In so many ways, Monday night's game was really not that much different than the Penguins' previous two. Once again, they were outshot. Once again, they lost the possession battle. Once again, they blew a two-goal lead.
The only difference this time was that those disturbing trends finally came back to bite them.
Proving yet again that they can't stand success, they lost to the Ducks, 4-2, snapping their modest two-game winning streak. As relatively well as they have played lately -- 6-3-1 in the past 10 -- they still haven't strung together three wins since Oct. 18-27.
In Friday's win over the Bruins, the Penguins showed pushback by playing with a physical edge. In Saturday's win over the Kings, they showed mental toughness and resilience by winning in overtime. There was little of any of that to be found in their game Monday against the Ducks.
After taking a 2-0 first-period lead on goals by Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust, the Penguins snoozed through the fateful second period, surrendering three goals on 18 shots.
More than anything, it's these inconsistencies -- mental lapses, really -- that have been so maddening.
Even more frustrating is that they can't explain why they've kept happening.
Is there any common thread in these blown leads?
"No," said Jack Johnson.
"Haven't really thought of it like that," said Rust.
"It's our problem this year," said Malkin. "We lead with a couple goals and we play casual. We need to understand we're playing a good team. They battle back."
Moving forward, the Penguins can't let Casual Monday become Casual Wednesday when they take on the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals in Washington in two nights.
"We have to sustain momentum when we get it," Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we played 40 minutes tonight. We didn't play 60. The second period we didn't play as well as we're capable. We start off on the very first shift, we take a penalty and then it snowballs from there. We take two penalties in the first six minutes of the second period. We lose momentum. We've got to have a little more pushback in those situations."
Those two penalties -- lackadaisical stick infractions -- were against Zach Aston-Reese and Sidney Crosby. Not exactly guys with reputations for uninspired play.
Still, for all their misdeeds in the second period, the Penguins had their chances to win, or at least tie, the game in the third.
Anaheim took consecutive penalties when Ondrej Kase was called for hooking at 4:11 and Josh Manson for interference at 5:54. That gave the Penguins 3:43 of power play time, including 17 seconds at 5-on-3.
However, when the power play -- which converted earlier on Malkin's goal -- needed it most, it came up small:
In its new configuration, that has had Phil Kessel on the right half wall and Crosby on the left, the Penguins couldn't get anything past John Gibson, who made 28 saves for his 15th win, third-most in the NHL.
"Those critical moments are important for power plays," Sullivan said. "It's not always about the numbers. Sometimes it's about rising to the occasion at key times when your team needs a goal. I think tonight was an opportunity and we missed that opportunity."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Ryan Getzlaf
Ducks center
Goal and assist. Despite his team's injuries, Getzlaf has thrown the Ducks on his big shoulders. He now has 11 points in the last nine games.
2. John Gibson
Ducks goaltender
Didn't see a lot of second-chance opportunities but stopped 28 of the 30 shots he saw. The Whitehall native has now won three in a row against his hometown team.
3. Carter Rowney
Ducks center
Picked up the assist on Sherwood's goal. The much-maligned former Penguin now has six points in 15 games for Anaheim.
THE INJURIES
• Patric Hornqvist, forward, is on Injured Reserve and missed his sixth game with an upper-body injury. He is eligible to come off IR at any time. Sullivan said Monday morning that he is close to returning.
• Dominik Simon, forward, is on IR with a lower-body injury. Sullivan described his status as day to day. Simon has missed seven straight.
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, is on long-term IR, out until February with a fractured leg.
THE GOOD
Rust infamously scored just one goal in the first 29 games of this season. One.
After Monday, he now has five goals in the last four, including two games in a row. It's the first time that he's scored in consecutive games since last March 14 and 15, at the Rangers and at the Canadiens.
Rust gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead at the 14:53 mark of the opening period when he jammed a loose puck at the right side of the net between the post and the pad of Gibson:
Was it a bad goal? It is if you're Gibson. But it's the kind of puck luck that had eluded Rust for so much of the early going this season.
