Long after the final horn sounded, Bryan Rust sat at his locker stall. His hockey pants on and shin pads still taped, the Penguins' forward stared ahead blankly. It was a look not commonly seen in NHL dressing rooms in November. Usually it's reserved for April, May or, if one is fortunate enough, June.
Thursday night's 4-3 loss to the Lightning hardly ended a season. But it could spell the beginning of the end for these Penguins as we know them. The look on Rust's face and others suggested they knew it, too.
Minor change came Wednesday when Jim Rutherford dealt popular veteran Carl Hagelin to Los Angeles for Tanner Pearson. Major change could be coming for Rust and Co. following this one.
In theory, the only way the Lightning should have lost this game to the undermanned Penguins was to take a constant march to the penalty box. And, damned, if the Lightning didn't oblige the Penguins. At least for 13 minutes and change.
However, the Sidney Crosby-less Penguins took a surprising 2-0 lead just seven minutes in against the Eastern Conference leaders on power play goals by Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel.
Conversely, the only thing the Penguins couldn't do was to take penalties against the Lightning's ninth-ranked power play, which boasts a lethal arsenal of its own. Well, the Penguins also obliged their visitors.
The difference was that the Lightning capitalized on more opportunities.
"Obviously, special teams were the difference," Matt Murray said. "Five-on-threes and penalties are going to be tough to kill off, especially against a skilled team like that."
Tampa converted its first four power play opportunities, three of them by Brayden Point in a 91-second span at the end of the first and start of the second period:
Two came while the Penguins were down two men. Four came on 12 shots.
That is what separated victory from defeat for the Penguins, who despite owning a 31-26 advantage in shots and a 54-46 edge in Corsi For percentage in all situations, still managed to drop their seventh game in their last eight. The problem was the game wasn't decided at five-on-five.
Think the Penguins could have used Hagelin on Thursday?
It was their first game since Rutherford dealt his fastest skater and one of his top penalty-killers, and Tampa's four power-play goals were the most the Penguins have surrendered in a game since Feb. 26, 2013, against the Panthers.
Point's hat trick, the first of his career, was the fastest ever by a Penguins' opponent, obliterating the former mark of 6:46 needed by the Canucks' Tony Tanti on Jan. 7, 1989. It was also the second natural hat trick the Penguins have surrendered in 10 days after the Devils' Brian Boyle pulled off the feat on Nov. 5 at PPG Paints Arena.
Want to pin that all on Murray?
The struggling No. 1 goaltender's short-handed save percentage took a beating but, to be fair, he was placed in a tough spot after sitting the previous four games. To get thrust back in net against a Lightning team which is averaging 3.50 goals per game, third-most in the NHL, was probably not an ideal way to give one's confidence a boost.
Truth is, Murray was only at fault on Yanni Gourde's goal, an unscreened one-timer from the top of the right circle at 7:56 of the second. However, that goal counted for the winner:
"Everyone can rip the puck, every team has one or at least two shooters on the flanks that can rip one-timers," Murray said. "They have two of the best in the game but, mind you, we have to do a way better job of shutting them down."
Want to blame the refs?
Garrett Rank and Furman South called an extremely tight game, but it went both ways. It was the same refs who gave the Penguins two power play chances in the opening 9:25.
"I don't think you can go into any one game expecting anything," Rust said. "I think the refs are a bit of a wild card, and you have to take what you're given."
Want to blame the PK?
The Penguins' sixth-ranked unit, which has been surprisingly strong this season, did yield those four goals. In the absence of Hagelin, Sullivan trotted out Zach Aston-Reese for 4:10 on the top PK unit and even Garrett Wilson for a fairly forgettable :16 in the first period.
"I think we've used guys who have killed in the past," Rust said. "Kind of stepped into a little bit of a bigger role. Just maybe, as a unit, we didn't perform as well as we would have liked. It starts with staying out of the box and killers have to be a little better."
Did you catch that last bit?
"It starts with staying out of the box."
If your goalie isn't your best penalty-killer, the next best thing is to eliminate the middle man and not put your team in a hole to begin with. Most any team should be able to score on a five-on-three. Tampa can do it at will. There's no great strategy involved: Just do what you have to do to keep the puck out.
"There were a couple of them that I thought were preventable," Sullivan said of the penalties.
Certainly the tripping and slashing penalties that Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel took at 19:37 of the second period would fall in the preventable category. So too was the tripping penalty that Matt Cullen took 10 seconds later.
Those three calls turned a five-on-four Tampa power play into a five-on-three for 1:50. Those three penalties by three of the Penguins' most respected veterans turned the game. Kessel and Malkin helped spot the Penguins the lead, and then gave it away.
