Confident Penguins still feel they can reach ‘another level'

The NHL's holiday break provides a brief, welcome respite from the grind of an 82-game regular season.

Ideally, a team would be able to head into the break with a win as the last thing they did, and carry that good feeling through Christmas.

The Penguins fell just short of that Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, ending up on the wrong side of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Hurricanes.

The mood in the locker room afterward was understandably sour after the Penguins twice squandered leads in the game and then gave away the extra overtime point in a matter of 23 seconds. Despite the disappointing finish, there's a lot to like about the way the Penguins are playing as the team enters the break, and some of those elements were on display in Thursday's loss.

It feels like it's beating the point into the ground at this point, but it still can't be overstated how great both special teams groups continue to be. 

The power play's resurgence started right around the beginning of the month, coincidentally when Rickard Rakell was elevated to the top unit and Bryan Rust was switched to the second unit.

The Penguins have scored a goal on the man advantage in all 10 games in December. To put that in perspective, it's the longest power play goal streak the Penguins have had in nearly a decade, dating back to their 12-game goal steam in February 2013. The Penguins have gone 14-for-38 for a 36.8% success rate that ranks fourth in the league in that span, during which they've averaged 1.4 power-play goals per game.

They extended that streak on Thursday when Sidney Crosby gathered a loose puck and tucked it past Antti Raanta in the first period:

The Penguins went 1-for-3 on the man advantage against the Hurricanes, with the two power plays in which they failed to score being abbreviated ones due to overlapping with penalties of their own. They only had 2:45 of total power play time and recorded a total of five shot attempts, which they made count. They came from the scoring areas:

To call the penalty-kill's performance a hot streak feels a little disingenuous. It's not so much a streak but rather a level of play that seems here to stay.

The penalty-kill's turnaround this season coincided exactly with the Nov. 15 return of Teddy Blueger from the injury he sustained in training camp. Before Blueger made his debut the penalty kill had allowed 13 goals on 53 opportunities for a 75.5% success rate in 15 games, good enough for 24th in the league during that span. In the 18 games since he's returned the Penguins have allowed just three goals on 52 shorthanded opportunities for a 94.2% success rate, the best in the league by a whopping 10 and a half percentage points in that span.

The Penguins remained perfect on the penalty-kill in this game, going 5-for-5.

The Penguins' penalty-killers have gotten back nearly as many goals as they've allowed while shorthanded in this run they're on. They've scored twice while shorthanded since Nov. 15 (and four times all season). Brock McGinn's second-period tying tally was a shorthanded goal that came after he buried a rebound opportunity from a Blueger shot:

Rust became one of the Penguins' more frequently-used penalty-killers over the last month, a move that goes hand-in-hand with him being moved to the second power play unit. With Rust not getting the high minutes the players on the top power play unit get, he can be used more often on the penalty kill. With Rust being involved so much in both special teams groups, I asked him Thursday if he can remember a time during his tenure with the Penguins when both groups have been clicking as well as these ones have,

"Not off the top of my head," Rust said. "I think everyone's on the same page lately on both units and I think that's been good for us. I think anytime you have success it kind of just breeds confidence on special teams and I think when that happens, guys are on their toes more."

Aside from the special teams, the other big factor that can't be ignored is the play of Tristan Jarry, who stopped 32 of 36 shots in this game.

Jarry hasn't lost a game in regulation in nearly two months, with his last regulation loss coming on Nov. 5 in Seattle during a time when he was working through minor physical issues that were impacting his play. Since that game he's gone on a 14-game point streak (11-0-3), a career-long run for him. The only goaltender in Penguins franchise history to record a longer point streak is Tom Barrasso, who had a 15-game run in the 1992-93 season.

Jarry has recorded a 2.26 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage over these last 14 games. His calmness is contagious. He's always been a pretty even-keel goalie, but we might even be seeing growth from him there. In previous seasons when he got scored on within the first two minutes of the game, it often spelled disaster for the rest of his night. Now, it seems like he's even more locked in after those early goals, as I wrote about last game.

Asked how he's feeling about his own game heading into the holiday break, he offered as Jarry-like of an answer as ever.

"Good."

The Penguins currently sit No. 3 in the Metropolitan Division, three points back of the Devils for second place and five points back of the Hurricanes for the top spot. Their record in their last 10 games of 8-1-1 is the second-best 10-game stretch in the league right now, behind only the Hurricanes. There's a lot to like in the Penguins' recent games, but they know there's still room for improvement.

"Obviously we've done some really good things as of late, but there's always areas to clean up and try and get better," Rust said. "Tonight was a good example."

Mike Sullivan was asked his feelings of the team's status heading into the holiday break. He offered high praise -- but feels like there's still a way for this group to get to an even higher place.

"I love this group," he said. "They're great people. They're great players. We've got a really good team. We've won a lot of games as of late, but our expectations are high. So I think there's another level to this group. We're right in the mix right now, but there's a lot of hockey left and we've got to push to get to the next level. But I can't say enough about this group of players. I just think they're terrific and I love coming to work with them every day."

The Penguins will take these next few days to relax and recharge before resuming the season next Tuesday in Elmont, N.Y. against the Islanders.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• The Penguins took a 1-0 lead from Crosby's power play goal late in the first period, but the Hurricanes got goals from both Martin Necas and Jalen Chatfield within 32 seconds to take a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

"I don't think we relaxed," Sullivan said of allowing two quick response goals by Carolina. "I don't know that I have an explanation for it."

