SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Penguins' game here in South Florida on Saturday night had "loss" written all over it from the beginning.
The first 10 minutes were pretty sloppy and low-event, with neither team able to get much of anything as far as clean zone entires or scoring opportunities.
The Panthers snatched control of momentum midway through the first period, and the one-goal lead at first intermission didn't quite reflect how much the Penguins were dominated in that stretch. They were able to build on that lead over the next 40 minutes, and sent them back home with a 4-1 loss, ending a four-game winning streak.
The first intermission came at a merciful time -- it didn't totally stop the bleeding, but it at least stopped the total hemorrhaging as far as the scoring chances went. Through the first 20 minutes, the Penguins recorded just eight unblocked shot attempts to the Panthers' 14 and were outshot by the Panthers 3-13. The stat "expected goals," which takes into account the quantity and quality of shot attempts, factoring in how likely the type, distance, angle, and other qualities impact the shot's likelihood of becoming a goal, was heavily slanted in the Panthers' favor. The Panthers had 1.19 expected goals, the Penguins had .27. The only shot that found the back of either net was when Casey DeSmith made the save on Florida's Carter Verhaeghe, then Sam Bennett gathered and buried the rebound.
"They were the more urgent team early on," Jeff Petry said afterward. "For us, it's trying to match that. Coming down the stretch here we need to go into games, set the tone of the game, force teams to defend the style of game that we want rather than chasing it. That's what we had to do early on."
Slow starts like this aren't a new problem this season. It's a problem that shouldn't pop up as frequently as it does, given the number of veterans on this team. I asked Petry -- What even leads to these kind of starts? Fatigue? A mentality?
"I don't think it's fatigue or anything like that," he said. "I just think it's our mindset going into it. We have to realize the situation that we're in, and that every game matters. I thought that for the last handful of games we've played more sound, more structured. Tonight was a step back. We have to learn from it and be ready for Tuesday."
Aaron Ekblad put the Panthers up 2-0 with a power-play snipe from the left circle. Kris Letang got the Penguins on the board midway through the second period with a five-on-three goal,a nd it would be the only goal the Penguins scored all game. Eetu Luostarinen scored off a rebound with 10 seconds left in the second, then Carter Verhaeghe beat both Letang and DeSmith on his way to the Panthers' fourth goal.
Petry was right to call it a "step back" after an encouraging last four games by this team. Evgeni Malkin said that it was "hard to say" why things turned out the way they did.
"We need to play better," Malkin said. "The first period, I have a moment where (Rickard Rakell) passed to me with an open net, I missed the net. If we score, maybe that changes momentum. They played a little bit harder, they played better for sure. We need to go back home and start the winning streak again. We have a great team, we traded a couple of guys, but I think this team can win against any team. It's a tough loss, but if we play better we win for sure. The last five games we played better and better. We need to go back home and start again."
The loss put the Penguins back in the second wild card spot with 71 points in 62 games. They were leapfrogged by the Islanders, who won on Saturday night and now have 72 points in 65 games.
The Penguins have seemingly got back on track as of late, and made a number of changes over the last few days to improve their bottom six. This game was a big dud from the start, and the challenge will be making sure that things turn around again quickly, and not let this slip into another losing streak. Mike Sullivan sounded pretty confident that things won't snowball this time.
"We like to think we've learned through the experiences," Sullivan said. "The stakes get higher with every game that that we get under our belt. By nature of having less games, they take on more meaning. So we're in a fight here to make the playoffs, and every game is going to be a high-stakes game. We got to bring the urgency, we got to bring the attention to detail more consistently. I just didn't think we had it tonight."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Tristan Jarry was initially scheduled to start in this game but he didn't after he woke up feeling ill. He did dress as backup to DeSmith.
• DeSmith was fine, with 38 saves on 42 shots. His best save of the night was perhaps a sliding save on Aleksander Barkov toward the end of the second period. The problem was that it was immediately followed up by Luostarinen capitalizing off the rebound.
• Letang scored the Penguins' lone goal in the second period when he picked up a rebound on Malkin's shot on a 5-on-3 power play:
• The Penguins went 1-for-5 on the power play, with Letang's goal on the two-man-advantage being the only power play goal. The power play's been in a funk for awhile now, and I asked Malkin what needs to happen to get it back on track.
"We try, you know? But it's not easy," Malkin said. "It's a good point, we have lots of chances, I have chances, it's an open net. Just score and help the team to win, you know? We need to play a little bit better, help the team to win. But we work every day, every practice. I hope we'll be better soon."
Sullivan said that the power play seems to be a microcosm of the Penguins' overall game.