"We put ourselves in a tough spot," Cullen said. "I'm as guilty as anyone. We just can't afford to go down five-on-three for an extended period of time. We'll look at the video, but we can't give up that many goals as a penalty-killing unit."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Brayden Point
Lightning center
Underrated forward on team of stars turned the trick in just 91 seconds.
2. Nikita Kucherov
Lightning right winger
The NHL's third-leading scorer last season had his third three-point game of the season.
3. Louis Domingue
Lightning goalie
Stopped 28 of 31 shots, a dozen of them in the second period.
THE INJURIES
• Penguins: Sidney Crosby, center, was out with an upper body injury sustained Tuesday. Derick Brassard, forward, missed his ninth straight game with a lower-body injury. He's been skating on his own in recent days. Justin Schultz, defenseman, is expected to miss four months after fracturing his leg Oct. 13 in Montreal.
• Lightning: Andrei Vasilevskiy, goalie, was out with a broken foot and returned to Tampa for a second opinion on Thursday. Ondrej Palat, forward, missed his 10th game with a lower body injury.
THE GOOD
Sullivan wanted to see goals from the blue paint, and who else would score one but Patric Hornqvist?
His goal at 4:29 of the second period -- the only goal at even strength for either team -- briefly tied the game at 3-3.
It was Hornqvist's second of the game and seventh of the season after he opened the scoring at 10:33 of the first. This one, however, was the kind of greasy goal that he's become synonymous with.
Hornqvist got in on the forecheck on Louis Domingue, forcing the Tampa Bay goalie to flip the puck in the corner to his right. However, the puck was intercepted by Malkin, who had the puck squirt off his stick and it found its way in front of the net where Hornqvist put it in.
"Getting to those areas" has become a common refrain for the Penguins and around the NHL, but few do it better than Hornqvist.
With Crosby out for potentially a week, the top line of Hornqvist, Malkin and newcomer Pearson were clearly the Penguins' best at 5-on-5. But much like the Penguins' luck of late, they couldn't cash in. Malkin turned up on a few scoring chances, including deferring to Jack Johnson in the third period when he had the puck in the high slot.
THE BAD
Not sure about the Stanley Cup, but the Penguins are well on their way to winning the less-fabled Corsi Cup. If you look at shots and possession, the Penguins were the better team, particularly in the first period.
But this is a results-oriented business.
The bottom line is that you have to score to win, particularly at 5-on-5. The Penguins can't rely solely on their stars or their power play to generate offense.
Despite their skill, the Penguins have been out-scored 29-16 over the last eight games and have scored more than three goals just once.
"I think we had some quality chances, we've had some quality chances that we didn't finish," Sullivan said. "If we finish on a handful of them over the course of the last couple weeks, then maybe we're not in the same position that we're in."
THE PLAY
Of all the penalties the Penguins took, perhaps the most controversial was the boarding minor call on Oleksiak, who took out Joseph Mathieu in the corner at 16:52 of the second period. It was hardly egregious but one that he should have been aware might be called given what he'd seen beforehand.
"It was definitely a lot of offense and a lot of penalties," Oleksiak said. "It's tough to win games that way. Just got to be aware, I guess."
Gourde scored on the ensuing power play for his NHL-best fifth game-winning goal this season.
THE CALL
Steven Stamkos had just one assist, tame by his standard, but the Lightning captain drew the tripping penalty on Malkin and then the fateful slashing penalty on Kessel with 13 seconds remaining in the first period.
Rarely do you see a second infraction called on top of a delayed penalty but Rank called both penalties.
If you argue that all penalties should be called regardless of the time in game, the score or whether it's the regular season or playoffs, he's the ref for you.
Tampa Bay's seven power play opportunities were the most that the Penguins have faced this season, eclipsing the six that they faced against the Capitals on Nov. 7 and the Canadiens on Oct. 13. The Penguins are the NHL's 10th-least penalized team at 8:24 per game.
THE OTHER SIDE
The Penguins might have been without their captain but the Lightning were without Vasilevskiy, their starting goalie.
In his place, Domingue turned aside 28 of 31 shots as the Lightning ended a season-worst two-game losing streak. With Vasilevskiy out potentially for at least a month, the Lightning will lean heavily on Domingue.
Of course when you have the offense that Tampa has, that makes it a little easier.
Point's hat trick was the second-fastest in the post-1967 expansion era and sixth-fastest hat trick in NHL history, according to the league.
"I've never experienced that," Stamkos said. "I thought that'd be the quickest hat trick."
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have a practice scheduled for noon today, then charter to Ottawa where they’ll face the Senators on Saturday night at 7:08 p.m. at Canadian Tire Centre.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Lightning, PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 15, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS