UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Sidney Crosby should get considerable support when the Selke Trophy balloting is announced next month, and that tells you a couple of things.
First, that the Professional Hockey Writers Association voters have become aware of how Crosby's 200-foot game has evolved over the course of his career.
Second, that voting for the Selke, which goes to the NHL's best defensive forward, concluded before the Penguins' season-ending 5-3 loss to the Islanders in Game 6 of their first round playoff series at Nassau Coliseum Wednesday.
If not, Crosby's name might have been frantically erased from ballots across North America long before Game6 was settled.
That's not to suggest that responsibility for the defeat fell solely on Crosby -- for example, it's hard to overlook Tristan Jarry's prominent role in the outcome -- but at least one learned observer offered a rather scalding assessment of Crosby's defensive performance in the series finale.
A learned observer named Sidney Crosby.
He pointed out that he was on the ice for each of New York's first three goals, all of which erased leads the Penguins had built during the first 22 minutes of play, and that he missed opportunities to possibly prevent a couple of them.
"Two of those, I'm right beside the guy and I don't make a play," Crosby said.
The first came when Anthony Beauvillier pulled away from Crosby before throwing a backhander past Jarry at 5:16 of the opening period, less than four minutes after Jeff Carter had staked the Penguins to a 1-0 lead
Beauvillier, who had been burned by Carter on the first goal of the game, got the better of Crosby again at 8:35 of the second, blowing past him near the Penguins' blue line before giving the puck to Josh Bailey, who promptly set up a deflection by Brock Nelson to tie the game, 3-3, and wipe out the Penguins' final lead of the season.
Thirteen seconds after Nelson scored, New York defenseman Ryan Pulock beat Jarry with a shot from the right point -- that one proved to be the series-winner -- and Nelson rubbed it in at 11:34, when his shot from the top of the left circle squeezed between Jarry's legs to close out the scoring.
Jarry finished the game with 19 saves on 24 shots, and ended the series with a save percentage of .888, the worst of any goaltender who played in more than three games during Round 1.
His series hit its nadir in double-overtime of Game 5, when his ill-considered giveaway to Bailey led to the Islanders' game-winning goal, but Game 6 isn't going to take up much space on his personal highlights video, either.
Giving up three goals in less than three minutes -- the first two of those in a span of 13 seconds -- put the Penguins in a hole from which they could not escape and seemed to call for a change in goal, although none was made.
Mike Sullivan declined to say whether he considered replacing Jarry -- "I'm not going to discuss the discussions we have as a coaching staff," he said -- although backup Maxime Lagace, who watched the game from a chair in the runway leading to the Penguins' locker room, disappeared for a few minutes during the second period.
It's not known whether he had been told to warm up or simply needed a drink or a bathroom break, but in any case, Lagace never made it onto the ice until the postgame handshake line.
The Penguins have been on the wrong side of those for four consecutive series, matching the longest such streak in franchise history, and Jarry's role in the latest would be hard to overstate. From his glove-hand issues in the opener to his costly blunder in Game 5 to a leaky showing Wednesday, Jarry's play in the series is sure to create doubts about whether the Penguins can rely on him in any high-stakes games they might play in the future.
Of course, in keeping with hockey culture, neither his teammates nor his coach would criticize anything about his work in the series.
"You win games as a team, you lose games as a team," Sullivan said. "It's not any one position. It's not any one person's fault."
There's at least a grain of truth in that, because when a team gets three leads in a playoff game -- especially one on the road -- it should be able to make at least one of them hold up.
"In playoff hockey, you have to tighten things up," Carter said. "If you get a lead on the road, you have to lock it in."
The Penguins couldn't, and so they won't get another chance to try for at least a year.
They appreciate how a timely goal or save or defensive play could have altered the outcome of a highly competitive series -- "You look at two overtime games that we lost, being able to win one of them would have been huge," Crosby said -- and recognize that the Islanders are moving on because New York was able to make them.
"There's a fine line between winning and losing," Sullivan said. "It didn't go our way this series."
Fair enough, but it hasn't gone their way since a Round 1 meeting with Philadelphia in 2018.
And while it wasn't necessarily realistic for the Penguins to view themselves as serious Stanley Cup contenders -- that window slammed shut in 2020 -- they appeared to genuinely believe they were capable of going on an extended run.
"The group we have is a really good group, and we had an opportunity here," Crosby said. "That's why it stings so much."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins ended the season with three consecutive losses, their longest such streak of the season.
• Sullivan, asked if he would identify any players who had injuries that might have affected their performance in the series: "No."
• New York was credited with 23 blocked shots, the Penguins 11.
• Both teams scored on their first shot on goal.
• Jason Zucker had probably his best game of the playoffs -- and one of his best of the season -- with a goal, an assist and a share of the team lead with four shots. He left the game for a while during the second period after blocking a Noah Dobson shot a few minutes after scoring what proved to be the Penguins' final goal of the season, as he deflected a Cody Ceci shot past goalie Ilya Sorokin.
• New York has won five of its six all-time playoff series against the Penguins, including three in which the Penguins had the home-ice advantage.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Nassau Coliseum:
1. Brock Nelson, Islanders
2. Anthony Beauvillier, Islanders
3. Ryan Pulock, Islanders
THE INJURY
• Goalie Casey DeSmith was "day-to-day" because of an unspecified lower-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Frederick Gaudreau
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Barry Trotz's Islanders:
Leo Komarov-Mathew Barzal-Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier-Brock Nelson-Josh Bailey
Kyle Palmieri-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Travis Zajac
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Nick Leddy-Scott Mayfield
Andy Greene-Noah Dobson
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have entered what figures to be a very busy offseason.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
