Heading into Saturday's matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins had won two consecutive games and appeared to be crawling out of the November slump they found themselves in.
Unfortunately, all of that quickly went down the drain.
The Penguins fell to the Leafs, 7-2, to secure their eighth loss in the last 11 games to Toronto. Although the score suggests otherwise, the Penguins actually didn't play a terrible game in terms of generating chances and creating offensive opportunity.
Unfortunately, their goaltending and their defense completely let them down in this one.
Penguins' goaltender Arturs Silovs was pulled after allowing four goals on nine Toronto shots, with the final dagger being Dakota Joshua's second-period goal just two and a half minutes after Bobby McMann put the Leafs up, 3-1.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the first period with his fourth of the season, and a minute and a half later, Penguins' rookie Ben Kindel responded on the power play with his sixth goal of the season, batting a puck out of mid-air and knuckling it behind Toronto goaltender Dennis Hildeby to tie it. But Leafs' rookie Easton Cowan seized the lead back on a wide-open one-timer from the right circle a few minutes later to make it 2-1.
After Silovs was pulled in favor of Tristan Jarry during the second period with a 4-1 score, Nicolas Roy was left wide open in the slot during the power play, and the Leafs made it 5-1 in the back half of the middle frame.
The Penguins began to get some momentum back early in the third period, as Sidney Crosby scored his 16th of the season - and 641st of his career, putting him in sole possession of 15th on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list - at the net front to give the team some life.
Unfortunately, Auston Matthews responded with the Penguins pushing pretty hard less than three minutes later, and Nick Robertson added a seventh goal later in the period to seal, sign, and deliver the 7-2 win for the Leafs.
Although goaltending was certainly a huge culprit in this game, the Penguins' defensive zone play did them no favors. On several occasions, the Penguins either turned the puck over or left a man wide-open for an opportunity, and those mistakes piled up.
Parker Wotherspoon was a minus-3, Erik Karlsson was a minus-3, Ryan Graves was a minus-2, and Matt Dumba was on the ice for two goals against - including Robertson's, in which a defensive zone turnover by him led directly to the goal.
And Joshua was left wide open in the slot on his goal because Kris Letang and Blake Lizotte lost track of him and allowed him to walk right in.
This is one of those nights where it probably wouldn't have mattered how many goals the Penguins scored. The defensive mistakes were that glaring, and a team like the Leafs is going to capitalize on those mistakes - even as a struggling team - because they have so many dangerous players.
"I think the quality of the chances we gave up were just too good," Crosby said. "I thought we had the puck for a good chunk of it, but when we did have breakdowns, they were big ones and quality chances. So, we just got to tighten up."
Takeaways: First Line Powers Penguins' Comeback OT Victory Over Blue JacketsFor most of the first 40 minutes against the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/columbus-blue-jackets">Columbus Blue Jackets</a> on Friday, the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a> looked like a team fighting itself.
Here are a few takeaways from this one:
- What a rotten game from the Penguins' defensive corps.
Team defense has been a bit of an issue all season long, but - for the most part - the top pairing of Wotherspoon and Karlsson has actually been pretty solid. That was not the case Saturday.
Karlsson was credited with four giveaways, Wotherspoon with one. Karlsson was on the ice for four goals against. For how great he has been for the vast majority of this season, he was not good in this game until it was too little, too late. He generated some on offense, but his poor defense outweighed his offensive contributions in this one.
Wotherspoon wasn't good, either. He's so defensively sound and so rarely out of position, and he was not sound and was out of position a whole lot Saturday.
As far as the rest? Shea and Letang were the best pairing but were not good by a stretch, either. And Graves and Dumba were almost as rough as Karlsson and Wotherspoon.
There was breakdown after breakdown, and the Penguins just couldn't stop the bleeding.
Sidney Crosby Climbs NHL All-Time Goals List<a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a>' captain Sidney Crosby has been known throughout his career as one of the NHL's all-time great playmakers.
