ELMONT, N.Y. -- It was John Marino last week who said that "at some point, you've to play a full 60-minute game," regarding the Penguins' effort.
That was Saturday, after the Penguins' 6-3 loss to the Capitals.
The Penguins didn't put together a 60-minute effort on Long Island on Tuesday. The Islanders were the better team through the first 20 minutes.
The Penguins were the better team for the final 45, though. After twice overcoming deficits to force overtime, despite losing both Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues to non-COVID illnesses mid-game, the Penguins managed to come away from Tuesday's game with a point in the standings in a 5-4 shootout loss.
"We battled back a few times, and that says a lot," Chad Ruhwedel said. "Obviously, we'd like to get that extra point, but we we fought hard. We had a short bench there in the third, the effort was there for sure."
The Penguins got off to a good start. After Rust exited the game with a non-COVID illness after a sluggish two shifts, the top line still managed to open the scoring, with Jake Guentzel knocking in a loose puck to open the scoring.
Things quickly spiraled to finish the opening frame, and it felt like all of the Penguins' mistakes were proving to be costly.
The Islanders first tied the game during a brief power play, with an odd-man rush leading to a Zach Parise goal:
When the Penguins got a power play of their own later in the period, a Rickard Rakell turnover quickly turned into a Parise shorthanded goal:
Josh Bailey extended the Islanders' lead to 3-1 off of a setup from ... Teddy Blueger:
"It seems like when we do break down, it results in a glorious scoring chance," Mike Sullivan said. "And I think that's what we've got to try to chip out of our game."
Sullivan said that the Penguins' problems in the first period boiled down to just the details of the game,
Kasperi Kapanen said the message in the locker room at that first intermission was to "clean up our game."
"We started off strong, and then I think we were just making mistakes, and we handed them a couple easy ones," Kapanen said. "I feel like we've been making unnecessary mistakes as of late."
Playing a tighter game was all the more important after Rodrigues left the game with a non-COVID illness in the second period, leaving the Penguins with just 10 available forwards. While that meant that some forwards were going to be playing some bigger minutes as a result, it affected the entire lineup. The defensemen had to do their part to make things easier for the remaining forwards.
"Just managing the puck," Ruhwedel said of how the defenseman eased that burden for the forwards. "Getting it up, getting it in their end, not getting hemmed in our D zone, so being shorthanded at forward they don't have to spend too much time in our D zone."
Danton Heinen cut the Islanders' lead to one goal off of a great feed from Kapanen, then Guentzel's second of the game tied things up.
Bailey briefly regained the Islanders' lead in the third period after a tough bounce went the Islanders' way. The Islanders dumped the puck into the Penguins' end, and the puck took a bounce in the corner right onto Bailey's stick. The Penguins quickly responded with a power play goal from Jeff Carter, a goal that would eventually force overtime.
"I thought the team played really well in the second period, we get back in the game," Sullivan said. "They got a fortuitous bounce on their fourth goal. But I love the fight in our team, we get a power play that gets us back in the game. ... I thought the first period was our worst. I thought we got better as the game went on."
Though the Penguins fell in the shootout and failed to capture a second point in the standings, their ability to respond after a tough first period despite missing two forwards was a positive takeaway from this game. And that means a whole lot more going into the playoffs than the Penguins' ability to close out a shootout does.
"We have great leadership in there," Ruhwedel said. "Sure, some of the games haven't gone our way over the last little while, but we've got a lot of character in that room. And that's going to get us through any of this stuff."
"We know we're a really good team and just haven't been getting the results," Kapanen said. "We haven't been playing as well as we should be.I think the Predators game was a step in the right direction, and today too. A lot of good and some bad. We're just going to have to learn from that and thankfully we get to play these guys on Thursday."
GETTY
Brock McGinn and Andy Greene on Tuesday in Elmont, N.Y.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins had the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot in this one had they won in regulation. Because they got one point out of it, the magic number is down to three, and they now can clinch Thursday with a regulation or overtime win.
