TORONTO -- To be sure, four games is a small sample size.
But since Mike Sullivan gave his pre-bye week declaration in Las Vegas that his team needed to play to its identity and with consistency, the Penguins are now 2-2. That, folks, is the definition of average.
Saturday night's 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs -- a lose-from-ahead special --- epitomizes the Penguins' roller coaster ride of a season.
Obviously, it did not help to have Evgeni Malkin, struggling or not, back in Pittsburgh. And certainly playing in the second of back-to-back games is not ideal. But know what? The Penguins had won seven of their previous 10 in such occurrences. Also, the Maple Leafs played a night earlier too.
No, chalk this loss up to what it was: Inconsistency and a lack of detail. In a game between two teams with legit Stanley Cup aspirations, that's the fine line between victory and defeat.
After putting two solid performances together against the Lightning and Senators, the Penguins put together two good periods on Saturday night, the first period and the third. Unfortunately for them, the game is 60 minutes and not 40 as Sullivan explained:
"I thought, overall, we were good in the first and third," he said. "We pushed hard in the third but couldn't get that (tying goal). We had some chances. For me, the difference is the second period. We needed more pushback."
Certainly Sullivan liked the start though. The Penguins could not have scripted it much better than when Sidney Crosby and Teddy Blueger -- yes, him again -- spotted them a 2-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes. The Penguins had been -- note the past tense -- 18-9-5 when scoring first.
However, the Penguins frittered that lead away as the Maple Leafs reeled off three unanswered goals between 17:25 of the first period and 16:06 of the second. After Auston Matthews put in the rebound of his own tip late in the first period to pull Toronto to within one, that's when the game went sideways on the Penguins:
And it started with one simple mistake. With the top line caught on an extended 1:05 shift, Dominik Simon tried to clear the zone on his backhand to get a change. However, he put a little too much on it and it went for an icing.
That set up a defensive zone draw and, well, this happened:
That's Simon's icing and Crosby subsequently getting cleaned in the circle by the ageless Patrick Marleau. The 39-year-old pushed the puck back to Jake Gardiner, who fed Travis Dermott for a one-timer from the point that found its way through a sea of legs and sticks and past Matt Murray, the Ontario native who suffered his second straight loss to Toronto.
"It's one of those ones, looking back, I should have tried to tie him up," Crosby was saying. "I tried to win it on my forehand ... I'm on my weak side and probably helped him out going that way with it. That happens sometimes and you get away with it."
Crosby didn't.
And he didn't win this faceoff either at 16:06 of the period when John Tavares, who was in Crosby's hip pocket all night, won this draw. Eight seconds later, it led to Zach Hyman's game-winner:
"I've got to win one of those faceoffs and they end up in the back of the net," Crosby said. "It's a game of mistakes. I made a couple there."
It was a particularly rough night in the circle for Crosby and his hopes of winning the Selke. He'd been winning a career-best 56.4 percent, including a 59.4 clip over the previous nine games. On Saturday, he was just 5-of-14 (26 percent). According to Penguins historian Bob Grove, Crosby entered the night with a 47.0 percent win rate against Tavares, who was matched up extensively against Crosby. Mike Babcock had Tavares on the ice for 13:46 of the 20:24 that Crosby played.
"We don't win the draw, that's the reality or the nature of faceoffs," Sullivan said. "We'd like our centers to win every draw, but they're not going to win them all. So the ones we lose, we have to game plan to defend and defend hard."
The Penguins didn't.
And while it's noble for the captain to fall on his sword, if you watch the above three clips you'll notice that Crosby didn't get much help on the Dermott or Hyman goals from his wingers. And Murray received zero help from his defense on all three.
The Maple Leafs generated their offense by working the puck low to high and feasted on tips and deflections and out-working the Penguins down low. That's exactly how the Sharks manhandled them in San Jose on Jan. 15 and, rest assured, others will try the same.
"That net front is such a key area of the game, I think they won the net front battles," Murray said. "I think that was the difference in the game."
Agreed. It was more than just two face-offs.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Travis Dermott
Maple Leafs defenseman
While Jake Muzzin's home debut was the buzz around T.O., it was the Leafs' third pair defenseman who scored the tying goal, his fourth of the season.
2. John Tavares
Maple Leafs center
Tip of the cap to Johnny Pajamas: He bottled up Crosby at 5v5 and won 69 percent of his faceoffs.
3. Auston Matthews
Maple Leafs center
Unlike previous games against the Penguins, Matthews was very noticeable. Scored his 23rd of the season in his 37th game and has goals in his last three games.