"I thought they had their moments when they had some pretty good looks," he said. "The 5-on-3 goal, obviously, it was a real nice goal. They had a couple of high-quality chances that they didn't finish on. Then were a couple of them where we just didn't execute. But for me, it was a probably a microcosm of the overall game."
• Newly-acquired forward Nick Bonino got into the lineup after being traded from the Sharks on Friday. He centered the Penguins' fourth line, which then shifted Drew O'Connor over from center to wing -- ideal, given how many times Sullivan has expressed a preference for playing O'Connor on the wing instead of center. That line, completed with Josh Archibald, saw just 2:16 in which they were out there as a trio, mostly due to the number of penalties called shuffling the combinations that followed at five-on-five. They didn't allow any unblocked shot attempts in that 2:!6 and registered one. Bonino played 6:57 total at five-on-five, and shots were 3-3, unblocked shot attempts were 4-7 in that span.
"I thought he was good, he was fine," Sullivan said of Bonino's play. "I know he's going to help us on the penalty-kill. He's a conscientious player. Not an easy circumstance, flying coast-to-coast, getting in late and having to play tonight. But I thought under those circumstances he played pretty hard."
Malkin is happy to have Bonino back.
"We know this guy, you know? He's an amazing person," Malkin said. "It's tough to play against him, he's a good teammate, a PK guy, faceoffs, he can do everything. I hope he brings two more Cups for us."
• Both Bonino and Mikael Granlund saw significant penalty-kill time -- Bonino led all Penguins forwards with 4:36, and Granlund was third (behind Bryan Rust) with 4:05. Though Sullivan said Thursday that the plan was to get Granlund into a power play unit eventually, that didn't happen yet in this one.
• A little bit of chaos midway through the third period when Jason Zucker had a rush up ice and collided with Sergei Bobrovsky when Bobrovsky came out to play the puck, knocking Bobrovsky's helmet off. Bobrovsky stood up for himself and tackled Zucker in the corner. I covered it all in Freeze Frame.
• Congratulations to Malkin, who tied Kevin Stevens for the most penalty minutes in Penguins franchise history with 1,048 when he took a hook in the second period. Truly an historic moment in franchise history, we'll all remember where we were when it happened.
• Newly-acquired defenseman Dmitry Kulikov didn't play in this one. With his trade from Anaheim going through later in the day on Friday, it logistically wasn't possible to get him here in time, so he's meeting the team in Pittsburgh. I asked Sullivan before the game what he knows about Kulikov as a player.
"He's a veteran guy that's pretty trustworthy, reliable defensively," Sullivan said. "He was playing a fair amount in Anaheim against other teams' top players. The competition that he faced night-in and night out was steep. He's another guy that I think can help us on the penalty-kill also. I think that's a strength of his game. We're excited to get him into the lineup."
• Oh, and the team's website listed Kulikov as No. 29 because that was his number in Anaheim, but that wasn't ever official -- he hadn't picked his number yet. On Saturday he decided to switch to No. 7. Everyone can relax now.
• Elsewhere, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had its AHL Outdoor Classic game in Cleveland. The game was originally set to be a 1 p.m. start and players took warmups as scheduled then the game was pushed back to 6 p.m. after warmups due to the sun glare. Wilkes-Barre lost the game in overtime, 3-2. Defense prospect Peter DiLiberatore, acquired in the Teddy Blueger trade from Vegas and making his Wilkes-Barre debut, opened the scoring. Raivis Ansons scored his second professional goal. Both of his goals this season have come shorthanded.
• Pretty good press box snacks -- various candies and chips, chicken tenders and mini hot dogs. Most places don't give you "real" food like that. Solid A.
Folks, chicken tenders and baby hot dogs in the press box. pic.twitter.com/y0bCwmOEkc
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) March 4, 2023
THE ESSENTIALS
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at FLA Live Arena:
1. Sergei Bobrovsky, Panthers G
2. Aleksander Barkov, Panthers C
3. Aaron Ekblad, Panthers D
THE INJURIES
• Forward Ryan Poehling has been sidelined since Feb. 11 same nagging upper-body injury that he's been dealing with off and on since December 1. He didn't practice on Friday but he did come out toward the end to skate on his own.
• Goaltender Tristan Jarry was supposed to start in this game but was sick. He did feel good enough to back up.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Jeff Carter - Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor - Nick Bonino - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
And for Paul Maurice's Panthers:
Eetu Luostarinen - Aleksander Barkov - Anthony Duclair
Carter Verhaeghe - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg - Anton Lundell - Sam Reinhart
Nick Cousins - Eric Staal - Colin White
Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal - Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura - Radko Gudas
THE SCHEDULE
That's a wrap for this road trip. The Penguins have a scheduled off day on Sunday and will be back to work on Monday for an 11 a.m. practice in Cranberry. Next game is at home against the Blue Jackets at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.