Penguins
Islanders Top Penguins, 5-4, to Finish Regular Season
The Pittsburgh Penguins closed out their 2023-24 season with a 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena Wednesday night.
Islanders winger Simon Holmstrom broke a 4-4 tie when he scored from inside the left circle at 14:27 of the third period, and New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Sidney Crosby on a penalty shot with 29.5 seconds left in regulation to preserve the lead.
The Penguins finished with a 38-32-12 record, 23-14-4 at PPG Paints Arena and 15-18-8 on the road. That was good for 88 points, three fewer than in 2022-23 and their lowest total in an 82-game season since since they recorded 58 in 2005-06.
Rickard Rakell (his 15th), Evgeni Malkin (27th), Valtteri Puustinen (5th) and Jeff Carter (11th) scored for the Penguins.
Crosby capped an exceptional season by assisting on the Malkin and Carter goals to raise his team-best points total to 94.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made his 13th consecutive start for the Penguins, who went 8-2-3 during that stretch. Nedeljkovic stopped 27 of 32 Islanders shots, giving up goals to Brock Nelson, Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri and Samuel Bolduc, as well as Holmstrom.
Carter, 39, confirmed after the game that he is retiring. At the end of the third period, Islanders players had lined up to shake hands with him, and he was honored as the game’s No. 3 star.
The Penguins will hold their Breakup Day, which includes players’ exit interviews and their final media availabilities of the season, Thursday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Kyle Dubas, the team’s president of hockey operations and general manager, is scheduled to speak with reporters there Friday.
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Can we please construct a team next year were guys like harkins,nieto,acciari are on other teams? Probably good guys but let someone else in the ahl pay them
I’m with you here. I thought the team was constructed poorly by dubas. 6.4 million spent on johnsson, johnstone, butcher, nieto, hinostroza, koppanen, haskins For a combined 4 goals. Players I hoped they got to round out bottom six: Nyqvist (31mil) 27 goals, glendening (800k) 10 goals, geekie (2 mil) 17 goals. Three guys who could have played with pustinen, smith, eller, acciari and Jeff Carter to make a much better bottom 6 than the guys they signed who were all players who failed everywhere but were hoped to surprise here. Not a recipe for success to make a championship… Read more »
BJC! Nice gesture by the Islanders.
So our savior in net let another 5 goals past him. And thats the future everyone on here wants. Thats awesome! If Ned was smart he would go to a team that plays defense once in a while.
And yet, he was excellent. He made some incredible saves that kept us in the game. As for D, a lot of room for improvement.
RIP 23-24 Penguins. Underachievers throughout the season. Beating really good teams handily on occasion, then turning around next game and inexplicably throwing away leads while making ghastly pee wee league mistakes. Crosby, you can now rest your back after carrying the entire team through 82 games. Your frustration is felt by all of us.
Kyle, you were better than Hextall, but that is a very low bar. Trade any players that you can to add some younger players with some heart and energy. That is the missing ingredient.
I don’t always agree with yous guys but your articles are the only ones I make sure I read. Thanks 2023-2024…..keep on keeping on
I’m going to say unpopular things it seems. I like Sullivan, maybe change in assistants, but I like Sullivan, I think we can win with this still. I like the core of this team, as much as people rip Letang, he’s the same guy that dominated 2016 playoffs, can play like that more or less. I don’t love Karlsson trade to be honest, not sure it is what the team needed. Didn’t like it when it happened. I didn’t like Guentzel trade. Bunting played great. The pens could have signed him at free agency if Dubas liked him so much.… Read more »