Penguins Grades: Crashing Down. Sullivan, Vets Rip Team Effort

Pittsburgh Penguins fans were treated to something they’ve never seen before and something they’ve seen far too much.

Early in the first period, the Penguins took advantage of an overaggressive Islanders forecheck, and Joona Koppanen scored on the resulting rush with a spiffy deflection over New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin.

And then all of the Penguins’ problems collided at once. The patient went code blue. A glorious chance to close to within just five points of a playoff spot evaporated. The hockey gods delivered another New York Rangers loss, but for the second consecutive game, the Islanders scored four unanswered third-period goals and won 4-2 win at PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins’ four-game winning streak is over, but so, too, is the improbable playoff talk.

The season-changing win was gone in moments. Just 17 seconds into the third period, Kyle Palmieri scored on a two-on-none, and the sea change was palpable.

The Penguins ulcer-causing defense wasn’t scorched in the first 40, but they flirted with flames before the forwards abandoned the structure and the house of cards collapsed.

“We gave up odd-man rushes. We didn’t stay on the right side of people. We weren’t physical enough in all three zones,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We didn’t close on people in the defensive zone. We just didn’t play hard enough; we didn’t compete hard enough.”

The Penguins were somehow, suddenly, a different team despite displaying bigger warts than the Wicked Witch of the West.

And then … those problems were dominant. Every negative that defined their sink in the standings during the middle months of the season roared back like a repressed memory.

Blown two-goal lead? Check.

Lackadaisical effort in the third period? Check.

Terrible power play? Odd-man breaks? Lack of finish? Check, check, and check.

In the end, checkmate.

“I thought we were going into the third (period) with the right intentions. I just didn’t think we executed and gave up a goal in the first minute of the period. It’s still a 2-1 game. We still have a lead. We’ve got to respond,” said Sullivan. “We’ve got to respond and play the right way. And we didn’t. We didn’t respond. And so what that stems from, I don’t know that I have an answer for you right now. I just didn’t think we played hard enough; we didn’t play smart enough. We weren’t committed to playing the game the right way.”

The first tangible difference between the Penguins and the new Penguins is goaltending. A sequence with 6:27 remaining in the second period highlighted the extreme differences between previous and current. New York crashed the net area, and with little help from the defensemen, goalie Tristan Jarry held his ground. He retreated to a sound stance and did not get scrambly despite a puck that seemed to bounce all around him. Jarry held his ground, made a few positional saves, and was in the proper position to quickly cover a loose puck above the crease as his defensemen were losing the battle for it.

But good goaltending can only do so much.

The past is prologue.

The Penguins lost their structure in the third period, as well as everything else.

“We just beat ourselves. We made some mistakes,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. “Obviously, they’re going to push us (when down) 2-0, but yeah, there just wasn’t a lot of pushback.”

Penguins Chalkboard

It was a tight game in the first 40 minutes. The Islanders did not cede the middle of the ice, but the Penguins didn’t stop fighting for it, either.

The Penguins’ breakouts took advantage of the Islanders’ forecheck, so the Penguins had some opportunities for two-zone up passes, though I wouldn’t call them stretch passes because the forwards didn’t get behind the Islanders’ defensemen.

With numbers and a race to the Islanders zone, the Penguins were able to utilize more controlled zone entries than their typical game. However, in exchange for that entry and some speed into the zone, the Islanders took the middle.

The cat-and-mouse strategies collided with the Penguins fighting to get to the net.

Here’s another big difference with the new version of Penguins: they kept fighting toward the interior. The past iteration would have taken the outside like it was a cereal box prize and stayed there, to their detriment.

Yet, the team just can’t avoid the mind-numbing plays.

The structure breakdown that exposed the problematic defense was primarily on the forwards. The high F3 that kept numbers in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone vanished. They kept the Islanders contained for most of 40 minutes, but with the forwards not even going through the right motions, it all fell.

Penguins Grades

Team: D

The team wasn’t very good in the first 40 minutes, but they were good enough and better than the lackluster Islanders.

In the last 20 minutes, they never showed up. Sidney Crosby admitted they didn’t have any pushback. Kris Letang shrugged in disbelief, and Bryan Rust verbalized that shrug.

“I thought for the first 40 minutes, we were playing well, especially in that second period,” said winger Bryan Rust. “I think we had a whole lot of chances. We were in their end for a lot of the period, and in the third, we fell flat for whatever reason.”

Power Play: F

Against the 31st-ranked penalty-killing unit in the league, the Penguins power play was 0-for-3 and didn’t generate much pressure, though they had a couple of chances. Much like the 5v5 play, the Islanders fastidiously guarded the interior, and the Penguins PP wasn’t able to create open looks.

Defense: Bad

Kris Letang was more of a victim than a culprit on the third period goal that opened the floodgates. He played for the puck to stay along the wall–it hit the stanchion and caromed toward the middle.

However, the loose coverage, the lack of puck wins, the puck watching, and otherwise poor play were only highlighted when the forwards collapsed, as well.

Heinen-Malkin-Tomasino: D

They produced very little offense. They tried. They didn’t succeed. However, some credit to Philip Tomasino, who had some hop in his step and was not shy about chasing down loose pucks. For that matter, neither was Evgeni Malkin, but their collective play was non-existent. They were individuals.

Malkin led all players with four giveaways.

Tristan Jarry: A-

Jarry was a duck in the carnival shooting gallery as the Penguins allowed limitless odd-man rushes in the third period. Overall, the Penguins were outshot 14-4 in the final period.