Penguins Room: Why Sullivan Pulled Nedeljkovic; Ned Faces the Heat
The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Boston Bruins 6-4 on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. They showed heart and resilience but also many bad habits, which have been their constant companions on the 82-game schedule.
The loss cast a pall on the Penguins’ playoff hopes and further raised the specter of offseason upheaval if they fail to play beyond Game 82.
Michael Bunting had a pair of goals (his second goal was later changed to Evgeni Malkin). Drew O’Connor’s shorthanded goal in the third period brought the Penguins to within a 4-3 deficit and the fans nearly blew the roof off the arena.
But the Penguins got no closer.
What made the loss painful, O’Connor spoke barely above a whisper in the locker room, were victories by the Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings. Both jumped past the Penguins in the standings and now lead by one point with two games to go.
The Penguins no longer control their own destiny.
The postgame was largely about two things: the Penguins’ failure to defend and Alex Nedeljkovic. It surely seemed that coach Mike Sullivan vigorously defended Nedeljkovic, instead blaming his team.
Nedeljkovic remarkably met with the media after the game to face the heat from a subpar performance, showing real guts and leadership.
Alex Nedeljkovic
Was it fatigue?
“No, no, actually, I thought I felt fine today. Felt better than I did Thursday night,” Nedeljkov You know this. Was pretty good. First period. We played pretty well. We didn’t give them much. Yeah. I don’t know, just. Yeah. I don’t really know how to explain that one.”
Credit Nedeljkovic for standing in there and taking questions about an incredibly disappointing night in which he stopped 13 of 16 shots. He didn’t have to, but he did. That’s a big-time standup move.
Drew O’Connor
Coach Mike Sullivan called O’Connor’s game “inspiring.”
O’Connor scored a shorthanded goal in the third period, bringing the Penguins back into the game and bringing the crowd to life.
In the locker room, O’Connor’s voice was barely audible. He left everything on the ice, and the loss was obviously devastating.
Mike Sullivan
The Penguins coach was not pleased with his team’s defensive performance. For the second straight game, the Penguins allowed five or more goals.
However, Sullivan vigorously defended Nedeljkovic, who took more than his share of the blame for the goals. He also downplayed pulling Nedeljkovic in the second period after allowing three goals.
Typically a coach might concede the goalie wasn’t at his best, but Sullivan limited his reasons to jolting the team.
“We gave them some pretty high-quality looks, so it’s not an easy game to assess goaltending when you give them the type of looks that we gave them,” said Sullivan. “Ned’s given us some great hockey here. He’s battling hard for us. The decision I made was based on just trying to change momentum for our group, to see if it could give us a jolt. It was more about that than anything.”
Luckily for us, Jarry saved the day! Wait, sorry, wrong movie.
Should have left Ned in; they end up scoring four. Better chance of Ned Turing it around and stoning em than putting a cold Jarry in who isn’t even good warmed up.
And why is pulijarvi not playing I think Mike screwed that up too. Big z is not providing anything.
I hate Sullivan and har Dubas’s affection for him.
100 percent agree. He would’ve been better off just calling a timeout to settle things down. I have mixed feelings about their playoff push. Part of me wants them to make the playoffs, part of me doesn’t because I want Sully gone. Playing Enstrom and Zohorna for 5 min is absurd when the “go-to” guys are going to wear down especially in a game like yesterdays. Karlsson was a -4 yesterday and played 2x as much as Shea/St. Ivany who were even. If you’re young and make the minimum, you’re held accountable (see Puljarrvi; disregard the misspelling). If you make… Read more »
Game 80 and still talking about defensive short comings. Haven’t figured it out by now they never will.
Actually it’s offensive power plays they haven’t figured out that is the problem 0-5 against The Leafs, and 31st in the league.
The Offensive coach needs to be replaced
The entire coaching staff needs replaced. Sullivan, et al have been failures for too many consecutive years now. They can’t seem to figure out the right line combinations or match ups. Sullivan doesn’t want any “muscle” but he soon better come to the realization they need it as the division is getting bigger and tougher. The often injured Ludvig is not the answer. Dubas needs to address these issues and assure Sullivan is on board or show him the door.
To many finesse players on team excuse me ( skill players) blind passes off the wall toward middle of ice constantly picked off sure looks like poor coaching
Fire Sullivan and get all new coaching staff
That would be Todd Reirden who also coaches the defense.
It’s been the defense all season. He should have rested Ned and put Jarry in. Jarry lost his job why. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the coaching decisions
Trade karlson & graves, keep st ivey and Shea. Petterson can go too. Sullivan has never coached, he’s only relied on his star players to play. Can’t get Malkin to play hockey unless he wants to, if he had a 1/4 drive of Crosby we would be at the top of the standings
Ned Fought through many deficits the last 10 games and never lost oine in regulation, Putting Jarry in was a Death Sentence to the Team instead of relying on Ned to pull us out like he did game after game
Amen!!!
Jarry rightly bought the loss in the stat column. The Offense did score enough Goals to overcome the 3 Goals Ned let in, but once again Jarry failed to give the team a chance.
Every time they have had the chance to rid themselves of this Jonah they fail
I think they should try to trade him they have good goalie in miners
Absolutely. Resign Ned. Bring up Bloomquist. Jarry goes bye bye
Jarry soft the penguin. Dmen pulled up several times when they had Boston on wall
Sorry for being picayune Dan, but the Penguins only gave up 5 Goals in the OT win and then only 5 Goals with a Goalie in the net then an ENG trying to get back into the game, not 2 straight games giving up 6 Goals.
You’re right. Silly mistake.
Ned is what we goalies call a “flopper”. It’s a way to spread your pads horizontally, but you lower your shoulders and leave much of the upper shelf wide open. At least 3 of the goals could have and should have been prevent by the defense. But, they were too busy “watching” the game vice being in the game. Valiant effort, though.
The Penguins had a great 10 game stretch — but have reverted to form. Even within those 10 games they squandered leads and forfeited two points. There is nothing different or surprising about the last two games. It is the team they are.
Sullivan was itching to put his boy Jarry in to save the day! Too bad it failed like most of his other decisions in recent years. The guy loves Jarry and just bet the season on him. And failed. Again.
Did Sullivan think that Ned could keep.playing without rest. No one’s issue but the coach. Il