• The Penguins are now 3-7 in shootouts, the fifth-worst shootout win percentage in the league. Seven shootout losses is the most they've ever lost in one season as a franchise. The three shooters tonight were Guentzel (now 1 for 9 on the season), Sidney Crosby (1 for 6 on the season) and Kris Letang (1 for 9 on the season):
Would it have made sense to maybe give Rakell a shot? Probably. He's 13-17 in his career in shootouts, for a 43.3 percent success rate. Is the Penguins shootout record cause for concern in the slightest? Not really. It's mid-April. There are no shootouts in the playoffs. They might not have another one all season. This one point isn't going to make or break the season, they aren't in danger of not clinching. They practice shootouts occasionally in practice, usually between drills on some days. If they were doing anything more than that in terms of shootout practice at this point in the season then that would be cause for concern, because it'd largely be a waste of time.
• This was the second time DeSmith started in consecutive games all season. The previous set was a win over San Jose on Jan. 2 in which he stopped 22 of 27 shots. He started three days later against St. Louis and got yanked in the second period after allowing three goals on 16 shots. Things went much better for him tonight, stopping 33 of 37 shots and stopping two of three in the shootout.
"I thought he was outstanding," Ruhwedel said of DeSmith. "I know it was a 5-4 game, but he was incredible. Some of the goals that we gave up I can't really can't blame him at all. He made some huge saves, some highlight-reel saves again for us. He was huge in us getting that point."
"Oh, he's unbelievable," Kapanen added. "Casey kept us in it and made some big time saves, especially on the power play. That's not his first time doing that, too. So he's been unbelievable for us, and especially today."
• Brock McGinn made his return after a month-long absence from his wrist injury. He played 16:01 and recorded two hits, one blocked shot, one giveaway, and one minor penalty.
• When Rust exited the game, it was Rakell who was elevated to the top line in his absence, a logical choice given that Rakell and Crosby factored into three goals in a matter of two minutes and a couple of seconds last game against the Predators. In their first shift together in this game, they teamed up for Guentzel's goal, with Rakell and Crosby getting the assists:
Rakell again had the primary assist on Guentzel's second-period goal:
"I thought they were really good," Sullivan said of that line. "You know, it's something we've been talking about for a while. I thought they were really good, Jake gets a couple of goals. That line was a threat all night."
Guentzel called Rakell a "tremendous player."
"It's been good so far, and you just try and build off of that," Guentzel said of playing with Rakell. "Just a really good hockey player that likes to play at a fast pace, and just really skilled. It's been fun so far."
• When just Rust was out, the top power play unit was Letang, Crosby, Guentzel, Rakell and Rodrigues. When Rodrigues also went down, it was Carter who was elevated to the top unit before promptly scoring the redirect goal early in the third period to eventually force overtime:
• Guentzel led with seven shots. Jason Zucker was right behind with six.
• Things get tricky if Rust, Rodrigues, or any other potential sick forwards aren't ready to play Thursday. With Evgeni Malkin suspended, the Penguins have no extra forwards. And after activating McGinn from LTIR, the Penguins have just over $11,000 in cap space. That's not enough to call anyone up, and emergency recalls do count toward the cap. The only way the Penguins would be able to use the emergency recall exemption (so a player with a cap hit up to $1 million can come up without counting toward the cap) would be if they first play a game with fewer than 20 players. If the absence is due to COVID and the team doesn't have 12 healthy forwards or six healthy defensemen, then they don't have to play that game short first.
"We've got some sort of a bug that's going through our team," Sullivan said. "Guys are trying to play through it. (Rust and Rodrigues) tried, but they couldn't finish the game."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at UBS Arena:
1. Ilya Sorokin, Islanders G
2. Josh Bailey, Islanders LW
3. Jake Guentzel, Penguins LW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Nathan Beaulieu, defenseman, was injured before he was acquired from the Jets at the trade deadline and is expected to remain sidelined for at least the remainder of the regular season. He resumed skating in Cranberry this week.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Jeff Carter - Rickard Rakell
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Evan Rodrigues
Danton Heinen - Brian Boyle - Kasperi Kapanen
Mike Matheson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - John Marino
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
And for Barry Trotz's Islanders
Anders Lee - Brock Nelson - Anthony Beauvillier
Josh Bailey - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Kyle Palmieri
Zach Parise - Mathew Barzal - Oliver Wahlstrom
Matt Martin - Case Cizikas - Ross Johnston
Zdeno Chara - Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock
Andy Greene - Grant Hutton
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have a scheduled day off on Wednesday. They'll play the Islanders at home on Thursday with the potential to clinch a playoff spot with a a regulation or overtime win.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
