The Penguins were outscored by 15-9 margin over their last two games, losses to the Bruins and Rangers.
Afterward, the focus of Mike Sullivan and the players naturally was the defensive collapses that allowed them to allow as many goals in two games as they had in the previous nine games combined.
Offensively, there was great improvement between the loss to the Bruins and the loss to the Rangers. In the loss to the Bruins, the Penguins' generated just 42 shot attempts all game, the sixth-worst mark of any game this season. Against the Rangers, the Penguins generated a season-high 70 shot attempts. The defensive collapses still outweighed those offensive efforts, though.
"It's hard to outscore teams in this league and think that you're going to win consistently," Mike Sullivan said after Wednesday's practice in New York. "We generated an awful lot of scoring chances in the game (Tuesday) night. After watching the film and breaking down the numbers, that was just more affirmation that we generated a lot of offense. But we also gave them some quality looks at our end of the rink. That's not a formula for success in my experience in this league to win consistently."
Are the collapses in Tuesday's 8-4 loss to the Rangers anything to be concerned about? Let's break it down.
I've lost count of how many times Sullivan has stressed the importance of protecting the scoring areas, and failing to do so was the Penguins' major undoings on Tuesday.
You can look at the heat map from the five-on-five play and draw a tiny little box around where the Rangers' goals were coming from, with three coming from right in the high-danger areas of the ice and the fourth coming from just outside:
Of the Rangers' three power play goals, part of an unusually bad night for the Penguins' penalty kill, one also came from the high-danger area.
The 14 total high-danger attempts allowed by the Penguins in the game were three shy of the season-high mark of 17 allowed. If you're letting an opponent attempt that many close shots throughout the game, you're probably not going to win.
Bryan Rust called the Penguins' play "sloppy" after the game, and the Rangers' second goal was an example of that.
Sidney Crosby carried the puck into the zone, and Kris Letang joined the rush and moved deep into the Rangers' zone to look for a pass. It's a risky move, but it's also one we've seen defensemen make before this season, specifically when Crosby has the puck, and it's paid off at times with a goal. The risk, obviously, is that if the puck gets turned over the defenseman has zero chance of getting back into position in time. Like in this game.
Crosby turned the puck over -- one of his three turnovers in that game, an uncharacteristically bad night for him -- and the Rangers got a rush back up in the other direction, forcing Crosby to jump in as a defenseman. Pavel Buchnevich had three Penguins skaters surrounding him for the initial attempt, leaving Mika Zibanejad wide open to pick up the rebound attempt:
Other goals were immediately preceded by times when the Penguins had opportunities to clear the puck from their own zone but failed to do so, like with Kaapo Kakko's third-period goal on the power play.
If there's a bright side in this, it's that many of the goals or opportunities allowed were the result of rare or exceptional mistakes from unlikely culprits, and they don't seem to be the culmination of any building trends.
The number of high-danger attempts allowed was a lot at 14, but it was also the most they've allowed in nearly a month. Three turnovers is obviously a rare night for Crosby, that's a season-high. The Penguins' penalty kill before this game had only allowed two goals at most in a single game and they only did so twice all season. The Penguins' combined save percentage from both of its goaltenders through February and March was the best in the league at .9277, a far bigger sample size than these two games that produced a combined save percentage of .717.
"I don't believe the last two games have necessarily been an indictment of our team," Ron Hextall said on Wednesday.
Getting Teddy Blueger back, one of their better defensive forwards, would be a big boost in the right direction.
While the 15-9 margin of goals over these last two games is alarming, some of these lapses aren't anything to be worried about yet. And while it was overshadowed by some mistakes on defense, the offense producing a season-high number of attempts was an encouraging response after the previous loss to the Bruins.
They'll look to rebound defensively in the second game in this series against the Rangers on Thursday.
