Alex Nedeljkovic sounded exasperated after the Penguins' 6-1 loss to the Flyers tonight at the Wells Fargo Center as he spoke about his play as of late.

"Can't stop anything right now," Nedeljkovic said. "It's pretty frustrating. The guys deserve better."

Goaltending isn't the Penguins' sole problem. Better goaltending might not even have them in a playoff spot, far out as they are. And goaltending wasn't the lone reason for this single loss here. But it certainly didn't help, and it got them behind the 8-ball early.

The only real stretch in which the Penguins were clearly dominating was the first two or three minutes, and they got two chances out of it, as well as some extended zone time. And once the Flyers finally gained possession and entered the Pittsburgh end, Rasmus Ristolainen put a pretty harmless-looking one-timer on net for the Flyers' first shot of the game ... and it beat Nedeljkovic five-hole:

Nedeljkovic shook his head and sighed recalling that one. "They made a good play off the rush, pulled up, hit the trailer guy, and then found an open guy in the corner," he said. "Then they score from the corner."

Eight minutes later, the Flyers got another one that Nedeljkovic would especially like to have back, with Noah Cates beating him clean, high-blocker:

Phil Tomasino capitalized on a partial breakaway in the second period to cut the Flyers' lead to one, but another one-timer from the left circle from Tyson Foerster and then goals 10 seconds apart at the end of the middle period from Noah Cates and Bobby Brink all but put the game away. Owen Tippett padded the lead with a goal from the side of Nedeljkovic's cage in the third.

"First shot of the game goes in from a crappy angle," he said. "The second shot beats me from 30-40, feet away. We start to get some momentum back, and then I can't come up with a save, and then they score two quick ones again off the faceoff. It's just frustrating right now. I don't know what else to say. It's pretty disappointing."

Nedeljkovic was heating up heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off break that paused the regular-season schedule for nearly two weeks. He was 3-0-1 in his last four games, recording a shutout and a .939 save percentage. He was given the first start out of the break in Saturday's game against the Capitals, and he struggled heavily, allowing five goals on 13 shots before being pulled in the second period. 

By those standards, his 32 saves on 38 shots in this loss was a marked improvement. But it's still not good enough. And Nedeljkovic's frustration stems from more than just this one game, but rather his play in the last two being what it was after playing so well before the break.

"I hope it was just maybe some rust," Nedeljkovic said. "I mean, we weren't that bad. I got beat clean with five shots, get six more tonight in not even five periods of play."

Mike Sullivan was defensive of his netminder afterward, saying, "Listen, the goaltending's got nothing to do with it tonight. We simply weren't good enough as a team." I offered that Nedeljkovic himself was fairly critical about himself in these last two games as a whole, and asked what gives Sullivan confidence that Nedeljkovic can get out of this funk, and Sullivan said "Ned's a good goalie" before reiterating "goaltending had nothing to do with it tonight."

I mean, he's right in that goaltending probably wasn't the difference between a win and a loss. They scored one goal, and the Flyers dominated much of the game. Better goaltending would have at least made things more interesting, a fact Nedeljkovic acknowledged himself.

"You put anybody else in between the net tonight, and I don't know if we win, but it wasn't 6-1, I'll tell you that," he said.

Anybody else? I don't know about that. Joel Blomqvist hasn't been so hot either coming out of the break. In his relief appearance after Nedeljkovic was pulled on Saturday and then his own full start in Sunday's loss to the Rangers, Blomqvist allowed a combined seven goals on 32 shots for a .781 save percentage.

All three goaltenders the Penguins have used this season have a negative goals saved above expected, meaning even when you take into account the difficulty of the workload they face and the quality of chances against, they are underperforming. Tristan Jarry is in last at minus-9.5, followed by Nedeljkovic at minus-5.1, then Blomqvist at minus-3.2 using MoneyPuck's model. Again: That is taking into account when the team plays poorly in front of them. All of their goaltenders are underperforming relative to their workloads.

So, now what? 

Using points percentage, the Penguins are dead last in the Eastern Conference. They're nine points out of a playoff spot -- not insurmountable, but highly unlikely given the six other teams that are ahead of them outside of the playoffs. 

With 22 games remaining, the Penguins can use this stretch to ideally help them make decisions going into next season. Nedeljkovic, Blomqvist and Filip Larsson -- the latter posting a .922 save percentage and four shutouts in 17 AHL games this season -- all are signed through next season. Blomqvist should get a higher share of the starts, or go back down to Wilkes-Barre and prepare for an AHL playoff run. Larsson should get an opportunity to prove himself at the NHL level. I'd be hesitant in bringing Sergei Murashov up to the NHL now given that he only has six AHL games, but let him get those AHL games and perhaps even come up to the NHL at the end of the season if he's that clearly ready.

The Penguins are going to be successful in the next couple years in this retooling process, they've just got to find better goaltending, regardless of who it comes from.

"We've got to find a way to be better in net," Nedeljkovic said. "Go back to basics and just make the saves you need to make. We're not even making those right now."