Penguins Plunge Continues with 4-0 Loss to Oilers

The Penguins’ down bound train continued to roll unabated yesterday afternoon with a 4-0 loss to the Oilers at PPG Paints Arena. Our third loss in a row and sixth in our last seven.

It didn’t take long for the Oilers to get the jump on our guys…68 seconds to be exact. Kris Letang, who appears to be pressing of late, sent a risky diagonal pass right onto the stick of Connor McDavid at center point. Handed the keys to the kingdom, the Oilers’ superstar zipped down Main Street and beat Tristan Jarry blocker side.

Next up on the Pens’ cavalcade of blunders, rookie defenseman John Ludvig. After successfully moving Zach Hyman out of the crease, Ludvig inadvertently stepped in front of his goalie and blocked Jarry’s vision if not Mattias Ekholm’s long-range shot. Patric Hornqvist couldn’t have set a better screen.

Two-zip, Oilers before the game was nine minutes old.

Looking for moral victories, which are the only kind we get these days, Jarry and his teammates did hunker down and staunch the bleeding through a competitive second period. However, the blunder parade continued early in the frame when we were whistled for too many men while on a power play.

There were some pyrotechnics mid-period when Ludvig went after Warren Foegele after the big forward inadvertently clipped Erik Karlsson with a high stick. Ludvig landed a volley of brisk lefts and sent Foegele, a non-fighter, to the ice.

Bryan Rust stirred the pot, too, accidently (?) steaming into goalie Calvin Pickard and knocking him backward into his net. As temperatures proceeded to rise, Rusty and linemates Sidney Crosby and Michael Bunting scrummed with the Oilers at the horn.

In terms of a discernable pulse, that was about all she wrote for our guys. McDavid bested Ludvig, just back from serving a 10-minute misconduct, in a mid-period puck battle along the wall and fed a wide-open Darnell Nurse cruising through the back door. Nurse beat Jarry high stick side to make it 3-0 Oilers.

The rangy defenseman struck again at 15:58, four seconds after Crosby stepped from the sin bin. With Corey Perry planted like a redwood in the crease, Nurse beat Jarry with a bullet from the slot.

A tidy 4-0 win for the Oilers.

As for the Pens’ down bound train?

Next stop, a top-ten pick in the draft.

Puckpourri

According to Natural Stat Trick, the game was fairly even. The Oilers had a slight edge in shot attempts (74-72), shots on goal (42-41) and scoring chances (40-31). The Pens held sway in high-danger chances (18-16).

It was a tough afternoon for Ludvig, who contributed to two Oilers goals in just 7:49 of ice time. Love this kid’s toughness and willingness to scrap, but the jury’s still out on whether he’s a legit NHLer.

With six shots on goal, Rust was impactful in his return. He replaced Rickard Rakell on Crosby’s line. RikRak joined Lars Eller and Emil Bemström on the third unit. Jesse Puljujärvi sat out against his old team (head scratch).

Valtteri Puustinen and Reilly Smith also had six shots on goal.

All four lines registered positive xGF% at 5v5. Needless to say, there’s a huge discrepancy between expected goals and actual production. A lack of second-chance opportunities might have something to do with it.

Process Cup, here we come.

Play-by-play announcer Steve Mears tried to ruin Pickard’s shutout bid by mentioning the ‘s’ word on the radio broadcast, but even that time-honored attempt at jinxing failed.

Have to feel for our guys and especially Sid, Evgeni Malkin and Tanger. This has to be a miserable experience for them (and everyone else).

Will we ever call up Sam Poulin?

Great article by Dan Kingerski on Pittsburgh Hockey Now titled, “The Penguins Are Crumbling From Within.”

On Deck

There’s no rest for the downtrodden. The Pens (28-27-8, 64 points) travel to Ottawa to take on the Sens (25-33-4, 54 points) tomorrow night.

Dare I say the Sens are licking their chops.

This is usually where I mention how far behind we are in the playoff chase, but given the way we’re playing there’s no need. Not to be callous, but instead I’m going to track our record over the final 20 games. Yesterday, I more or less predicted we’d go 3-17.

So far we’re 0-1.