Penguins Room: Sullivan Shreds Embarrassing Team Effort, Ned Rips Himself

PHILADELPHIA — The Pittsburgh Penguins failed to show up for a rivalry game Tuesday. They were outclassed, outplayed, and ultimately embarrassed by a 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

There were exactly zero performances to praise and plenty to criticize. There were also few to absolutely rip. One Penguins defenseman stormed through the hallway following the game, parting arena crew and media members without so much as a glance and certainly no acknowledgment.

The Penguins defensemen were uniformly bad. P.O Joseph was a minus-4. Erik Karlsson was a minus-3. The Penguins registered a sad 23 shots.

Read More: That’s It, Penguins Wave White Flag in Dispirited Loss

Worse, the Penguins goaltender was equally bad for the third consecutive game. Despite being exceptional in the weeks leading to the Four Nations Face-Off break, Penguins starter Alex Nedeljkovic has submitted back-to-back poor performances.

Nedeljkovic will neither run from the media nor avoid blame. On Tuesday night, the Flyers blasted Nedeljkovic on the ice, and he stopped only 32 of 38 and allowed a few soft goals. Then, even he ripped his performance.

“We just can’t stop anything right now, and it’s pretty frustrating. These guys–the guys deserved better. The first shot of the game goes in from a crappy angle. The second shot beats me from 30, 40 feet away,” said Alex Nedeljkovic. “We started to get some momentum back and then I can’t come up with the save. And then they score two quick ones again off faceoff. So it’s like–just frustrated right now. I don’t know what else to say. It’s disappointing.”

However, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was having none of the goaltender blame game. He absolved Nedeljkovic and defended his body of work throughout the season.

“Goaltending (has) got nothing to do with it tonight. We simply weren’t good enough as a team,” Sullivan said.

“Ned is a good goalie. Goaltending had nothing to do with it tonight.”

However, the Penguins coach rolled out a litany of criticisms of his team as he shredded the team’s performance. Perhaps the Pittsburgh media missed an opportunity by not asking how he felt about his team’s execution.

He surely would have answered that he was all for it.

The Penguins were not only outshot 38-23, but they were out-chanced 14-6 in high-danger chances. Even that number seems too kind to the Penguins’ lethargic and dispirited effort.

“It’s hard to win when you don’t manage the puck, you turn it over in the wrong areas of the rink, and you don’t win a puck battle in any zone. For me, it makes it hard to win,” said Sullivan.

The words may not read as scathing as the tone.

Erik Karlsson

The Penguins’ well-paid defenseman had a rough night, too. In addition to Joseph’s visible shortcomings, Karlsson was largely disengaged Tuesday. He led the Penguins with four turnovers, which was also tied for the game high.

Karlsson brushed aside thoughts the team might be discouraged or defeated after playing one of their best games of the season Sunday against the New York Rangers but lost 5-3.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. If you knew why this happened, obviously, you know Philly pretty much played a better game right from the start,” said Karlsson. “They were hungrier on pucks. They were winning puck battles. They competed harder, they shot the puck better than we did, and they played the puck better than we did. They forechecked better than we did. (They did) everything better than we did today. You know, unfortunately, it’s how it’s going to be sometimes.

“It sucks.”

Trade rumors have begun swirling around Karlsson, with multiple reports indicating he is available before the March 7 NHL trade deadline. Yet he’s followed up his brilliant performance at the Four Nations tournament for Team Sweden with some quiet play for the Penguins.