- Speaking of that bottom pairing, boy, has it been a glaring issue for the Penguins this season.
On the left side, Caleb Jones wasn't playing particularly inspiring hockey before his injury. Graves - beyond his first couple of games - has not been good. Owen Pickering was a mess in a small sample. Dumba and Connor Clifton largely haven't worked on that side.
And the right side has been a disaster, too. Between Dumba and Clifton, they've had tiny moments here and there where they've played well enough. But the bad has largely outweighed the good, and they don't bring much other than physicality and - on Dumba's part - the occasional offensive contribution. The youngster in Harrison Brunicke started off strong in his first few games but began to struggle in the games after, turning the puck over with frequency and lacking in net-front defense.
I'm not sure what the solution is for the bottom pairing, but they have to address it if they hope to make the playoffs. And I'm not so sure that deploying the 19-year-old Brunicke out there pretty regularly when he returns from his conditioning stint - barring what happens with World Juniors - could possibly be any worse than what they're icing now.
At least with Brunicke, you know what you're getting. You know this is a young player who is learning to adjust to NHL speed and NHL reads, and you expect mistakes.
Penguins Loan Top Defensive Prospect Harrison Brunicke To AHLThe Pittsburgh Penguins are giving teenage top defensive prospect Harrison Brunicke a chance to reset at the AHL level with a conditioning loan. You can stomach those mistakes with a teenager finding his game at the NHL level. But you can't stomach them with veterans.
After Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's (WBS) slate next weekend, get Brunicke back up here. Get Jack St. Ivany back from his conditioning stint. Either option is preferable to what they have going now.
- I thought Kindel and Koivunen played a nice game together on the third line. Danton Heinen and Kevin Hayes rotated in and out of that other spot, but the two youngsters were generating a lot of chances and were able to get the cycle going on several occasions.
Koivunen is so close, and if he keeps playing the way he did Saturday, the production will come. And Kindel was much-improved over what we've been seeing from him lately.
- Heinen and Joona Koppanen are simply not doing enough to justify remaining in the lineup on a consistent basis.
Koppanen is good on the penalty kill, but he doesn't provide much outside of that. Heinen has largely been a passenger on every line he's been on, and that hasn't changed.
5 Things The Penguins Should Be Thankful ForAmerican Thanksgiving is upon us, and that means <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/penguins-have-passed-the-thanksgiving-benchmark">folks start talking benchmarks</a>, playoffs, and trade deadline storylines around the NHL.
Tristan Broz was called up prior to Wednesday's game, played, and then was a healthy scratch for the back-to-back this weekend. Quite frankly, I'm a bit baffled by that decision. One game is not nearly enough of a sample size for a player, and I don't feel that Broz was egregiously bad enough in that game to warrant not being iced for the next two.
The Penguins need help scoring, and they need defensively responsible players. Broz can do both. He needs to play Monday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
- Another player who should be suiting up Monday is Rutger McGroarty, who has four goals and seven points in five games for WBS. He is an immediate upgrade over pretty much anyone the Penguins have been deploying on the left side of their forward unit for the last month.
I would love to see McGroarty, Kindel, and Koivunen play together. But he might not be the worst thing for Crosby right now, either.
Former Penguins Star Is Dominating Right NowFormer Penguins star Jake Guentzel is continuing to impress with the Lightning. - Silovs was pulled for the second straight game. He was also yanked after allowing four goals to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 21.
I'm not ready to pull the plug on him. Prior to that game against Minnesota, Silovs had been pretty outstanding to the point that he was appearing in early Calder Trophy polling. But he needs to right his ship quickly, especially knowing who is knocking at the door in WBS.
- I expect a much better effort Monday from the Penguins, even though the Flyers have given them fits as of late. They need to figure out a way to get ahead and get ahead early, And they have to keep their foot on the gas in the aftermath.
Let's see how they respond.
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