The most puzzling part about the Penguins' current six-game losing streak is that -- outside of their 5-1 loss in Vancouver last Friday -- the Penguins have shown flashes of excellence each time out.
The problem, though, as it's seemingly been for some time, is a failure to put together a complete 60-minute effort. Sometimes they don't emerge strong. They've really had trouble closing out games and hanging onto leads. Sometimes they completely unplug for 25 minutes at a time. And even when they're not mired in those lulls, the attention to detail and effort are lacking at the absolute worst possible times.
Following a 6-3 comeback victory in Columbus on Oct. 22, the Penguins' plus-15 goal differential ranked No. 1 in the NHL, and they had secured nine of a possible 10 standings points. Since then, their current goal differential has fallen to minus-1 -- tied for 18th in the league -- and they have picked up just one point in the standings.
Multiple-goal lead in the third period? Definitely a good idea to throw a no-look pass to the middle of the ice in the offensive zone after doing such a great job of wearing the opposition down with the grind game for several minutes.
Suddenly a tie game? Surely whacking at loose pucks all over the defensive zone and not using your feet to take advantage of open ice is a great way to take back control.
Puck support? As if to say the player with the puck can't actually go 1-on-5 the distance of the ice and score?
The Penguins' current performance -- and this isn't limited to any line or defense pairing -- is littered with mind-numbing habits that are completely wiping away the positives.
Before things went completely off the rails in Wednesday's 6-3 loss in Buffalo, the Penguins took a 2-0 late into the second period. Mostly, they had done a good job of minimizing self-inflicted wounds. That didn't last, of course:
Still looking for their first goal of the game, the Sabres rushed into the Penguins' end but quickly had their attack stymied. The puck plopped right to Brian Dumoulin in the middle of the ice, and he ... promptly threw the puck away off the boards, right back into the hands of the Sabres for an easy regroup.
Throwing pucks away has been a massive problem for Dumoulin all season, and he's not doing himself any favors by throwing pucks away when he has time and space to make a better play than simply relinquishing possession. He's not the only culprit on the roster of doing this, but it's an issue that is frequently felt due to his still heavy usage.
After the Sabres regained the zone, Jeff Petry had an opportunity to identify an outlet or -- get this -- skate the puck a bit, but he opted for the tried and true weak clear toward the middle of the ice, resulting in more zone-time for the Sabres. Just seconds later, Dumoulin made an extremely poor attempt to win the race to the puck in the loose corner. Not only did he slow up before losing the race, but he didn't even try and get his stick in the way of a pass until it was already too late.
Bryan Rust was then able to clear the zone by diving after the puck, but the Penguins had no one else pursuing the puck as they left the middle of the ice wide-open for the Sabres to storm back up the gut:
Defenders backing off, forwards standing around, that's just making it way too easy for the opposition. The Penguins did a nice job of keeping the Sabres to the perimeter after a backhand shot off the zone entry, then Guentzel swooped in on the puck in the corner. Not under any immediate pressure, Guentzel tried to chip a puck up the wall to Sidney Crosby instead of finding a way to maintain possession or make a higher-percentage play. The Sabres stepped up and extended their zone-time once again.
It's hockey, these things are going to happen, but they cannot happen with such regularity, especially late in the period. The Penguins are beating themselves. There's no other way to put it.
Crosby was then able to jump on another loose puck, but Petry's nonexistent support as an outlet -- or at least not until it was too late -- meant the Sabres would spend even more time on the attack. They inevitably scored to cut the Penguins' lead in half:
Leading up to the goal we saw the Penguins get outworked in every facet. They lost puck battles, they weren't skating with any purpose. Petry's laissez-faire step toward the goal-scorer was just the cherry on top.
And every last bit of that mess was all from the same sequence.
To varying degrees, there was more of the same from the Penguins in the third period despite Guentzel potting a goal just a few seconds in. Before long the Sabres had took a 4-3 lead.
It was as close to a must-win game in early November as you could get, but with fewer than 10 minutes remaining to put another on the board, the Penguins weren't even working hard enough at the right times to establish their own presence in the offensive zone:
I typically stray away from nitpicking plays like this, but how does this happen considering the circumstances? Neither Evgeni Malkin nor Jason Zucker adequately presented themselves to Jan Rutta as an option as he battled for the puck until Zucker finally decided to just get involved in the battle himself. What's even more concerning here is that the Sabres had several skaters above the puck and would have been off to the races with a fortuitous bounce because there wasn't any back pressure to speak of.
Five losses in a row. Need a goal. And that's not remotely close to good enough.
That was the case against the Bruins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday, as well. At one point the Penguins had a 5-2 lead. It shrunk to 5-4 late in the third period, but the Penguins insisted on making life difficult for themselves, essentially inviting the Bruins to tie the game if they so pleased.
Just take a look at the manner in which Rust attempted to receive this exit pass:
Crosby made a phenomenal play on Brad Marchand to seal him off along the wall as Crosby grabbed possession and skated into open ice. Crosby identified Rust streaking up the opposite side of the ice and sent a pass that was off the mark, but well within the range of Rust being able to cleanly receive it. But in perfect Penguins fashion, Rust tried to kick the puck up to his blade with his skate, continuing his straight-ahead stride.
It didn't work. The Bruins retrieved the puck, then proceeded to dice up the Penguins in transition on their way to a dangerous chance off the rush.
What reason, exactly, did Rust have to go for the skillful play there? You have a one-goal lead, late. You haven't won in what feels like forever. There is absolutely something to be said for maintaining a lead by continuing to apply pressure, but that's not what this looks like. It would have taken slightly more effort -- but would've made all the difference in the world -- if Rust had simply gone heel-to-heel and opened up to receive the pass.
Not even a minute later the Penguins were making the Bruins actually work a little bit, right up until Zucker had room to operate, but decided to backhand the puck directly to a Boston defender on the close side of the neutral zone:
The Penguins' puck management has been horrendous. Their decision-making has been just as poor. They aren't playing heads-up hockey, and they certainly aren't playing smart hockey when they need to be.
This team is a far cry from the 2016-17 team that could nearly guarantee a victory after taking a lead into the third period.
While I don't blame the Penguins' best players for this skid, it is concerning that many of the players who are highlighted in these clips have prevalent roles. They are the ones who need to be relied on in these key situations, but they aren't taking care of business right now.
The good news, though, is that much of this can be cleaned up. We know this because we see them "play the right way" for a period here, two-thirds of the game there. It's attainable, we just aren't seeing it when it needs to happen, and we most definitely aren't seeing it consistently enough.