Penguins Fall To Blue Jackets, 6-2, For Third Consecutive Loss

For the second time in five days, there was not a lot to love in regards to the Penguins’ efficiency on sport day.

And, this time, it got here towards a crew who has been chasing them from the basement of the Metropolitan Division.

The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-2, to safe their third consecutive loss, and so they sit only one level forward of Columbus for final within the Metro. Anthony Beauvillier and Michael Bunting scored the one targets for the Penguins throughout a second-period comeback that noticed them rally from a two-goal deficit for the second time in as many video games.

Nonetheless, Columbus adopted that up with 4 unanswered targets to seal the deal. Goaltender Tristan Jarry – getting his first begin since Oct. 16, surrendered two targets on Columbus’ first three pictures of the sport and made 38 saves on 43 pictures. His goals-against common dropped to five.36 on the season, and his save share dipped to .847.

When requested about he would assess his efficiency, Jarry thought he carried out higher as the sport went on.

“Not unhealthy,” Jarry stated. “It is powerful. They scored two early, and so they get an off-side tip, after which, they get a purpose by the display screen. Clearly, it is powerful getting back from 2-0 at that time, however I believed as the sport went on, they bought a whole lot of pucks to the web, and I did a greater job discovering pucks, and so they simply saved urgent.”

I haven’t got a lot to say tonight that I have never already stated, so I am going to hold it temporary. However, nonetheless, listed below are some ideas and observations from tonight’s sport.

– The highest line was superb once more tonight, as was Anthony Beauvillier.

I discussed this in my final piece, however he simply seems to be very comfy with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell. He profiles as the precise type of participant that Crosby thrives with, and his forechecking and net-front skills make him an incredible asset for Rakell as properly.

I am going to write a bit on him over the following couple of days. However he’s now on tempo to attain 26 targets this season, which might finest his career-high of 21 with the New York Islanders in 2017.

Proper now, he is making himself right into a shiny commerce chip.

– After a stable defensive displaying towards Detroit, the Penguins had been a large number defensively but once more.

The underside defensive pairing of Ryan Graves and Ryan Shea had been particularly unhealthy, which is a distinction from the place Graves has been up to now this season. On this sport, he regarded just like the outdated Graves, which was not a welcome sight.

However it’s not simply the protection corps that’s taking part in putrid protection. It is the forwards as properly. The truth is, it is a whole systemic difficulty ensuing from gamers not with the ability to execute easy, basic performs.

It is loopy how a lot this protection has dropped off from even final season. If you take a look at personnel, it shouldn’t have dropped off this badly.

– Type of piggybacking off of that final level, it astounds me simply how poorly this crew is taking part in hockey this season compared to final.

When you actually take a step again and give it some thought, yeah, the Penguins didn’t substitute Jake Guentzel. That is clearly a blow. However they did enhance three main areas of weak point from final season, which is their bottom-six, their energy play, and their near-NHL-ready prospect pool.

With all of that bettering – and far of the remainder of the roster remaining just about the identical – it’s merely baffling how they appear to have utterly forgotten find out how to play hockey typically.

When you anticipated the Penguins to be worse this season earlier than it began, that is honest. However on paper, this crew had higher depth stepping into than final season, so it is merely wonderful to see how exhausting they’ve fallen off, particularly defensively.

– Identical to the aftermath of the final unhealthy loss towards Dallas, I might anticipate to see some lineup adjustments within the second of the back-to-back Saturday towards the San Jose Sharks.

I do suppose Vasily Ponomarev can be within the lineup for that sport, maybe in favor of Valtteri Puustinen. The Penguins had been very impressed with Ponomarev’s camp, and he is the precise kind of man you need in there after a lackluster defensive efficiency. In two NHL video games with Carolina, Ponomarev has registered a purpose and an help, and the middle might fill in properly on the third or fourth line.

Nonetheless, I am not as certain what to anticipate of Owen Pickering, who was recalled Friday morning when Kris Letang went down with an illness. Pickering is a left-side defenseman, so he does not determine to assist the Penguins’ ailing proper facet very a lot.

Except Graves or Matt Grzelcyk is scratched, I’ve a tough time seeing the Penguins play Pickering on his off-side in his NHL debut. Due to this fact, I nonetheless anticipate Pickering to stay out of the lineup Saturday, however it will be very nice for the Penguins to offer him a glance anyway.