Penguins do 'enough to win,' but not enough to finish
GETTY
The Islanders' Bo Horvat celebrates his overtime goal Tuesday night in Elmont, N.Y.
"We did enough to win," Sidney Crosby told me after the Penguins' 5-4 overtime loss to the Islanders tonight here at UBS Arena. "We've just got to find a way to close it out."
He wasn’t wrong.
For stretches, the Penguins looked nothing like the team that sleepwalked through Monday’s loss to the Senators. They were faster, with more energy from the start. But much of what the Penguins did well in this game was followed by something that undercut it, and prevented them from pulling out a win.
Anthony Mantha struck first, capitalizing after a strong shift from Justin Brazeau that saw him fending off an Islanders defenseman with one hand and finding Mantha with a pass with his free arm. That gave the Penguins momentum and set the tone for the next 18 minutes. Then, in the final two, structure unraveled. Bo Horvat and Matthew Schaefer scored in quick succession,
They had a great response in the second period, getting goals from Egor Chinakhov and Bryan Rust while holding the Islanders to five shots on goal. And yet, there were missed opportunities to widen the gap. Instead of keeping things simple and taking advantage of opportunities to shoot, they were guilty of over-passing at times.
In the third, Mathew Barzal found space for a one-timer that tied the game, but Justin Brazeau answered quickly, redirecting a Brett Kulak point shot to restore the lead. Again, the Penguins had a lead. But again, they couldn’t make it stand. Ryan Pulock’s late goal slipped past Stuart Skinner's glove and forced overtime.
Then ... this happens on the Islanders' first shot of the extra frame:
Kulak's shot gets picked off by Matthew Schaeffer, and Bo Horvat gets a breakaway the other way and beats Skinner easily. It was only 52 seconds into the extra frame, and the lone shot of overtime.
Skinner finished the night with 18 saves on 23 shots, his worst showing in a losing effort since his Penguins debut back in December.
"The guys deserved a lot better," Skinner said. "Especially how they worked, they always kept the lead. I definitely needed to be better for this group."
The Penguins needed more out of Skinner, for sure. But he needed some more from the team in front of him at times, too -- Ryan Shea twice failed to clear rebound attempts just before the Islanders' first tying goal. When Barzal tied the game in the third period Skinner was screened by Ilya Solovyov, a goal that Skinner said he felt like he could have stopped had he seen it. And on the overtime winner, a poor shot attempt from Kulak turned into a breakaway the other way.
This wasn’t a lifeless performance like the Penguins had the night before. It wasn’t a game where effort was lacking. In some ways, it was a bounce back performance. But in a playoff race where the margins are still so thin, moral victories don’t count for much in the standings.
By securing the extra point, the Islanders pulled within a single point of the Penguins, though the Penguins still have two games in hand. The Penguins know they can’t afford nights where strong stretches get undone by small lapses.
The mood in the locker room afterward reflected that. There wasn't any solace in the hard-fought point, there wasn't any satisfaction in putting forth a better showing than they did the night before. There was only frustration in letting the game slip away.
"We come out of it feeling like we should have closed it out," Crosby said. "We got a couple leads in the third and didn't close it out. So whether that's getting a big play or getting a second goal to go up by two instead of only being up one, there's different ways to close out games. We didn't do a good job of that."
THE ASYLUM
Penguins do 'enough to win,' but not enough to finish
GETTY
The Islanders' Bo Horvat celebrates his overtime goal Tuesday night in Elmont, N.Y.
"We did enough to win," Sidney Crosby told me after the Penguins' 5-4 overtime loss to the Islanders tonight here at UBS Arena. "We've just got to find a way to close it out."
He wasn’t wrong.
For stretches, the Penguins looked nothing like the team that sleepwalked through Monday’s loss to the Senators. They were faster, with more energy from the start. But much of what the Penguins did well in this game was followed by something that undercut it, and prevented them from pulling out a win.
Anthony Mantha struck first, capitalizing after a strong shift from Justin Brazeau that saw him fending off an Islanders defenseman with one hand and finding Mantha with a pass with his free arm. That gave the Penguins momentum and set the tone for the next 18 minutes. Then, in the final two, structure unraveled. Bo Horvat and Matthew Schaefer scored in quick succession,
They had a great response in the second period, getting goals from Egor Chinakhov and Bryan Rust while holding the Islanders to five shots on goal. And yet, there were missed opportunities to widen the gap. Instead of keeping things simple and taking advantage of opportunities to shoot, they were guilty of over-passing at times.
In the third, Mathew Barzal found space for a one-timer that tied the game, but Justin Brazeau answered quickly, redirecting a Brett Kulak point shot to restore the lead. Again, the Penguins had a lead. But again, they couldn’t make it stand. Ryan Pulock’s late goal slipped past Stuart Skinner's glove and forced overtime.
Then ... this happens on the Islanders' first shot of the extra frame:
Kulak's shot gets picked off by Matthew Schaeffer, and Bo Horvat gets a breakaway the other way and beats Skinner easily. It was only 52 seconds into the extra frame, and the lone shot of overtime.
Skinner finished the night with 18 saves on 23 shots, his worst showing in a losing effort since his Penguins debut back in December.
"The guys deserved a lot better," Skinner said. "Especially how they worked, they always kept the lead. I definitely needed to be better for this group."
The Penguins needed more out of Skinner, for sure. But he needed some more from the team in front of him at times, too -- Ryan Shea twice failed to clear rebound attempts just before the Islanders' first tying goal. When Barzal tied the game in the third period Skinner was screened by Ilya Solovyov, a goal that Skinner said he felt like he could have stopped had he seen it. And on the overtime winner, a poor shot attempt from Kulak turned into a breakaway the other way.
This wasn’t a lifeless performance like the Penguins had the night before. It wasn’t a game where effort was lacking. In some ways, it was a bounce back performance. But in a playoff race where the margins are still so thin, moral victories don’t count for much in the standings.
By securing the extra point, the Islanders pulled within a single point of the Penguins, though the Penguins still have two games in hand. The Penguins know they can’t afford nights where strong stretches get undone by small lapses.
The mood in the locker room afterward reflected that. There wasn't any solace in the hard-fought point, there wasn't any satisfaction in putting forth a better showing than they did the night before. There was only frustration in letting the game slip away.
"We come out of it feeling like we should have closed it out," Crosby said. "We got a couple leads in the third and didn't close it out. So whether that's getting a big play or getting a second goal to go up by two instead of only being up one, there's different ways to close out games. We didn't do a good job of that."
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