Penguins Lose to Islanders Again Highlight Continuing Trend

Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic did not hold back when speaking of the Penguins’ loss on Tuesday to the New York Islanders: “It stinks. It frustrates,” Nedeljkovic lamented, before noting: “We played great in the first two periods; took it right to them but something went sour somewhere after. Who knows.” “This has been an uphill climb for these Penguins all season and over time. Before heading into the third period, they were ahead, 2-1. Michael Bunting scored his inaugural goal of the season at 7:44 of the third period to put them up by two and put themselves ahead by two goals. Just over a minute and 57 seconds later though, Islanders scored their opening score! But in less than three minutes and seven seconds, that lead was gone; ultimately ending with the Islanders defeating them in a shootout 4-3. Once again this season, Penguins have found ways to blow multi-goal leads quickly in the third period, seemingly incapable of recovering after giving up one goal. Nedeljkovic believes this to be inexcusable: when teams apply pressure they cannot find an adequate answer in holding on; “You gotta expect they’re going to come out with an aggressive push, as Montreal did last week – yet still this team struggles when there’s pressure applied by opponents. Anaheim provided similar challenges. Teams will push back at us, and I don’t believe we handled it well; perhaps, our focus drifted from what made us successful the first two periods; that makes for difficult play. “Our opponent wasn’t giving much, we just weren’t giving enough in terms of points per period, said head coach Mike Sullivan who did not mince words when commenting: ‘We simply need to play better.” “Had we played as we did during the first two periods, everything would’ve gone smoothly. Instead, however, it became an aggressive affair in which neither team used its resources effectively on either end.” Unfortunately for them both teams, each pushed back hard during that period despite our best efforts on defense and offense respectively. “Give credit where credit is due — they pushed back hard!” “Here are my observations from Tuesday’s game:- From my point of view, there appears to be an obvious flaw in the Penguins’ game plan; both Sullivan and Nedeljkovic noted how difficult it had been for them to replicate their first-period performance in subsequent periods. “I thought we dominated the first two periods,” Sullivan stated, “with perhaps only one shift during which we got careless with the puck, turning over several times in our end while giving up four or five shots on goal as well as potentially creating two scoring opportunities against us. Other than their shift, we didn’t give them much; and from our vantage point, I thought we controlled most of the game; with multiple opportunities to break open games but we just weren’t able to. Marcus Pettersson concurred with Nedeljkovic that the Penguins weren’t able to handle momentum swings well during the third period. He noted the team hadn’t played “simple enough”, while Pettersson and Nedeljkovic are correct to expect teams will make an effort when trailing behind. The Penguins have found themselves in this same predicament numerous times before. Yet, expecting your team to execute flawlessly in order to win hockey games may not be sustainable; even elite squads face some degree of difficulty throughout a matchup. Imperfect performance in any 60 minutes of sports is impossible; yet, the Penguins tend to suffer for their mistakes more frequently than others. When something goes amiss for this team, finding ways to recover quickly from errors if needed will determine their success versus failure; that is what separates quality teams from weak ones. Good teams are adept at recovering any momentum lost from key moments; unfortunately, however, the Penguins have struggled with doing that to any great degree this season; mistakes will occur. Compounding critical errors simply cannot happen.- On a positive note, Bunting finally scored his inaugural goal of the season on an amazing 3-on-3 sequence between himself, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Noel Acciari: No player on our roster needed one more than Bunting did! He now stands two goals shy of 600! Kyle Palmieri – known to many as an archrival to Malkin on his current team – tied it midway through the period before Malkin responded quickly with one-time power play rocket shot: Since it counts towards Malkin’s overall goal totals I considered his goal as part of this discussion. At some point in time, this line will likely need to be split up to create more balance in the lineup. Although they gave up more chances than in recent games, they still generated plenty of offense. As long as Bryan Rust remains out, I believe this lineup must remain on the Penguins roster until his return.- Though their bottom three lines may not produce much in terms of production right now, I thought all three did quite well during this game and particularly enjoyed watching Blake Lizotte, Kevin Hayes, and Anthony Beauvillier play together as one. Lizotte really makes a significant impactful difference on that line; his presence alone makes a substantial impactful statement about their ability and leadership on penalty kill for Pittsburgh. Beauvillier has had an exceptional run as well, particularly defensive zone. Drew O’Connor, Lars Eller and Cody Glass started this game strong; however, later they made some errors which cost their side. O’Connor has not impressed me as of late – particularly his defensive work – though that line seemed to work quite effectively for most parts. On the third line, Acciari and Bunting have done very well for the Penguins. Puljujarvi wouldn’t see much time on the bench under my leadership.- I feel their goaltending in shootouts leaves something to be desired; Nedeljkovic may tell you otherwise!- In terms of shotout success, their Penguins must improve greatly; I personally feel their goaltending leaves something to be desired as well – Nedeljkovic may well mention wanting Bo Horvat’s goal back! However, they could do themselves more favors with how they employ shooters like Rakell and Rust (when healthy). Both should be included every time as shots may come flying towards them from unexpected corners of the field. Crosby should certainly be considered, even with his inconsistent record in shootouts (39% career success rate). But I would give Puljujarvi the nod over Letang for this situation. Letang was once adept in shootouts, but that has changed significantly since 2017-18 when he shot 50 percent; since then he hasn’t reached even 33.3 percent in any season. Puljujarvi boasts amazing hands and moves; Let him use them when needed! Still don’t understand why the Penguins don’t try Puljujarvi in their shootout instead of Letang; #Isles come back from two-goal deficit to win 4-3 after shootout victory. #LetsGoPens– Kelsey Surmacz (@kelsey_surmacz4) November 6, 2024- To conclude this blog series, I want to touch upon Erik Karlsson and their defensive core. In recent games they’ve shown much-improved play compared to prior years – both players deserve praise here for making significant strides toward improvement during this stretch of games. Kris Letang has been instrumental to the top line’s success this season and his mistakes are significantly reduced; both him and Pettersson have generally been positive forces these past three games. I do however remain somewhat concerned by Kris Letang’s play as his offensive production remains low. He has only scored two points over his past ten matches. The Penguins regularly give up more chances when Matt Grzelcyk is on the ice than they generate themselves, even though his power play performance (four points in five games) has improved somewhat. I remain unimpressed with his defensive efforts though. Grzelcyk and Letang have had an inconsistent five-on-five pairing this season, to say the least. While Grzelcyk may need another few games before being given his due credit for his good play this year, Ryan Graves deserves recognition for his strong showing this year and should get another shot with Letang, even just for a tryout if that may help spark something and improve Letang’s performance; otherwise switching back is always possible; no harm done trying anything new as Graves deserves it and Letang needs to do better.