Thanks to Another Epic OT Fail, the Penguins Bite the Dust in Jersey

I confess, life kept me otherwise detained yesterday afternoon, so I didn’t watch the Penguins’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Devils on TV. I did listen to a good portion of it on radio, however, which I confess provided a fresh perspective.

I especially appreciated Phil Bourque’s, call-it-like-he-sees-it approach. The “Old Two-Niner” isn’t afraid to be critical, which is kind of refreshing.

By most accounts, our guys played a pretty good hockey game…for 60 minutes. Before the dark times. Before overtime. (Yes, I’m borrowing from Star Wars.)

The Devils got off to a brisk start, testing Tristan Jarry on the opening rush. Following a counter by Sidney Crosby, rising star Jack Hughes used Brian Dumoulin as a screen to beat Jarry from the top of the right circle 56 seconds in.

Refusing to let his team go down without a fight, Crosby evened the score at 6:25. While working on a 4-on-4, Jeff Petry cycled toward the right point and slipped a soft pass into Sid’s wheelhouse. The Pens’ captain beat Vitek Vanecek glove side with a rising one-timer from the high slot.

Following a scoreless second frame, the Pens had a glorious chance to snag the lead two minutes into the third period. Back in the lineup after missing the last nine games with an upper-body ailment, Ryan Poehling took a short pass from Drew O’Connor and tried a jam shot at the side of the net that didn’t go. A follow-up try by Bryan Rust was denied as well, but the rebound came directly to Poehling parked on the lip of the crease. With Vanecek turned around and hopelessly out of position, the big forward snapped the puck toward a yawning net, I’m sure expecting to see the red light flash. But the Devils’ goalie corkscrewed around at the last millisecond to somehow get an arm on the shot and change the trajectory. The puck glanced harmlessly off the crossbar and out.

Jarry returned the favor mid-period, gobbling up a drive by Dougie Hamilton from the slot with his glove. Speedy Jesper Bratt skirted the Pens’ defense with six minutes to go, but again Jarry said no.

Then…overtime. On cue, any semblance of structure or organized play on the part of the black and gold dissolved into a puddle of errors. The Pens barely touched the puck for the first 90 seconds before Rust fed a breaking Marcus Pettersson for an apparent game-winning goal from the left dot.

Alas, the lanky Pens d-man had hopped over the boards too soon. Not only was the goal immediately waved off, but the Pens were penalized for too many men on the ice.

The end result was all-too-predictable. After the Devils moved our penalty killers around like pawns on a chess board, Hamilton beat Jarry with a scorching one-timer from the top of the left circle on the ensuing power play.

A disappointing end to an otherwise solid effort by our guys.

Puckpourri

Stats-wise, the Pens had the slightly better of the play. We had the edge in shot attempts (56-55), shots on goal (26-25), scoring chances (32-24) and high-danger chances (16-6). Overtime was a far different story. The Devils had five shot attempts and three shots on goal to our none.

Petry and Jake Guentzel assisted on Crosby’s goal, his team-leading 22^nd of the campaign. Poehling skated with O’Connor and Danton Heinen, while Teddy Blueger centered for Brock McGinn and Jeff Carter.

Former Pens assistant Rick Tocchet has replaced embattled Bruce Boudreau as the head coach of Vancouver. Sergei Gonchar will join the Canucks’ staff as well. While I’m happy for them both, I have to say the handling of the coaching situation wasn’t Jim Rutherford’s finest hour. He left Boudreau twisting in the wind at the end of a rope since the opening weeks of the season.

Speaking of coaches, is it too much of an understatement to say Mike Sullivan and his staff need to get a handle on the fiasco that is our overtime play…pronto? We’re a dismal 2-8 in extra stanzas, bleeding off valuable points and looking awful in the process.

Telling stat. We’re presently 17^th in the league in goals scored (13^th in goals allowed).

On Tap

The Pens (23-15-8, 54 points) host Florida (23-20-5, 51 points) tomorrow night at PPG Paints Arena. On a 7-2-1 roll, the Panthers have clawed back into the Eastern Conference playoff race.