hamilton (8:58) and Dawson Mercer (14:23) scored in the first period to give the Devils a 2-0 lead. Timo Meier struck on a 5-on-3 power play at 2:54 of the second period, followed by Mercer’s second of the night 34 seconds before the intermission.

Mercer completed his hat trick at 2:52 of the third period on a 4-on-1.

Bryan Rust notched the Pens’ lone goal four minutes later on a deflection to make it 5-1, bad guys.

Puckpourri

The Devils dominated, stats-wise, piling up significant advantages in shot attempts (66-53), shots on goal (37-23), scoring chances (44-22) and high-danger chances (23-10).

With four goals against us this season, Hamilton has officially joined the Penguin Killers Club. If I’m not mistaken, at least three of those goals came from the right circle.

Rust’s goal was his 20^th, not too shabby considering he’s had what many consider to be an off season. For what it’s worth, we now have six 20-goal scorers, most in the league.

Tristan Jarry allowed five goals on 37 shots, an .865 save percentage.

Brian Dumoulin, who’s played so well of late (a goal and 11 points in his previous 19 games) finished a minus-three, as did his partner Kris Letang. Dumo shook off a hard and dirty hit into the end boards by Michael McLeod midway through the first period.

The Pens have lost 30 regulation games for the first time since 2005-06, Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. Speaking of Sid, he’s been held without a point in four of our last six games. Perhaps he’s gassed from overuse and trying to drag us into the playoffs.

Our present plight and hopeless state remind me very much of the 2014-15 season under Mike Johnston, when we played with five defensemen down the stretch and went 4-8-2 in our last 14 games to back into the playoffs. You knew that team wasn’t going anywhere.

Same with this one.

On Tap

The Pens (38-30-10, 86 points) return home to face the Wild (44-23-10, 98 points) and old friends Calen Addison, Marc-Andre Fleury, Filip Gustavsson, Freddy Gaudreau, Alex Goligoski, Ryan Reaves and Oskar Sundqvist on Thursday night.

By the way, Reavo has five goals and 15 points in 56 games with the Wild to go with a plus-four and 144 hits.

We’ve fallen a point behind the Panthers and remain one behind the Islanders in the race for a wild-card spot. Each team has four games left.