Matt Murray's pad came crashing down.
And no, I'm not describing one of the 37 times he bailed out the Penguins' sloppy skaters in what, despite his extraordinary effort, wound up a deflating, 5-4 overtime loss to the Islanders on this Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. Rather, the reference is to the man himself slamming one of his pads from a standing position onto the locker room floor in front of his stall, just as I'd entered.
That was everywhere. Every expression. Every snapped-off-sentiment. Every bit lip.
"This," as Marcus Pettersson told me, barely audible, "was bad."
No doubt. Regular-season losses in mid-November aren't supposed to resonate like this. But when a head coach hardly known for public criticism dials up "brutal" into his dialogue ... yeah, this was as bad as it gets this time of year.
So, being one who's always eager to seize the mood and the moment, while we're all wholly miserable, I thought I'd put into print 10 thoughts that ... well, will only make it worse for most.
10. Bryan Rust can't do that.
These will run in descending order, though this one will rankle enough on its own. Because everyone loves a goal-scorer, and that love is multiplied many times over when that player also gives everything he's got. They're never anyone's lower-case-G goat.
Rust scored for the seventh time in 10 games since returning from injury, which is wonderful. He also set up a Zach Aston-Reese shorty that was rightly waved off for offside, plus all his usual good deeds. But he also had a team-worst Corsi For percentage of 33.3 -- on the ice for 11 chances at five-on-five compared to 22 against -- and he's supposed to be the defensive conscience of the new top line.
Moreover, he was sent to the box for a pivotal penalty late in the third period, handing the Islanders the momentum they'd turn into a two-goal rally to tie, then Brock Nelson's winner in overtime. It was the Penguins' second attacking-zone minor of the three they took in the game, but Rust was adamant he wasn't at fault on his.
"No," he replied firmly. "You've got to fight for your ice. Two guys got tangled up. Ref saw it one way."
Uh, no ...
... that's a trip, 1,000 times out of 1,000. Glaring leg-whip on Nick Leddy.
9, The youngsters stunk.
Near the end of Rust's penalty, Aston-Reese partook in a two-on-two rush across the New York blue line. But rather than dumping the puck toward a corner, getting the PK guys off for a change and finishing the kill, he tried a pass toward the middle that the Islanders boomeranged right back into Josh Bailey's goal that cut the lead to 4-3:
All kinds of awful up there. And trust me, that's the one that steamed Mike Sullivan.
"The third goal, I think, was the killer," Sullivan visibly fumed. "For the most part, we did a really good job on the penalty-kill. The penalty's about to expire, and it's a two-against-four rush. We just have to do a better job."
Same with Sam Lafferty. Multiple giveaways in the third. Lost nearly every draw. It's never the kids' fault in most eyes, and I get that. They're the future, they're the hope, and no one likes having hopes dashed. But the NHL doesn't come with age handicaps.
8. Overtime's becoming a bore.
Everyone seems to get giddy over three-on-three, but not me. Not anymore.
Ever since all 31 NHL teams figured out the familiar Phil Kessel maneuver of willfully backpedaling out of the attacking zone at the first sign of trouble -- akin to a reset button -- the pace has slowed to a crawl, even the occasional standstill. It's not about rushes, the way it was for years, but about keepaway.
This has nothing to do with this final score. I feel no differently when watching any of them anywhere these days. I just hope for a shootout.
7. Protocol's a joke.
This also has nothing to with this final score, obviously, even though it was Nelson getting that final score in overtime.
Instead, it's about Nelson getting clocked in the head -- enough to crack his helmet -- by a friendly-fire slap shot in the first period, being felled for a couple minutes, then returning to the New York bench as if nothing had happened. Hilariously, his helmet was sent off for repairs -- an equipment manager took it down the tunnel -- but no one bothered to offer similar care for his head.
When I reported this, it was picked up by several Canadian media outlets, in addition to two former NHL players, Daniel Carcillo and Nick Boynton, who are vocal advocates for concussion treatment:
While NY Islanders center Brock Nelson's helmet was taken for repairs after this, neither team trainer nor NHL independent spotters decided he should be examined under the league's concussion protocol, @Dejan_Kovacevic reports. https://t.co/CPwlBaI3L2
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) November 20, 2019
To be clear: One can blame the Islanders for this, but the burden falls to the NHL, which is supposed to have independent spotters in every arena instructing players to be taken to a quiet room for several minutes of examination before being cleared to return. I watched Nelson, and he never budged.