• McGinn's shorthanded goal was the lone goal of the middle frame and tied the game. It was McGinn's second shorthanded goal of the year, making him only one of 10 players in the league this season with multiple shorthanded goals. The goal was also the Penguins' fourth shorthanded goal, putting the team in a tie with nine other teams for the third-most shorthanded goals in the league. The other two shorthanded goals this season came from Kris Letang and Ryan Poehling.

• Rust scored quite the highlight-reel goal in the third period to put the Penguins up 3-2. It was the subject of Danny Shirey's Freeze Frame.

• Jordan Staal scored the tying goal for the Hurricanes on a wraparound less than three minutes later. This was Staal's 30th career game against the Penguins since being traded to Carolina in 2012, and he now has six goals and nine assists against his former team.

• Malkin took full blame for Jaccob Slavin's overtime winner just 23 seconds into the extra frame. Danny has more on that whole sequence.

• The Penguins are now 1-5 in games that end in overtime (not including shootouts) this season. That's obviously not good enough. Those are five squandered points that could come back to bite them when things come down to the wire at the end of the season.

"I think we can be better in overtime," Sullivan said. "That's an important element. I don't think our overtime performance to this point in the season has been nearly what it needs to be. We're leaving points on the table because of it. We've got to get better there."

• The number of blocked shots was tilted heavily in the Penguins' favor at 26-7. That was largely made possible by the big disparity in shot attempts -- the Hurricanes controlled 61.79% of all attempt, registering 76 to the Penguins' 47. The bright side is that the Penguins were actually just blocking more shots relatively speaking and were able to neutralize that threat somewhat. The Hurricanes controlled 55.56% of all unblocked shot attempts, recording 50 to the Penguins' 40.

• The Penguins are now 0-1-2 against the Hurricanes this season, with Sunday's 3-2 regulation loss making all three losses one-goal games.

"I just think it's two good teams competing hard," Sullivan said of those losses. :You know, there's a fine line between winning and losing. All of those games could have gone either way. They didn't go our way."

Blueger called the Hurricanes a team that's "hard to play against."

"They pressure a lot and they're on you," Blueger said. "It's kind of an ugly brand of hockey. It's been tough for us to create chances. When we get caught out there in the defensive zone for a while, that's been tough, too. So we probably haven't done the best job of defending there. It's a combination of both of those."

The Penguins head to Raleigh, N.C. for one final meeting this regular season on Jan. 14. 

• Drew O'Connor played in his fourth game of the season and first since Nov. 5. He played a team-low 4:19 and recorded two hits, two blocked shots and one minor penalty while playing on the fourth line with Blueger and Danton Heinen. It's not that he was benched for his play, but more so just the circumstances of the game. He and the fourth line took four regular shifts at even strength in the first period, then with eight total minor penalties being handed out over the course of the second period the fourth line only had one even-strength shift. Then with the game being tied and as tight as it was for most of the third period, the fourth line again took just one shift.

• Jason Zucker led the team with seven hits.

• McGinn drew his 14th penalty this season, tying him with Josh Archibald for the team lead.

• Jeff Carter became the 10th active player to play in 1,200 games on Thursday. He's the eighth member of the 2003 draft class to hit the milestone.

• Malkin went scoreless, ending his point streak at nine games. He recorded three goals and 10 assists during the streak. He remains at 1,179 career points, tied with Sergei Fedorov for the second-most all-time among Russian-born players. 

• The loss ended a six-game winning streak in home games for the Penguins, which is tied for the third-longest home win streak of any team this season. Since the game at least went to overtime it extended their home point streak to eight games (6-0-2). 

• The Penguins wore their diagonal "Pittsburgh" alternate jerseys for only the third time this season. They're now 1-0-2 in those.

• Paid attendance was 18,075. The building holds 18,187 for hockey, so it was just shy of a sellout.

• Letang had the high honor of being the face on Dan Potash's ugly Christmas (Krismas?) sweater this year:

• Swimmer Leah Smith, a Pittsburgh native and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, was in attendance:

• The Penguins held a moment of silence for Franco Harris prior to the game and wore No. 32 stickers on their helmets in his memory"

PENGUINS

Kris Letang wears a No. 32 sticker on his helmet in memory of Franco Harris on Thursday,

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Jaccob Slavin, Hurricanes D
2. Jordan Staal, Hurricanes C
3. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW

THE INJURIES

• Forward Josh Archibald missed his second game with an undisclosed lower-body injury sustained Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.. Sullivan said after the morning skate that he continues to be evaluated.

• Forward Ryan Poehling missed his first game with an undisclosed upper-body injury for which he is still being evaluated. He left the Penguins' game on Tuesday midway though the third period. I rewatched his last shift in that game and it's not clear how he may have been injured or what the injury is.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Danton Heinen

Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Jan Rutta
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes:

Andrei Svechnikov - Paul Stastny - Martin Necas
Teuvo Teravainen - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Seth Jarvis
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Stefan Noesen - Jack Drury - Derek Stepan

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Dylan Coghlan - Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan - Jalen Chatfield

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins' holiday break is underway. Their next time on the ice will be for a morning skate in Elmont, N.Y. ahead of their 7:38 p.m. matchup with the Islanders on Dec. 27. I'll be making that road trip.

THE CONTENT

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