RALEIGH, N.C. — The Pittsburgh Penguins somehow earned a point at PNC Arena on Saturday in Raleigh, despite an amateurish first period that could have witnessed them falling behind by four or five goals.
They clawed their way back, thanks to Tristan Jarry’s outstanding performance, some more Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel magic, and Bryan Rust’s game-tying goal with the goaltender pulled.
The goal that secured one point for the Penguins. pic.twitter.com/tXF5i5Hsl7
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 14, 2024
Once again, however, they fell in three-on-three play, ultimately falling to the Hurricanes in overtime 3-2.
The Penguins have now lost six of their nine games that have required additional time past regulation play. This is curious, given that three-on-three hockey should be in their wheelhouse, given their supreme wealth of Hall of Fame talent. Typically, teams with players like Crosby, Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang would dominate such settings.
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These Penguins not only have struggled to win games in overtime but have often looked inexplicably bad in the process.
“I’m surprised by it, too,” Karlsson said. “I don’t know why. Tonight, we didn’t control the puck off the faceoffs. It’s tough when you don’t control the puck in overtime.”
Then, unprompted, Karlsson added this.
“I have my theories,” he said. “But I’ll keep it to myself.”
Karlsson’s theories remain a mystery. The Penguins are kind of a mystery, too.
For reasons no one could explain, they looked utterly disjointed and disinterested during much of the first period. Of all people, Crosby coughed up the puck 10 seconds into the game, giving Sebastian Aho a breakaway. Jarry made the save.
Later in the game’s opening minute, the Hurricanes found themselves with another odd-man rush. Jarry again saved the day.
Mike Sullivan was asked if there was a common theme in all of the odd-man rushes.
“The only facet that troubled me was the number of odd-man rushes we gave up,” he said. “To answer your question, they happened in different ways.”
He wasn’t too thrilled with his team’s power play, either.
The Penguins’ puzzlingly bad power play went 0 for 4 and has gone 13-straight man advantages without scoring. They were particularly abysmal when, late in the second period, they found themselves with a two-man advantage for 27 seconds.
Crosby lost the initial draw, which gave the Hurricanes an attempt to clear.
Then, Karlsson skated the puck into trouble while trying to set up in the zone, which usually isn’t a difficult task with a two-man advantage. Jordan Staal, who is almost always a thorn in the side of his former teammate, pounced on the puck and effectively killed the remainder of the penalty.
“Well, it’s not good enough right now,” Sullivan said of his power play. “It has to be better.”
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Essentially, the Penguins were pleased with how they played starting with the second period but were troubled by their first period.
Why were they so bad in the early going?
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Sullivan said.
The Penguins’ place in the standings would be far more attractive if they were thriving in overtime.
Karlsson apparently has an answer for those troubles. Or a theory, at least.
But he’s not telling.
10 postgame observations
• So, about Karlsson’s comment. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know what he was getting at. I suspect, after reading his quote, many of you are now theorizing about what his theory might be.
I sense that Karlsson likes this coaching staff and I assure you, he’s a very intelligent man. Whatever he was getting at, I don’t think it was how the Penguins are being coached in three-on-three situations because I just don’t think Karlsson would be careless enough to make that kind of comment. He’s exceptionally smart. He speaks the language flawlessly. And, as I noted, he offered that comment in a completely unprompted way.
It was a fascinating thing to say. That said, something is very much wrong with the Penguins’ three-on-three attack. It shouldn’t be struggling like this. There are personnel issues, yes. The bottom-six just isn’t going to help much in three-on-three play. Malkin has lost a step and looks very slow in those situations.
It’s a very big problem.
• Karlsson’s play is a problem, too.
I haven’t liked his game for a couple of weeks. Something seems very off with him. His defensive zone coverage has been poor and he’s making some bad decisions with the puck. And he’s not helping the power play.
Karlsson is an offensive genius in many ways and he’s the kind of player who does things nightly that go unappreciated because it’s quite easy to take his talents for granted.
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Still, he’s not playing well and needs to be way, way better. I asked him to assess his performance.
This guy’s answers are never boring.
“I think it’s been OK,” he said. “I think there’s more, obviously. That’s for the group as a whole, as well. But it hasn’t been negative. It’s been hard at times to find (a) rhythm for me for the course of 60 minutes. Why that is, you’d have to ask someone else. Overall, I feel really good about myself. I think I’m in a good spot. Obviously, I’d like to accomplish a little more sometimes and create a little more out of nothing. Hopefully that will come.”
• Jarry was sensational in regulation and is the primary reason the Penguins earned a point.
But he’s got to make that save in overtime.
HAVE A NIGHT, BRETT PESCE!!! pic.twitter.com/70zIw3ZNzd
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 14, 2024
I asked him if he had a good look at Brett Pesce’s game winner.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” he said. “Sorry.”
I presume he was talking about the video of the goal. Or maybe he just didn’t see it. I don’t know.
• The power play was simply awful.
Earlier in the week, the Penguins had two glorious power plays in the first period in Philadelphia. Sullivan even talked about them on Saturday morning.
I don’t know what happened to that unit. But the power play seems broken. Karlsson was horrible on the power play in this game. There was no net-front presence. Just bad, all of it.
• Malkin hasn’t been good during his past couple of games.
Malkin had precisely zero shot attempts in this game. Really.
Carolina doesn’t bother putting Staal on Crosby all that often because they know he’ll shut down Malkin.
• I probably didn’t articulate well enough just how bad the Penguins were in the first five minutes. It was the worst five minutes they’ve played all season.
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Astonishingly bad.
• I hate picking on individuals when so many struggled, but P.O Joseph isn’t a top-four defenseman and it’s becoming pretty clear.
He looked better in the past couple of weeks, to his credit. He’s not horrible. But he struggled against Carolina and he’s going to struggle if he keeps getting this many minutes.
• They’ve had flashes this season, but it’s safe to wonder if Valtteri Puustinen and Radim Zohorna are long-term NHL players. Puustinen has slowed down. Zohorna as well.
• Noel Acciari was a very, very late scratch. He was replaced in the lineup by Colin White.
Acciari, according to Sullivan, is out “day to day” with an injury. He was banged up pretty thoroughly against the Canucks on a couple of occasions and the fourth line, which has been a real strength for the Penguins in recent weeks, was not as effective with him out of the lineup.
• Up next for the Penguins is an interesting quirk. They host the red-hot Kraken on Monday at PPG Paints Arena.
The game was originally scheduled for a 6 p.m. start but the Penguins have moved it to 1 p.m., with permission from the Kraken. This change was made to accommodate Pittsburgh fans who want to watch the Penguins and Steelers’ playoff game on Monday. The Steelers’ game in Buffalo has been moved to a 4:30 p.m. kickoff on Monday because of a dangerous winter storm that is pummeling western New York.
I like this gesture from the Penguins. I realize some are being affected by this — some had tickets for a 6 p.m. game and, though Monday is a federal holiday, may have to work during the afternoon and thus won’t be able to attend the game — but I assure you the Penguins did this with Pittsburgh sports fans in mind. That said, personally, I think fans should be able to get a refund on tickets if they aren’t able to attend because of the sudden time switch. Just my opinion. However, refunds will not be given, according to the Penguins. They hope that as few people as possible will be negatively impacted.
It’s a tough spot for them, but I the Penguins’ intentions were good. Ron Francis, an all-time Penguins great and Kraken general manager signed off on the switch.
(Photo: Josh Lavallee / NHLI via Getty Images)
