PENGUINS

Bad calls don't totally excuse the Penguins' 4-0 loss to the Senators on Thursday night in Ottawa. They deserve enough blame themselves, too. 

Bad calls don't excuse not being able to score a single goal. They don't excuse only mustering up 12 shots on goal through two periods.

But man, if the Penguins didn't get screwed by some calls in pivotal moments, too.

It took all of 78 seconds for the Penguins to take the game's first penalty, and it was a bizarre call to make, especially that early in the game. Tim Stutzle skated through Arturs Silovs' crease, collided with Silovs and fell ... somehow eliciting a tripping penalty on Silovs:

TSN

Brady Tkachuk promptly scored on the ensuing Senators power play, proving the tripping call to be costly.

"I was really surprised," Silovs said of the call. "I don't know what they saw there. It was a soft call, I think, from them."

Collisions like that aren't uncommon. Silovs didn't do anything egregious that would warrant the tripping call. Asked if Silovs has ever gotten a tripping penalty like that, he said, "Not unless I actually take the guy down. But he just comes in the goalie crease, so I don't know where the call came from."

Dan Muse said early in the season that he wouldn't comment on officiating, a policy he'd held to before this, even when the Penguins have clearly been on the wrong end of some tough calls. But he spoke up after this one.

"I haven't seen that before," Muse said after a long pause when asked about the call. "I haven't. It haven't seen it before. It had an impact."

A bounce off David Perron's leg and an unscreened wrist shot from Claude Giroux in the second period put the Senators ahead, 3-0. 

A Kris Letang point shot late in the period beat Linus Ullmark, but the goal was immediately waived off for goaltender interference, on account of Rickard Rakell grazing Ullmark:

SportsNet Pittsburgh

The Penguins' booth in the press box immediately called down to the bench to challenge the goal, even though to overturn the call on the ice they would have needed conclusive evidence that there was no goaltender interference. It seemed like they had it.

Based on this still shot just after the goal went in, it surely seemed as if they had that. The puck is in the back of the net. Rakell is in the white paint. That's Jake Sanderson's stick touching his own goaltender, not Rakell's stick. Sanderson is backing into Rakell, and Rakell is only just starting to make contact with Ullmark by the time the puck is in the back of the net:

SportsNet Pittsburgh

And yet ... no goal.

"I felt like I'm trying to get in front of the goalie," Rakell told me of his viewpoint. "I mean, I didn't try to get close to him. It was a battle for the ice there in front. ... I'm trying to stay outside the crease. I don't know if the contact was outside the crease or inside the crease. I thought it was a battle between me and the defenseman."

Rakell said he never heard an explanation as to why that was goaltender interference.

"Based on what I saw," Muse said, "I thought Raks started outside the blue paint. He gets pushed in toward the end, but even there, I didn't see it the way they did."

I asked Muse if he got an explanation.

"They disagreed with me," he said. "There's not much else. I spoke with them, they said what they thought. They thought it was goaltender interference. I didn't. So, that's it. I would challenge it again."

The NHL offers public statements for each coach's challenge, and of this one, the league said "video review confirmed Rickard Rakell impaired Linus Ullmark’s ability to play his position in the crease."

If those two calls don't happen, maybe things turn out differently. If Silovs doesn't get hit with the odd tripping call, the Penguins don't start the game in a hole. Or if Letang's goal in the second period counted, then maybe it gives the Penguins more life and momentum heading into the third.

Of course, one can't say that it would have absolutely resulted in a win, but it would have absolutely given them a better chance.

In the same vein, though, the Penguins still could have managed to overcome the adversity and pull out a win. Neither of these calls were insurmountable. If they're going to break out of the seven-game skid, they need to learn how to handle swings like this.