I asked afterward why he hung around.
"I felt fine," he told me. "Luckily, the helmet took the brunt of it."
OK, but it's not his call. And no, counter to conventional wisdom, it's not about being Mr. Macho. It's about maintaining a responsibility to the health of hockey players everywhere. That should start with Gary Bettman, but it doesn't.
NHL6. The Islanders are legit.
A large percentage of the complaints after the Penguins were swept from the first round of playoffs this past spring was that the Islanders weren't anything special, and those only multiplied when the Islanders themselves were then swept out by the Hurricanes.
Right now, they're 15-3-1. Their 15-game points streak -- 14-0-1 with the lone blemish an OT loss to the Penguins a week ago -- matching the franchise's longest back in 1982 and their dynasty years. And this particular comeback marked the first time in NHL history any team had won back-to-back games when trailing by multiple goals in the final seven minutes of the third period. It was the same scene Sunday in Philadelphia leading into a 4-3 shootout victory.
I asked Barry Trotz if his team's feeding off the streak at this stage:
He's got another Cup contender under his watch. It's easy to see he knows it.
5. So, nice point, right?
Um, yeah, to be honest. In the Islanders' past 15 games, the opponents have taken a grand total of seven points from them. The Penguins have three of those points, and under some lousy circumstances on their end. And should they prevail Thursday night in Brooklyn, they'll have gone 2-0-1 against New York's hottest team in decades. Just saying.
4. Tanev's contract is too short.
On the night Jim Rutherford's Hall of Fame induction was celebrated -- in absentia, as he had to stay in Toronto for the ongoing GM Meetings there -- the move for which he was most roundly criticized this past summer, the Brandon Tanev signing, continued to look like a real winner.
A fourth-liner for six freaking years?
At $3.5 million average annual value?
This guy's completely lost it!
Yeah, he has ...
... but only because he failed to sign Tanev for the next century or so.
What a hockey player. Precisely what Winnipeg's missing right now. Precisely what the Penguins needed.
3. The crowd quit.
People spend their money and can do as they please. But in that same spirit, other people can, in turn, judge as they please.
When the Penguins had this two-goal lead for the better part of the third period, PPG Paints Arena had become a mausoleum. I took note of this at the time, not with convenient hindsight. It felt as if this was all supposed to be routine fare, knocking off this team on a historic run while missing Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Patric Hornqvist, Nick Bjugstad ... and by the time the Islanders prodded everyone back from their slumber and a couple actual chants arose, it was too late.
This isn't crowd-blaming, mind you. The team lost the game on the ice. It's just an observation and, I dare say, a fair and accurate one. The expectations of the Penguins from their paying customers are out of this orbit.
2. Injuries do hurt.
Some would call this an excuse. Excuses are only excuses, in my book, if they're concocted. This one's a cold fact. That's a ton of talent watching from the press box.
1. Murray was 'terrific.'
He was. That was Sullivan's emphatically enunciated word when I brought it up afterward, but the sentiment was universal at both the Pittsburgh and New York ends of the hallway, from Justin Schultz ...
... to Nelson ...
... and those really weren't opinions.
At the same time, the lowest common denominator of hockey observers tends to condense the game to whether or not the goaltender made every single save. Presumably because they dress up a lot like catchers, and catchers are supposed to catch everything.
For the record, Murray wasn't remotely satisfied with his performance, as I saw and heard following the game, and that's to his credit: Five goals are five goals. A blown late lead is a blown late lead. It probably stung him as much as anyone, even if Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Jared McCann, Schultz and all involved in the "brutal" overtime, as Sullivan labeled it, might as well have swung around and begun shooting on Murray themselves.
Had the goaltender not been as athletic, as aggressive, as composed as he was, the Islanders ring up double-digits, and all of the above is big-time moot.
Hey, sorry.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Islanders, PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 19, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS