Penguins Grades: Old Habits Destructive, but New Faces Emerge

CALGARY, Alberta — The Pittsburgh Penguins had a pair of third period leads and twice more gave them away before losing in a six-round shootout to the Calgary Flames, 4-3.

The Penguins? Blown third period leads? The hell you say.

For the consternation that will and should arise from yet another win that slipped past their grasp, the Penguins game featured a lot they could indeed take forward. Oddly, no one repeated the phrase, “We did a lot of good things.”

No, the Penguins are past that self-congratulatory nonsense. This season is a continuation of the good and bad of last season, and despite the new faces, erasing last season’s ugly inability to hold the lead is paramount to delaying the oncoming collision of hopes and advanced age.

The Penguins didn’t gag away the game as they used to do. The first tying goal was a long-range shot by MacKenzie Weegar that changed direction when forward Cody Glass was a millisecond late to poke away the puck.

Calgary scored the second equalizer with the extra attacker. Noel Acciari blocked the point shot, but it dribbled to Nazem Kadri. Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic didn’t specifically say he should have made the save, but yeah, he said everything but.

“It finds their guy right there, and (Kadri) just throws a puck on net,” Nedeljkovic said. “I’ve got to do a better job of just staying on pucks, of bailing us out there. It wasn’t a very difficult shot, or a hard shot, or a very well-placed shot. It was just a puck on the net.”

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan offered appropriately muted praise for his team’s improved defensive performance. In fairness to all involved, almost anything would have been an improvement from the gaffes that ranged from embarrassing to silly over the prior few games.

“I thought we defended a lot harder five-on-five. I thought we were a much better team with our team defense,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “I feel like we carried most of the play five-on-five. Some of their best chances were against our power play. But I thought five-on-five, we competed hard.”

It’s a point, but it’s only a point. Even players such as Bryan Rust alternated between sour and optimistic. However, Pittsburgh Hockey Now spoke with Lars Eller one-on-one after the game, but the player was too upset over the loss to provide much insight. Even as PHN tried to offer an opportunity to accept the team’s improved defensive zone effort, Eller grimaced and shook his head.

“It’s a loss,” was all the disconsolate Eller said.

Eller takes losses hard, but he particularly took this one to heart.

The Penguins are in a unique moment. New players and salvage projects are providing offense and spark, while those who adorn posters on bedroom walls are decidedly not playing their best.

Penguins Analysis

What the Penguins Did Well

It’s a mixed bad. The Penguins are getting good games from the players you might not expect to be primary contributors. The best defensive pairing was easily Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany. Graves played tight gaps, and St. Ivany was (almost too) aggressive, breaking up the rush.

Graves tossed one Flames player to the ice as he came across the blue line. Graves was playing a tight gap and suffered none of the attempts to beat him wide.

The Penguins’ “sort out” was significantly better coming back to the defensive zone. The team has been little better than an unsupervised preschool fire drill to begin the season but they were largely in line with their system.

The bottom six were very good at creating offense while largely holding Calgary off the shot clock and scoreboard. The Penguins allowed just 25 shots, and most of those were against the top six, not the bottom six. The same bottom-six forward contributed offense, as well. Acciari scored what could have been the game-winner by getting to the net. Cody Glass had an excellent game with a high-danger scoring chance and the apple on Acciari’s goal.

What the Penguins Didn’t Do Well

Oh boy. Sidney Crosby is on pace to surpass last season’s turnover total (41) by the end of December. He was generously scored with only a pair of giveaways Tuesday, but it could have been a handful. He already has 13 this season, and he sprung Calgary on one of two shorthanded odd-man rushes with an ill-advised backhand pass through the center of the ice.

The top six did not exercise good puck management, nor did the Penguins’ top two defensive pairings. Right now, the bottom of their lineup and some timely goaltending is carrying the team.

Penguins Report Card

Alex Nedeljkovic: B

He can be hard on himself, but he prevented Calgary from running the Penguins out of the building in the first 10 minutes. Calgary had no less than four great scoring chances in the first five minutes. NaturalStatTrick.com didn’t score it that way, but we certainly did.

He’s not a great shootout goalie. Some fans were quick to judge him harshly or negatively, but remember his role—he’s a tandem goalie making $2.5 million. When he’s asking for $12 million, then hold him to impossible standards. In the meantime, his scrappy attitude indeed rubs off on the team. This game looked very much like the uphill battles they won or earned a point during their final 13-game run last season—all with Nedeljkovic in net.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang: C-

Crosby set up Rust for a pretty power-play goal. That was the highlight. There just isn’t a lot going right for the big three, especially since Crosby and Malkin reached their milestones against Buffalo last week.

Matt Grzelcyk: F

A terrible night for the left-side defenseman in his first game playing beside Erik Karlsson. Grzelcyk was never in sync with his own game, let alone Karlsson’s.

Erik Karlsson: D

A minus-1. Three giveaways. His Ole’ defense on a two-one-one (created by a Grzelcyk mistake at the offensive blue line) was rough.

Cody Glass, Fourth Line: A

New faces and unexpected faces. Glass with Kevin Hayes and Acciari. The line is really, really good.

In the first period, Glass helped change the moment with a perfect play. The puck caromed off the defensive zone wall, and he grabbed it in stride for a rush to the offensive end. He slipped a little toe drag around the defenseman for a wide-open look from the slot.

Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf made the save, but Glass did something the Penguins veterans have stopped doing: He stopped. He didn’t loop away from the play, and he didn’t glide elsewhere. Glass stopped, and the puck came back to him. The Penguins’ offensive zone possession continued because he played simple, fundamental hockey after showing some creative flair.

According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the fourth line had seven scoring chances but yielded only one. They had four high-danger chances, yielding none. Acciari scored a goal, and Sullivan even put Glass on the ice in overtime.