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Yohe's 10 observations: Penguins played better in loss to Flames; defensive errors remain

23 October 2024Last Update :
Yohe's 10 observations: Penguins played better in loss to Flames; defensive errors remain

CALGARY — Mike Sullivan commented in the moments following his team’s 4-3 shootout loss in Calgary that his team defended “a lot harder.”

That much is true.

They still didn’t always defend well, however.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had the puck most of the game, which is certainly something they can build on. But they were guilty of some egregious turnovers and defensive blunders, and ultimately, that prevented them from earning a much-needed victory in Calgary.

Though the Penguins did earn a point, they have now lost three straight games and are facing the daunting prospect of games in Edmonton and Vancouver on Friday and Saturday night, respectively.

Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and Noel Acciari scored for the Penguins.

The Flames ultimately prevailed in Round 6 of the shootout when goaltender Dustin Wolf denied Evgeni Malkin. Rakell and Rust scored earlier in the shootout while Alex Nedeljkovic allows three goals on six attempts.

“I think we need a lot of good things tonight,” said Rakell, who scored his fourth goal in eight games to go with a goal in the shootout.

“There were a lot of things we can build on. All of the lines did good things. The defensive pairs did good things. But at some point, we need to start winning games.”

Nedeljkovic received a second straight start and was good most of the evening, though he acknowledged he would have liked to have had Nazem Kadri’s goal back that tied the game. The Flames evened the game with 43 seconds remaining in regulation.

“Cookie (Acciari) did a great job of knocking it down,” Nedeljkovic said. “He (Kadri) threw it on net. I have to do a better job of staying on pucks. It wasn’t a very difficult shot, or a very hard shot, or a very well placed shot. I have to be better there.”

The Penguins are 3-4-1 on the young season. They did score twice on the power play, though that unit was extremely haphazard with the puck throughout the evening.

This one clearly stung for the Penguins, who were generally pleased with their performance.

“We had the puck most of the night,” Kevin Hayes said. “We were the better team most of the night.”

But they were not the victorious one.

Ten postgame observations

• Sullivan opted to change up his defense pairings, going with Kris Letang and Marcus Pettersson on one pairing, while Erik Karlsson skated with Matt Grzelcyk. If early results mean anything, I think it might be best to avoid using Karlsson and Grzelcyk on the same pairing. They were really, really bad together.

Karlsson has been a mess all season (more on him later) but I thought Grzelcyk played by far his worst game as a member of the Penguins. He looked very unsure of himself all night, made a couple of bad pinches and was out of sorts defensively throughout the evening.

Rasmus Andersson gave the Flames a 1-0 lead in the first period, and it was almost exclusively because of the Grzelcyk-Karlsson pairing.

Grzelcyk executed a poor pinch, giving the Flames an odd-man rush. Karlsson then played a two-on-one about as poorly as a defenseman can, bolting toward Justin Kirkland instead of taking away the pass, which is his job in that situation.

Just bad fundamental hockey.

Pettersson was pretty good all night. Letang took a penalty on the game’s first shift and produced an excruciatingly bad turnover on the first shift of the third.

• Karlsson does a couple of mesmerizing things offensively every game, but that’s not making up for his overall play. Not even close.

One shift midway through the second period accurately illustrated the way Karlsson is currently playing. Karlsson had the puck after pinching and skated down the right wing wall, fairly deep into Calgary territory. He then opted to throw a dangerous, cross-ice pass with the forwards not in position to cover for him. This led to one of Calgary’s many odd-man breaks.

Later on the same shift, with the Penguins’ top line very fatigued and still on the ice, Karlsson attempted to execute a lead pass to Drew O’Connor instead of simply dumping the puck out of the zone. The pass was a poor one, which meant that the Penguins, who were exhausted, had to stay on the ice for an even longer period of time because of the subsequent icing infraction.

His decision making is simply abysmal right now. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to make him play at a higher level, but if he doesn’t, the Penguins are going to struggle. That’s just the way it is. It’s non-negotiable. Karlsson is too important and is on the ice too often to be playing at this level.

• I used to always say that the Penguins go as Letang goes. It’s been a foundational belief of mine for years and it has not changed.

But I’m going to lump Karlsson into that belief.

If these two are going to play this poorly, the Penguins have absolutely no chance of being a playoff contender. The errors they’re making are simply elementary stuff, from being on the wrong side of the puck, to careless turnovers, to bad pinches, to playing two-on-ones poorly, to blown defensive assignments.

Letang set the tone by taking a silly penalty 46 seconds into the game.

They both need to be better. Way, way better.

• So, what’s the goaltending plan going forward, you ask?

Kyle Dubas spoke on his radio show earlier on Tuesday and had some noteworthy things to say.

“If you’re a goaltender in our group right now,” he said, “the opportunity is immense because nobody really grabbed the ball and started to run with it, and we need two of them to do so.”

On Tristan Jarry: “Everyone’s been aware of struggles Jarry has had. He’s owned them publicly. We need to do right by him by getting him on track.”

On someone going to the American Hockey League: “We’re not going to leave our roster short-handed.”

He noted that Joel Blomqvist “can go down and play” in the AHL, and that Jarry and Nedeljkovic are only likely to go there on conditioning assignments.

I think we will see Jarry in the next week or two. Maybe not on this trip. But they want to give him a chance to figure it out. Blomqvist might be on his way to Wilkes-Barre when that happens.

Maybe. Dubas did say it’s a competition.

• Nedeljkovic was not good in the shootout, leaking a couple of goals that should have been stopped. And I didn’t love the third goal, nor did he.

The other two had nothing to do with him, as one was a defensive breakdown and the other a deflection.

I’d suggest Nedeljkovic, through two games, is playing at a much higher level than Jarry but isn’t playing so well that he’s cementing himself as the No. 1 guy.

That said, he was terrific in the game’s first 10 minutes, when the Penguins allowed first seven shots of the contest and were putrid.

• I don’t think it makes any sense to start Jarry on this road trip. I realize he played his junior hockey in Edmonton and he’s from Vancouver.

But if you’re trying to build his confidence up, why on earth would you play him against either of those teams?

• Crosby set up Rust’s goal with a pretty feed in the second period.

It was otherwise a pretty forgettable night for the captain, who is turning the puck over with strange regularity lately. He was charged with two giveaways officially, but I counted more than that. He forced some passes on the power play that simply weren’t available.

He’s not himself right now.

• Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany were very solid. I thought it was the best game of the season for each defenseman. They each made some very strong one-on-one plays and looked poised throughout the evening.

• It was an excellent night for the fourth line, especially Acciari.

He was a presence all evening. So, too, was Hayes, who continues to play at a high level.

• The Penguins seemed reasonably pleased with their performance, even if losing a point stung.

They did indeed play better. There’s no questioning that. It was a step in the right direction as they had the puck most of the evening, outshot Calgary 38-25, and outshot the Flames 38-18 after the opening eight minutes.

On one hand, the Penguins’ forwards are deeper than last season and you can see this team doing some good things.

On the other hand, the defensive work is so unspeakably bad that I think the Penguins’ standards have dropped when discussing their overall game performance. They did play hard. Very hard. But why wouldn’t they?

The lack of intelligent defensive plays is simply baffling and this team is going nowhere fast if that doesn’t change.

(Photo of Justin Kirkland scoring the winning shootout goal on Alex Nedeljkovic: Leah Hennel / Getty Images)

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