They Said It: Penguins Locker Room Sour After Shootout Loss

CALGARY, Alberta — It depended on the question and the person speaking. To steal an infamous coach Mike Sullivan line that has since become cliche, there was a lot to like about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ performance against the Calgary Flames Tuesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary rallied from a 3-2 late third period deficit to win in a shootout, 4-3.

Sure, the Penguins earned a point, but they didn’t feel good about that. To them, it was a loss.

The Penguins largely dominated the scoring chances and shot attempts. They took strides toward cleaning up their messy defensive zone coverages. The power play scored one goal and scored a second just a moment after another power play expired.

And yet, those old habits showed themselves like a wart on a wicked witch’s nose.

The Penguins coughed up a pair of third-period leads. The top power-play unit gave up a pair of odd-man breaks, and if not for Rasmus Andersson chipping red paint by squarely hitting the post with a wrist shot, PP1 would have given up a shorthanded goal, too.

Does that mean the power play is better?

Penguins winger Bryan Rust had the line of the night, at least regarding the man advantage.

“It’s still a work in progress. I think the intentions are there. I think we’re trying to play with a little bit more pace. We’re trying to get things going in the right direction,” said Rust. “I think it’s been better than last year because last year was a trainwreck. So it’s not very hard to be better than that.”

Perhaps it’s important to note that Rust was not pleased after the game. Like most of the players, he wore a scowl, but as he talked about the game, some of the good points arose, and he couldn’t help but laugh as he called last year’s power play a trainwreck.

In fairness, trainwreck is probably the nicest thing he could say about last year’s PP1.

Lars Eller

There isn’t a Penguins player who is playing better hockey or closest to his fullest potential than Eller. The 35-year-old Swede, who has travailed the NHL path through the media hotbed of the Montreal Canadiens and the relatively quiet Washington Capitals landscape, is generally honest to a fault, especially after a loss.

However, he was wearing this one especially hard.

What did he take from the game? After a long pause, “It’s a tough loss.”

Did he feel like the team cleaned up some of the mistakes that had been plaguing them over the last couple of weeks? After another pause, with a grimace and head shake, he said, in a soft tone, “I don’t know.”

Mike Sullivan

Perhaps Sullivan was relieved not to be asked about Tristan Jarry for the first time in days. Sullivan earnestly balanced the positives of playing a much cleaner game in Calgary than they did Sunday in Winnipeg against the infuriating result of their own shortcomings.

“I thought we defended a lot harder (than Sunday) at 5v5. I thought we were much better with our team defense,” Sullivan said. “I feel like we carried most of the play 5v5.”

He’s correct. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Penguins had 64% of the scoring chances and 70% of the high-danger chances. However, as the team found out often last season, they don’t award points for chances.

Alex Nedeljkovic

The Penguins goalie stopped 22 of 25 shots but allowed three shootout goals. He wasn’t having any of the potential compliments, even as he stuffed Calgary in the first period when the Penguins were a disaster.

Nedeljokvic is now the de facto starting goalie after Tristan Jarry was demoted to the third goalie to work with goalie coach Andy Chiodo individually in hopes of resurrecting his sliding career arc. Nedeljkovic started the final 13 games last season, and he started the last two.

The goalie didn’t receive many compliments for the game-tying goal, indirectly blaming himself for failing to stop Calgary’s late tally.

“I’ve got to do a better job of just staying on pucks, of bailing us out there. It wasn’t a very difficult shot, or a hard shot, or a very well-placed shot. It was just a puck on the net.”