THE INJURIES
• Malkin missed his second game with an upper-body injury.
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, has been out since October with a fractured leg. He would appear to be close to returning.
• Zach Aston-Reese, right winger, is out with a broken left hand.
THE GOOD
New third-line center Nick Bjugstad had a team-high five shots on goal and three of those were quality chances. Unfortunately he couldn't convert on any of them against Garret Sparks, who stopped 28 shots on Saturday.
The only one to get a puck past Sparks at even strength was Teddy Blueger, who is quickly becoming a folk hero in Pittsburgh.
A night after scoring his first NHL goal, Blueger added his second with yet another goal-scorer's goal. At 13:20 of the first period, Olli Maatta made a smart pinch and got the puck to Garrett Wilson, who kicked the puck to Blueger at the left dot where he wired a 25-footer that beat Sparks high to the glove side:
"Obviously, goals are always nice, good to contribute," Blueger was saying. "But I think it's a work in progress. But it's slowing down for me bit by bit. Obviously, a lot that I still need to improve but some good parts in the last two."
Sullivan has certainly been impressed so far by what the Latvian has added to the fourth line, which has now scored in each of the last three games.
"He's scored a couple goals but he's been a smart player," Sullivan said. "I think Cully's line has been very good the last few games. They bring us momentum. They bring us energy. They win faceoffs. We put them in a lot of defensive zone starts (zero offensive zone starts Saturday). When they don't win the draw, they defend hard. But more times they win the draw and get the puck out of our end. The line's been really good and Teddy's been a part of that."
Blueger is certainly giving the Penguins something to think about when Malkin and Aston-Reese return from their injuries. Here, I asked him about his mindset during this call-up:
The Penguins could soon have 14 capable forwards but who do you take out? Simon? Wilson?
THE BAD
When Schultz does return, the Penguins will also have a decision to make along the blue line.
Presumably the top two pairs will have Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang on one and Schultz with Olli Maatta on the other. But the third pair of Jack Johnson and Marcus Pettersson, which had been so instrumental to the Penguins' turnaround in December, was shaky yet again on Saturday.
Pettersson took a pair of stick infractions, the only penalties called against the Penguins, and the advanced metrics on that third pair were just abysmal. Johnson and Pettersson were on the ice together at 5v5 for 14:04 with a Corsi For percentage of 29.41. They had 24 chances against -- three of them high-danger -- to just 10 for. Yeesh.
It's assumed that Juuso Riikola will be the odd-man out when Schultz returns and that's the likely scenario, but it would seem something has to give on that third pair.
THE PLAY
Crosby's power play goal. I'll get into that one in my Drive to the Net.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this Crosby face-off win:
Welcome home Jeremy. pic.twitter.com/k03rbf0dxd
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 3, 2019
THE CALL
There were no penalties of any consequence or controversy. But Murray was originally upset after Hyman's second-period goal. As he pushed off right to left to face the shot, Murray had his stick knocked out of his hands. He immediately looked to referee Dean Morton but no goaltender interference call was made. And rightfully so.
Murray's stick got tangled between Johnson's legs.
"I thought it was their guy tying my stick up," said Murray, who has shown more emotion in net the past three weeks than he did the previous three years. "But it turns out it was our guy."
THE OTHER SIDE
The knock on the Leafs' chances to ending their 51-year Cup drought had been their defense corps.
With Muzzin in tow, the so-called "Center of the Hockey Universe" now believes the Maple Leafs have a legitimate chance. We shall see about that one.
Making his home debut on Saturday, Muzzin had a game-high 67 percent Corsi For and was a physical force. In the first period, he flattened Jake Guentzel, which you don't see often. In the second, he sandwiched Patric Hornqvist hard against the glass.
Most importantly, Muzzin takes Ron Hainsey off the top pairing and allows Morgan Rielly to take a little more risk offensively. Rielly had a pair of assists on Saturday to move into second place in scoring among defensemen. He now has 53 points in just 51 games, eclipsing his career high.
“Jake’s a good player, and we talked about it last night,” said Rielly. “Just about being comfortable, about playing your game, and that’s kind of been my approach all year. Just have confidence, and he’s a great skater and if anything it’ll help. Playing with (Ron) Hainsey’s great, and I thought he did a great job. I think we helped each other a lot, and he gave me a lot of freedom to move around the ice, and I think Jake’s the same way.”
On Monday, the Maple Leafs will host the hapless Ducks, who took a 9-3 shellacking in Winnipeg on Saturday.
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will be off on Sunday and will return to practice Monday morning at the Lemieux Complex. They will host the Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
THE COVERAGE
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