A 6-1 humiliation vs. Oilers ends deflating trip: 'We got outplayed'

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Penguins' four-game western road trip started on an exceptionally high note, rallying twice to beat the league-leading Canucks in overtime.

The beginning of the trip was a good start to proving to Kyle Dubas that the Penguins have the chance to be contenders this postseason. What transpired over the remainder of the trip -- culminating in a blowout 6-1 loss to the Oilers Sunday night here in Edmonton, Alberta -- showed that hope might be gone on this season after all.

The Penguins followed up that initial win in Vancouver with a narrow 2-0 loss to the Kraken in Seattle, when a hot start was erased by a bad, weird bounce the Kraken capitalized on. The third game of the trip, Saturday in Calgary, was when things started to really get bad. The Penguins blew a lead entering the third-period for the fifth time this season, squandering a two-goal lead with 'egregious mistakes' in the final 10 minutes of regulation to lose in regulation, 4-3.

What happened on Sunday was an embarrassment.

"It's tough right now," Marcus Pettersson said. "It really, really stinks right now. It's a gut-wrenching feeling."

The Penguins went down 6-0 before a late goal from Evgeni Malkin off a bad bounce from a Reilly Smith pass got the Penguins on the board and snapped backup goaltender Calvin Pickard's shutout. Even if the Penguins had managed to solve Pickard earlier, the Grade-A chances they were allowing themselves dug themselves into a deep hole.

The Oilers' lone goal in the first period was a preview of what was to transpire the rest of the game. Erik Karlsson turned the puck over in the Oilers' end, leading to a two-on-one rush with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman heading the other way, with Pettersson as the only man back. Nedeljkovic stopped McDavid, but he couldn't stop Hyman with the rebound:

It managed to get worse in the second period, with the Oilers getting a three-on-one rush against Kris Letang, ending with Corey Perry getting one past Nedeljkovic:

Hyman added to the lead later in the second when he took advantage of a bouncing puck. Ryan McLeod made it 4-0 with 1:13 left in the second period with a shot from the goal line that snuck over the shoulder of Nedeljkovic, and Cody Ceci made it 4-0 only 23 seconds later with a shot through traffic. McDavid scored the Oilers' sixth goal in the third period off of a rebound.

"Too many odd-man rushes," Letang told me of the difference in this game. "We gave them three-on-one, two-on-one a few times. When they have that much skill, eventually they'll make you pay."

Mike Sullivan was asked why the Oilers were able to get so many odd-man rushes against the Penguins and capitalize on a few.

"Well, No. 1, because they're really good at it," he said. "So you've got to give their players credit. They've got one of the most dynamic rush teams in the league, for obvious reasons, with some of the people that they have and the speed that they have. I think in certain instances, a lot of it just boils down to details and staying above people and staying above the puck. When there's a puck battle in the top half of the zone or top of the circles or the hash marks, if our defenseman are going to go down the wall to try to keep the puck alive, we need a forward to replace him and reload above on the inside. When they don't, if we don't win the puck battle, then it's obviously an odd-man rush. That happened on a couple of occasions tonight, where that just boils down to discipline and detail."

Beyond the odd-man rushes, though, what happened to make this game fall apart the way it did?

"I just think we got outplayed," Sullivan said. "We just got outplayed."

Aside from a pretty evenly-matched early part of the first period, the Penguins just looked tired. Sure, they were on the second half of a back-to-back and a long road trip, but the Oilers played the night before too on the road in Seattle. Nedeljkovic mentioned the team getting into Edmonton from Calgary at 3 or 4 a.m. as a factor -- one the Oilers didn't have to deal with since their game against the Kraken was an afternoon game. But it's hard to imagine a couple hours of sleep was the difference-maker here.

With less than a week until the March 8 trade deadline, the Penguins haven't done much to show that it's worth adding to this team at the trade deadline in any way. Even considering the injuries to Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust -- no small losses at all -- the Penguins haven't managed to show that they're capable of making the playoffs, let alone winning multiple seven-game series.

The Penguins are far from being out of things mathematically. With 62 points, they're only nine points behind the Flyers (71 points) for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division, with three games in hand. In their way of catching up to the Flyers stand the Islanders (66 points), Capitals (65 points) and Devils (64 points). None of those teams have been particularly hot lately -- all hovering around .500 in their last 10 games. Jumping them in the standings is entirely feasible, but it would take a lot. 

It's about time to punt on this season. No-movement and no-trade clauses on the roster could be prohibitive with what the Penguins are able to do over the next few days, but there are some valuable pieces that are moveable if the Penguins do go into a real sell mode. Lars Eller has no trade protection, an affordable $2.45 million cap hit and a year left after this one. He could be an appealing add for a contender in need of some bottom-six help. Given the limited number of decent goaltenders that could be on the move, the Penguins might be able to get a real haul for someone like Nedeljkovic who has an extremely team-friendly $1.5 million cap hit and no trade protection. Much like Dubas found takers over the summer for some tough contracts like those of Mikael Granlund and Jeff Petry, perhaps a deal could be worked out to free up some cap space for next season by moving out Ryan Graves (five more years at $4.5 million, 12-team no-trade) or Reilly Smith (one more year left at $5 million, 10-team no-trade), given that neither have quite lived up to those deals but have proven in the past to be better fits with different teams.

Obviously, what happens next with Guentzel is the biggest question. If Dubas does intend to turn the remainder of the season into an opportunity for a retool and try again next season, keeping Guentzel around could be advantageous. 

This road trip -- in particular this loss to the Oilers and the collapse against the Flames -- might have been enough to show Dubas that he just can't add to this team this offseason. But players aren't as focused on the impending trade deadline, and what their play on this trip may have meant for it.

"The deadline date hasn't changed," Sidney Crosby said. "We still need to get points. It's the same situation it was yesterday."

"We try not to think about that," said Pettersson. "We can't really control that. We can control what we put on the ice. It's obviously frustrating the last couple of games here -- the last three, really. We played well in Seattle. It was a trip that had a lot and it's deflating ,for sure. But we're not really think about the trade deadline. We've got to focus on what we can put on the ice."

When I asked Letang if he thinks time has run out to prove to Dubas that the team shouldn't be sellers in a few days, he said, "I don't make those decisions." But if he did ...

"I mean, I'm not gonna bet against us," Letang told me. "That's for sure. We have great players on this team. We had a tough trip. We have games in hand, and we have to make sure we win those."

The players aren't going to admit to giving up on the season, especially the still-proud core looking to make another run together. But it's not too early to say that it's just not happening this year.

The best thing to do over these next few days would be to do a retool -- not a complete tear-down -- with the goal of making a better run at things next season.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Rogers Place:

1. Zach Hyman, Oilers RW
2. Ryan McLeod, Oilers C
3. Cody Ceci, Oilers D

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Penguins: Jansen Harkins didn't play in the third period and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury. It's unclear when or how it happened.

• Oilers: None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Valtteri Puustinen
Jonathan Gruden - Lars Eller - Emil Bemstrom
Jansen Harkins - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

P.O Joseph - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Kris Knoblauch's Oilers:

Leon Draisaitl - Connor McDavid - Zach Hyman
Evander Kane - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Mattias Janmark
Warren Foegele - Ryan McLeod - Corey Perry
Dylan Holloway - Sam Gagner - Connor Brown

Mattias Ekholm - Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse - Cody Ceci
Brett Kulak - Vincent Desharnais

THE SCHEDULE

That's a wrap on the Penguins' road trip. They stayed the night in Edmonton and will fly back to Pittsburgh Monday morning. Next game Tuesday at 7:08 p.m. against the Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena.

THE FEED

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