Penguins Room: Sullivan on Overturned Call; Rust Humbled

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not beat the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena Friday. Still, their resilience in a tough game left players and coaches pleased with the effort, if not a bit disappointed by a shootout loss.

Shootouts are kind of like coin flips, except the Penguins don’t win half of them. After falling to the Florida Panthers 3-2 in a shootout Friday, the Penguins have won only one of four shootouts this season. However, the Penguins’ locker room didn’t focus on the individual skills competition that ended the game but rather on the processes and effort that extended the game to that point.

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From Rickard Rakell to Bryan Rust and even coach Mike Sullivan, everyone was moderately pleased or at least encouraged by the game.

Rickard Rakell

Rakell and linemate Rust had a few good rips at Florida goalie Spencer Knight, but Rakell didn’t score until there was less than a minute remaining in the third period. Rakell had five shots on goal, including his game-saving tally with 40 seconds remaining.

“Everybody competed really hard. Even though we had so many scoring chances (without scoring), we didn’t get too frustrated,” Rakell said. “We kept battling, trying to get that tying goal. It was sure nice to get that goal at the end, but frustrated to not get the two points.”

Bryan Rust

Rust’s media scrum had a few moments that could be a headline story. There was the little quip that could be taken as an acknowledgment that his time with the Penguins could end after this season. There was the humbleness after getting his 400th point in his 600th career game. And there was balancing the comeback against the shootout loss.

Rust had one assist and four shots on goal. In a rarity, every shot he attempted was on net.

Rust was generally happy with the effort. His second-period assist earned him a milestone that not many players, let alone third-round picks, reach. It was his 400th point. Rust was soft-spoken as he reflected on the achievement, and he couldn’t help but reference the future uncertainty.

“It means a lot to me (to score them all with the Penguin). I think any time you can play for one team for a long time and be able to stick with an organization, I think that says a lot,” said Rust. “I have a lot of pride in that, that there was no change of scenery needed, at least not yet. I’m hoping that’s never the case. But obviously, I love this organization. It’s done a lot of really good things for me if you can tell–600 games, 400 points, pretty cool.”

Mike Sullivan

For all of the losses in which Sullivan wears his scowl or anger like a necktie, he was just a little bit upbeat about his team’s effort and most of the individual performances.

Sullivan positively critiqued rookie defenseman Owen Pickering, who returned to the lineup but also played on his offside. Sullivan extolled his team’s desire to mount a comeback but also told the interesting backstory of why the referees overturned the third-period too many men on the ice call.

Sullivan didn’t necessarily win the argument as much as the linesman took responsibility.

“It wasn’t really an argument. What happened was the linesman got in the way of (Sidney Crosby) trying to get off the ice, and he said to the bench–‘It’s my bad. I got in his way, and that’s why the change was clunky.”