PITTSBURGH — Evgeni Malkin didn’t hold back after the Penguins’ latest worst loss of their season.
“Fans, I hope, hate us right now,” Malkin said after the Penguins turned a four-goal lead into a 5-4 overtime loss to the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday night.
After Malkin spoke, he said coach Mike Sullivan addressed the Penguins “for, like, 10 minutes following the defeat.”
Usually, team meetings after bad losses and/or rough runs are player-only affairs, and the Penguins are experiencing both, as they were soundly defeated at UBS Arena by the Islanders on Tuesday night. But Sullivan participated in the meeting Wednesday night, which suggested he also viewed it as a low point on the season.
“We’re handing teams easy offense,” Sullivan said, adding that the Penguins “didn’t play the game the right way — it’s as simple as that.”
The Penguins were ahead, 4-0, after an awesome offensive display in the opening period.
What followed were two periods of arrogant, inexcusable hockey, poorly-timed penalties, and hanging backup goalie Casey DeSmith out to dry. That the Red Wings scored two of their goals unassisted, including defenseman Jake Walman’s winner midway through overtime, shows just how sloppy the Penguins were in their own zone.
🕺🕺🕺@budlight x #LGRW pic.twitter.com/vxQzgdnSkv
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 29, 2022
However, the defensive end of the rink wasn’t where the Penguins were done in. Rather, they were egregious when the puck was on their sticks in the neutral and offensive zones.
“We can’t play 40 minutes like we did in the second and third periods,” Malkin said. “We lead 4-0, we try to score more, probably play like (trying) to make nice plays. We need to understand it’s not over when you play just 20 minutes.”
Those opening 20 minutes featured a couple of goals by Jason Zucker and one apiece by Drew O’Connor and Jeff Carter. But even as the Penguins looked dominant offensively, their defensive warts started to show — and their lead could easily have been cut in half by the end of the opening period.
It was by the beginning of the third.
“When you score two, three, four goals and everybody wants, like, goal and assist — we think (it was) an easy game,” Malkin said. “It’s not just one guy or two, it’s (the) whole group.”
There is no shortage of blame to go around, and Sullivan said he included himself in that group. The Penguins’ two top lines didn’t post a point at even-strength, and it’s probably true that Sullivan trusted too much in the likes of Carter and defenseman Brian Dumoulin late as both of them are struggling mightily at five-on-five.
Still, even when the Red Wings cut the Penguins’ lead to 4-3, the Penguins were only three-plus minutes away from locking down two points. Yet they couldn’t, and an unforgivable too-many men on the ice penalty afforded Detroit a late power play.
The Red Wings wasted no time in turning that power play into a tying goal. They didn’t even need to pull their goalie to gain an extra attacker.
“It was a penalty,” Malkin said. “It’s six guys on ice.
“We need, (to) like, be smarter.”
Malkin is often the most critical of the Penguins in dire times. Speaking in English, his second language, he cuts to the point, as he did Wednesday night.
Will the Penguins listen? That is the question.
Strapped against the cap and lacking the luxury to make major changes because of roster construction, there probably aren’t too many in-season alterations — especially in the form of shake-it-up trades — that are possible. It’s very much up to the players assembled to correct whatever has ailed the Penguins, whose poor play with the lead goes back to at least a pre-Christmas break loss at home to the Hurricanes.
Nestled in a highly competitive Metropolitan Division, the Penguins can ill afford to give away points as they did to the Islanders and Red Wings the past two nights. It really doesn’t matter if they’re dominated, as they were at the Islanders, or if they blow it, as the Penguins did against the Red Wings.
Sullivan said his squad has “challenges” not “issues.” Primary, his challenge is to somehow convince a mostly-veteran squad that has rallied amid tough times in previous regular seasons that the end of December is not a time to panic, but rather self-correct.
Also, maybe don’t hand opponents plenty of opportunities and make things harder than they need to be.
“Teams that are hard to play against don’t beat themselves — that’s rule no. 1,” Sullivan said. “And if you look at the last few games, we’re beating ourselves.
“I look at how the games have played out and I just think the standard is higher. That includes me as the coach.”
Malkin, despite speaking to the media for nearly three minutes after the loss Wednesday night, sounded like a three-time champion at an utter loss for what he witnessed over the previous day and a half from his Penguins.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a tough loss.”
The Penguins get the Devils at home Friday night before traveling to Boston to play the Bruins at Fenway Park in the Winter Classic on Monday afternoon. What Malkin — and the Penguins as a whole — don’t know needs to be figured out, and fast. Otherwise, a drowsy end to this year could carry over into a New Year’s funk for a club that is only about six weeks removed from a losing streak that temporarily tilted their season.
Another one might doom the Penguins. And the fans in Pittsburgh would truly have reason for hatred.
Observations
• Defenseman Ty Smith was a healthy scratch against the Red Wings, which makes his recall from the AHL seem somewhat puzzling. Not sure what the point is of bringing up Smith only to sit him.
Smith starred in training camp after being acquired as part of the deal that sent John Marino to the Devils this past summer. Were the Penguins not so cap-strapped, Smith probably would have been on their opening roster.
Instead, he had spent the entire season in the AHL prior to his recall.
The word on Smith’s performance in the AHL is that he didn’t carry through on a strong start for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. His own-zone performance was said to be a concern.
Whatever his purported defensive liability might be, bringing up Smith only to not play him doesn’t make sense.
• Smith and forward Drake Caggiula were each recalled from the AHL Wednesday, but Caggiula also did not play against the Red Wings. The Penguins also placed retroactive injured-reserve designations on forwards Josh Archibald (Dec. 18) and Ryan Poehling (Dec. 20).
• Speaking of defenseman — PO Joseph is really, really finding his footing as an NHL regular. After Kris Letang, Joseph has emerged as the Penguins’ best defenseman bringing the puck out of the defensive zone. Also, his confidence is growing in the offensive end.
The best decision the Penguins may have made this past offseason was perhaps not trading Joseph.
• Winger Kasperi Kapanen was dropped to the fourth line against the Red Wings. Danton Heinen took Kapanen’s spot as the right winger on the third line.
The Penguins are looking for more from Kapanen, who entered Tuesday without a goal since a hat trick against the Blues on Dec. 3. Kapanen had played fewer than 11 minutes in each of the two games prior to the Penguins facing the Red Wings.
Not sure what can be done with Kapanen at this point. He doesn’t really appear to fit as one of the Penguins’ 12 best forwards, but his cap hit ($3.2 million) makes him too costly to scratch, which the Penguins actually did for nine of 10 games from Nov. 9-26.
Kapanen assisted on each of the Penguins’ two goals in the first period against the Red Wings.
Ideally, if Kapanen would put together a decent stretch of games and general manager Ron Hextall would find a way to move Kapanen. Any deal would probably be a trade of one ill-fitting player for another.
Finding another GM willing to take on Kapanen’s contract, which has one season remaining, will probably prove a challenge for Hextall.
• The shot by O’Connor for his first goal this season was a Grade-A sizzler. He’s one of the Penguins’ 12 best forwards in the organization, but he’s caught in a numbers game because he doesn’t need to clear waivers for an AHL assignment.
Still, when watching O’Connor, who is big and plays a strong defensive game, it’s increasingly difficult to argue against the Penguins being better when he’s in the lineup.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)
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