Not only did he score a goal, Rust also saved one late in the first period when he made this kick save -- and a beauty! -- to stop Jakob Silfverberg on what should have been the Ducks' first goal:
THE BAD
The Penguins had 12 giveaways to the Ducks' two. Included in that dozen was a brutal turnover at the offensive blue line by Jake Guentzel that led to Kiefer Sherwood's tying goal at 5:33 of the second:
A turnover at either blue line is a cardinal sin at every level of the game. That it would come from Guentzel, one of the more cerebral players, is a little surprising.
"It's a big part of the game and that's a big part of the rink, an important part of the rink," Sullivan said. "It's something we talk about daily. It's not always about trying to score or making a play, it's about making sure you don't feed your opponent's transition game because you become high risk."
That's exactly what happened as Guentzel's pass was intercepted by Manson, who tapped it ahead to Rowney in the neutral zone. As Rowney entered the zone, Johnson tried to stand him up but the former Penguin was able to slide the puck over to Sherwood, who was trailing on the play. From the high slot, Sherwood threw a wrist shot that beat Casey DeSmith under the goalie's arm.
After his turnover, Guentzel was benched for most of the second period, replaced by Derick Brassard. Guentzel did play regularly in the third.
"Sometimes the biggest hammer a coach has is ice time," Sullivan said. "There have been situations over the last little while where the coaching staff has utilized that. That's not something that this coaching staff likes to do. We want our guys to take ownership for their own respective games."
“The second period kind of hurt us a little bit, and it started with me,” Guentzel said.
THE PLAY
The Penguins brought back Matt Cullen for his leadership, his ability on the penalty kill and to win faceoffs. When healthy, he's done a good job of providing that.
However, the 42-year-old had a particularly rough night in the circles on Monday, going just 1-for-6 (17 percent) on the draw.
One of those losses came at 18:47 of the second period when Getzlaf, a right-handed shot tried to win an offensive zone draw from the left dot on his backhand. Both center's whiffed after the puck was dropped but it bounced behind Getzlaf, who had the wherewithal to throw a quick -- and surprisingly hard -- shot on goal.
Though DeSmith made the initial stop on Getzlaf, the rebound bounced right to Kase, who beat Kris Letang to the loose puck and put it past DeSmith, who had little chance:
Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other guy. There's a reason why Getzlaf has won a couple of Olympic gold medals.
"It was pretty tough to see," said DeSmith, who stopped 32 shots while making his 12th start in the last 15 games. "It came through a couple bodies there, couple sets of legs. I caught (sight of) it at the last second."
THE CALL
Not to nitpick, but with 12:43 remaining in the third period and 52 seconds left on the second of the Penguins' consecutive power plays, it seemed an opportune moment for Sullivan to take his timeout.
At the time, the Penguins had their second unit on the ice and it would have given the top unit with Crosby and Malkin, et al, at least another shot with the man advantage.
Would it have made a difference? Who knows.
But Sullivan did finally call his timeout with 49 seconds left -- and that was moments after Getzlaf's empty net goal had put the game out of reach.
THE OTHER SIDE
In each of their previous nine wins, the Ducks had to comeback when they were either tied or trailing in the third period.
On Monday, they got a 20-minute head start. Against the Penguins, they overcame an early 2-0 lead with a dominant, three-goal second period.
“We were pretty soft with the puck in the first period and we allowed them to dictate the pace of the game,” Randy Carlyle said. “We didn’t really create any grind game. Once we started to play more dump-and-chase, and get a strong forecheck, we started to get some results.”
Despite injuries to Cam Fowler, Rickard Rakell and Corey Perry, the surprising Ducks (19-11-5) have won four in a row and nine of their last 10 and 11 of 13. Their 12 comeback victories this season are tied with the Jets for the second-most in the NHL.
“We didn’t have the best start, but I think we learned a lot from it,” said Gibson. “We learned the team we can be and we’re starting to put it together now. We have the ability to stay composed and we have the ability to come back.”
The Ducks, who moved to within three points of first-place Calgary in the Pacific Division, will face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have an off day on Tuesday. They will travel to Washington where they'll take on the Capitals at 8 p.m. at Capital One Arena.
THE COVERAGE
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MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Ducks, PPG Paints Arena, Dec. 17, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS