NEW YORK -- The sheer simplicity -- and the beauty -- of the game-winning goal surely did not escape the Penguins.
Same with the irony of it.
It was all so very basic. New York forward Chris Kreider went to the front of the Penguins' net. Teammate Adam Fox threw a puck toward it. Kreider deflected that puck past goaltender Casey DeSmith. Everyone wearing a blue Rangers sweater raised their arms and hugged.
And everyone wearing a reverse-retro Penguins sweater presumably thought about how the course of what became a 3-1 loss at Madison Square Garden Monday night could have been altered drastically if they'd been able to do on one of their six power plays what New York had needed just 13 seconds of a man-advantage to do: Score a goal.
Seems like doing that isn't an unreasonable ask of a group that is built around a few future Hall of Famers, but the harsh truth is that the Penguins have not scored a man-advantage goal in 19 opportunities over the past five games.
And while there were times early in the game when they seemed willing to put the puck on goal occasionally while they had an extra man, they got that out of their system as the game moved along. The Penguins finished with seven shots on those six power plays, which meant they generated the same total in a half-dozen opportunities as the Rangers did in four, including the one that lasted 13 seconds and broke a 1-1 tie at 11:10 of the third period.
"We've talked about simplifying the game, trying to shoot the puck more and creating our offense off of that shot," Mike Sullivan said. "It looks like we're looking for a better play that's not there. We've got to do a better job of just putting pucks at the net, and then creating our offense that way."
That is, of course, not the first time this season Sullivan has laid out such a strategy for his power play.
The next time those guys -- especially the No. 1 unit -- absorb his words, then act on them, will be a first, however.
Nonetheless, Jason Zucker said the high-profile players who aren't manufacturing goals when the Penguins have a man-advantage aren't necessarily bypassing shots by design.
"Staring at the first unit from the bench, it's easy for me to say that we need to shoot the puck more," he said. "But teams make changes and they try to get us off our game and make us make adjustments, as well, and we're trying to do that."
Not, it is apparent, with much success in recent games.
Kreider's goal provided New York's margin of victory in a game that, the latest power-play flameout aside, featured one of the Penguins' best efforts of the season. When they weren't burdened with a man-advantage, they had a clear edge in play for most of the evening.
They were responsible defensively, fairly aggressive in the attacking zone and were getting saves from DeSmith when needed.
"Five-on-five, we played a pretty strong game," Sullivan said. "We had a good start. That's something we've been talking about for a while. I thought our first period was really strong. I thought we had good energy."
Zucker gave his teammates a burst of that -- and a 1-0 lead -- at 9:05 of the opening period, when he collected the rebound of a Chad Ruhwedel point shot that caromed off the back boards and put it behind Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin from the right side of the crease:
It was Zucker's third goal of the season, all in the past four games. He has a proven ability to score goals in bunches, but stressed the importance of strong two-way play and deflected credit for his recent productivity to linemates Kasperi Kapanen and Evgeni Malkin.
"It's more about playing the game the right way," Zucker said. "If you do that consistently, you're going to put yourself in positions to score goals. I'm just trying to hang around the net and use my speed to create some plays. Obviously, (Malkin and Kapanen) are two amazing players, so they're going to make some plays. I'm just trying to capitalize when I get the chances."
He has been, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. Especially his willingness to work to make it happen.
"(Zucker) is playing really well right now," Sullivan said. "He's just a gritty player who is strong on pucks. He goes to the net-front."
His line can't reach its full potential until Malkin gets his game in synch, but Zucker believes it is trending that way.
"We've taken a good step here, but we want more," he said. "We want to keep getting better, as a line. We feel we can be a line that leads this team, along with (Sidney Crosby's) line."
The Penguins contained New York's quick-strike offense for most of the game despite relying on a defense corps cobbled together from a couple of journeymen, a pair of youngsters, a career minor-leaguer and a guy who was out of hockey until last week.
Second-year pro John Marino and rookie P.O Joseph formed the Penguins' No. 1 defense pairing, and acquitted themselves nicely. Marino played 30 minutes, 30 seconds and Joseph logged 26 minutes, 14 seconds. Marino's heavy workload might have earned a double-take from even Kris Letang, who routinely plays in the mid- to upper-20s.
Marino, though, shrugged it off.
"You don't think about how many minutes you're playing," he said. "You just kind of go out there when you're told."
And he has been that a lot lately, since so many of his fellow defensemen are spending quality time with the medical staff these days.
"(Marino) has had a huge responsibility back there, out of necessity, based on the amount of injuries we have on the blue line," Sullivan said. "We're asking him to do an awful lot and play in a lot of situations that maybe he wouldn't be accustomed to playing if we had a healthy complement of defensemen. But whatever we give him, he embraces it."
The same was true of his teammates for much of the game Monday night. At least the parts that didn't involve the Penguins having an extra skater.
"It was tough to lose those points and lose this game," Zucker said. "We have to make sure we take a look at the special teams and get better."
That seems reasonable. And do-able.
Especially when the power play probably can't get any worse.
• The Penguins had been scheduled to play New Jersey Tuesday and Thursday at PPG Paints Arena, but those games were postponed because of COVID-19 issues in New Jersey. "Coming into this season, we knew that (postponements were) going to be a possibility," DeSmith said. "That we'd have to deal with at some point, whether it was our team or a different team."
• Kapanen, whose speed and skills are more evident with every game he plays, showed that he's not afraid of fight when the situation demands it, as he traded punches with Rangers forward Brett Howden after time expired in the second period.
• For a change, it was the Penguins' opponents who were forced to play with five defensemen, as New York's Brendan Smith left the game after a violent collision with Brandon Tanev in the first period. Tanev, who was the recipient of Smith's hit, was not injured.
• Sidney Crosby, who appeared to be in a particularly creative mindset, nearly scored a lacrosse-style goal by scooping the puck off the ice and trying to toss it into the top of the net. On his backhand, no less. A Rangers defender appeared to get his stick on either the puck or Crosby's stick to thwart what would have been a goal-of-the-year candidate:
• New York's Artemi Panarin closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal with less than a second remaining in regulation.
• It didn't show up on the scoreboard, but the Penguins were downright dominant on faceoffs, winning 34 of 48, a 71 percent success rate.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Madison Square Garden:
1. Igor Shesterkin, Rangers
2. Artemi Panarin, Rangers
3. Adam Fox, Rangers
THE INJURIES
• Forward Zach-Aston Reese is still recovering from surgery on his left shoulder in August and has been skating.
• Defenseman Zach Trotman underwent right knee surgery Jan. 14 to repair a torn meniscus and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.
• Defenseman Mike Matheson is out "longer term" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 15.
• Defenseman Juuso Riikola is out "longer term" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 19.
• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson is "week to week" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 19.
• Defenseman Brian Dumoulin is "week to week" with an unspecified lower-body injury sustained on Jan. 27.
• Defenseman Kris Letang is "day to day" with an unspecified lower-body injury sustained last Saturday.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Drew O'Connor-Mark Jankowski-Sam Lafferty
P.O Joseph-John Marino
Chad Ruhwedel-Cody Ceci
Kevin Czuczman-Yannick Weber
And for David Quinn's Rangers:
Alexis Lafreniere-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin-Ryan Strome-Chris Kreider
Phillip Di Guiseppe-Brett Howden-Julien Gauthier
Brendan Lemieux-Kevin Rooney-Jonny Brodzinski
K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
Brendan Smith-Anthony Bitetto
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins, who were to stay in New York overnight because of a snowstorm, are scheduled to practice at Madison Square Garden at noon Tuesday before flying back to Pittsburgh.
THE CONTENT
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