UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Mike Sullivan is capable of thorough, in-depth analysis, of explaining situations down to their most basic micro-details.
He also can say an awful lot in a very few words.
Sullivan proved that in the aftermath of the Penguins' utterly uninspired -- and uninspiring -- performance in their 2-0 loss to the Islanders Sunday evening at Nassau Coliseum.
A sampling, from his two-minute postgame video conference with reporters:
Did he have any reason to anticipate that his team would have such a poor first period, when it generated just two shots on Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders' rookie goalie who was making just his fifth NHL appearance and hadn't played in 12 days?
"No. No."
How lopsided might the score have been if Casey DeSmith, who finished with 28 saves, hadn't played as well as he did?
"Casey was good."
Perhaps the only thing lower than the syllable count on some of Sullivan's answers was the Penguins' shot total on an average power play.
But Sullivan reserved what might have been his most biting response for a question about why the Penguins' penalty-kill has been ineffective for most of this season, including a 2-for-4 performance Sunday.
"It's a number of things," he said. "It's just not good enough. We've got to be better."
That shouldn't be a problem, if only because it can't get much worse. The penalty-killers have allowed at least one goal in 15 of the Penguins' 20 games so far, including 11 of the past 14, and have slipped to 29th in the NHL rankings.
"We are what we are there," Sullivan said. "We're giving up too many goals there. It's not good enough."
Especially not for a unit that, going into the season, was expected to be a significant asset for the Penguins.
Of course, their power play had the potential to be one, too, and there are times when it makes it look as if the penalty-killing is overachieving, by comparison.
The Penguins had two chances with the extra man Sunday, and failed to score on either. Indeed, the Islanders got the best scoring chance of the day during a Penguins man-advantage when Casey Cizikas got a breakaway after Evgeni Malkin turned the puck over at the right point in the New York end during the Penguins' second power play.
The Penguins have failed to get a goal when they've had the extra man in 11 of their past 15 games.
A good rule of thumb for satisfactory special-teams play is to have the success rate of the power play and penalty-kill add up to 100 or more. The Penguins don't even come close. They are killing 72.1 percent of their short-handed situations and converting 15 percent of their power plays, putting their total at 87.1.
Subpar special-teams play is one of the primary reasons the Penguins have spent so much time playing from behind this season, why they've had to make so many late-game comebacks -- the pull out victories in overtime or a shootout -- simply to remain in contention for a playoff spot in the East Division.
"It's frustrating, for sure," John Marino said. "Luckily enough, we're still able to win games. Once we're able to figure out the special teams, hopefully everything just starts clicking again."
New York's power play gave Sorokin the only goal he would need with 39.7 seconds left in the opening period, when Oliver Wahlstrom hammered a slap shot past DeSmith from near the left dot while Marcus Pettersson was serving a hooking minor:
The Islanders manufactured an insurance goal on their third try with the man-advantage, as Bryan Rust got his stick on a shot from the right circle by Jean-Gabriel Pageau, slowing it just enough to disrupt the timing of DeSmith's attempt to stop the puck:
"I just reacted instinctively, trying to get my leg on it," DeSmith said. "Then it took that weird deflection that slowed it down and changed direction a little bit."
That was about the only thing that fooled DeSmith in this game.
He had almost no chance of stopping Wahlstrom's shot -- the puck might have gone through him if he'd somehow managed to get in front of it -- and did everything possible to give the Penguins a chance to grab at least one point, shy of scoring a goal himself.
"He definitely kept us in it the whole game," Marino said.
All DeSmith got for his trouble was a loss on his record. Sorokin, meanwhile, was honored as the game's No. 1 star, even though the most impressive thing he did was to resist the temptation to spike his water bottle with an energy drink, just to guard against falling asleep while the game was in progress.
That was particularly true during the first period, when Pettersson and fellow defenseman Kris Letang were the only Penguins players to record a shot on goal.
"A really slow start," Malkin said.
Sullivan gave his team a bit of a jump-start in the second period by shifting the right wingers on his top three lines -- Rust went with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, Brandon Tanev joined Malkin and Jared McCann and Kasperi Kapanen dropped to the No. 3 unit with Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese -- but couldn't come up with a way to prevent Sorokin from becoming the first Islanders goalie to shut out the Penguins since Kelly Hrudey did it on Jan. 9, 1986.
That was well before most members of the Penguins' current roster were born.
Or, in some cases, well before their parents started dating.
The Penguins had entered the game knowing they had a chance to make history, but having the Islanders hold them without a goal for the first time in 35-plus years -- and in their final regular-season visit to the Coliseum -- wasn't what they had in mind. Fact is, if the Penguins had won this game, they would have become the first team in NHL history to defeat an opponent five times in a calendar month.
With that possibility gone, probably forever, perhaps the Penguins can focus on doing something a bit less sensational.
Like scoring a power-play goal. Or preventing a few.
Maybe even doing both in the same game.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Malkin, who has four goals and eight assists in 20 games, offered this succinct assessment of his season so far: "I'm not happy with my game right now."
• Rust, who has been playing on Malkin's line of late, does not have a point in his past five games.
• The Penguins' all-time record at Nassau Coliseum is 51-58-4 (with eight ties) in the regular season. They have a playoff record of 4-10 there.
• Both teams dressed the same 18 skaters they had Saturday, but each started a different goalie.
• The weekend series with the Islanders was the Penguins' first set of games on consecutive days this season. They're scheduled to have four of those in March.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Nassau Coliseum:
1. Ilya Sorokin, Islanders
2. Oliver Wahlstrom, Islanders
3. Josh Bailey, Islanders
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Juuso Riikola, out with an unspecified upper-body injury suffered Jan. 19, has resumed practicing.
• Forward Evan Rodrigues, out since suffering an unspecified lower-body injury Jan. 25, has resumed skating.
• Defenseman Brian Dumoulin, sidelined since suffering an unspecified lower-body injury Jan. 26, has resumed skating.
• Winger Jason Zucker is sidelined indefinitely with an unspecified lower-body injury sustained Feb. 23.
• Center Mark Jankowski has an unspecified upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Colton Sceviour-Sam Lafferty-Anthony Angello
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-John Marino
P.O Joseph-Cody Ceci
And for Barry Trotz's Islanders:
Anders Lee-Mat Barzal-Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier-Brock Nelson-Josh Bailey
Michel Dal Colle-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Oliver Wahlstrom
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Leo Komarov
Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Nick Leddy-Scott Mayfield
Andy Greene-Noah Dobson
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to have a day off Monday and will face the Flyers Tuesday at 7:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena in the first of three consecutive home games against the Flyers.
THE CONTENT
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