The Penguins got into the giving spirit a couple days before Christmas.
After snapping their eight-game skid on Sunday against the Canadiens, the Penguins squandered an opportunity to head into the Christmas break on a high note, losing to the Maple Leafs, 6-3, on Tuesday evening at Scotiabank Arena.
The losses that have been piling up, nine in their last 10 games, have come in many shapes and sizes. Several have been blowing third-period leads. They've been shut out on multiple occasions. Tonight, the game was defined by giving the Maple Leafs gift after gift, as if Jolly Ol' Saint Nick and his elves were dressed in black and gold.
"The chances that we gave up were big ones," Dan Muse said after the game. "There was a lot we could have controlled to not allow those types of chances. It ended up factoring in a big way in the game."
Take away the Maple Leafs' final two goals. Those were empty-netters and don't really tell the story of this game. The first four goals the Penguins allowed were far too easy, starting with William Nylander batting an attempted pass by Kevin Hayes out of the air at the Toronto blue line, taking it down on a breakaway and beating Stuart Skinner on a backhand shot.
While Bryan Rust answered just 44 seconds later, the Maple Leafs recaptured the lead on a wonky play in which Parker Wotherspoon tried to bat a puck from Matias Maccelli to the wall, only for it to ricochet off his stick and slide under Skinner's pad:
"They caught all the breaks today," Erik Karlsson said after the game. "And they capitalized on them."
But the breaks weren't all happenstance like Maccelli's goal. There were self-inflicted wounds, such as Karlsson himself running out of room while dancing along the blue line, only to give the puck away to Steven Lorentz -- yet another giveaway at the Toronto blue line:
Yes, Lorentz did score on the breakaway, even after Skinner saved the first two of three total shots on one breakaway, putting the Maple Leafs up, 3-1:
"He did a good job to stay with me. I kind of ran out of options, lost an edge and fell," Karlsson said. "They capitalized on it. It stinks. It's obviously stuff like that you can eliminate."
What probably needs to be eliminated more than anything else is the sequence that led to Toronto's game-winning goal. After Lorentz's goal put Toronto ahead, 3-1, Rutger McGroarty put an exclamation point on another promising performance for the Kid Line, cutting the deficit to 3-2 with a rocket shot from the high slot. Then in the third period, Anthony Mantha took advantage of a great screen by Justin Brazeau, burying a one-timer from the point past Joseph Woll to tie the game, 3-3.
All the work was undone by Brett Kulak being walked by Max Domi, putting the Maple Leafs back ahead, 4-3:
Mind you, Domi hadn't score a goal since Oct. 28.
Tonight's game isn't an outlier. Over the past eight games, the Penguins have allowed four or more goals in seven of them. And today's result could have been much worse. Believe it or not, that play above wasn't Kulak's worst moment. He also had a turnover behind his own red line that led to back-to-back chances all alone with Skinner -- one for John Tavares and another for Maccelli. Skinner bailed him out on both with a couple of great saves.
Maybe the break is coming at a good time. Maybe it'll give Muse an opportunity to look back on some of the dangerous trends that are killing this team right now.
"We play a forward game. We try to do the right things," Karlsson said. "When the puck doesn't bounce your way sometimes, like I said, they caught all the breaks today and they capitalized on them."
When the Penguins have simplified their game, they've been much more difficult to beat. When they get pucks deep and establish a forecheck, they not only play much more soundly in the offensive zone, but they play more responsibly. They limit the odd-man rushes because the chances of turning the puck over in dangerous areas, such as the opposing blue line, are far lower than what we witnessed tonight.
Muse explained some of that responsibility when discussing whether or not his team is playing too much of a high-risk game.
"I don't know if it's overall all the time," Muse said. "I think you've gotta kind of recognize some of the situations, too: Where you are on the ice, where you are in your shift. I think that's recognition that today's game would have been improved."
The Penguins now head into a four-day break for Christmas, still sitting at 13th place in the Eastern Conference with 39 points, with their next game coming up on Sunday against the Blackhawks in Chicago. Perhaps this break will provide the reset this team desperately needs. If not, it's hard to see this team winning a lot of games with the brand of hockey they're playing.
THE ASYLUM
Penguins give way to Leafs, limp into break
The Penguins got into the giving spirit a couple days before Christmas.
After snapping their eight-game skid on Sunday against the Canadiens, the Penguins squandered an opportunity to head into the Christmas break on a high note, losing to the Maple Leafs, 6-3, on Tuesday evening at Scotiabank Arena.
The losses that have been piling up, nine in their last 10 games, have come in many shapes and sizes. Several have been blowing third-period leads. They've been shut out on multiple occasions. Tonight, the game was defined by giving the Maple Leafs gift after gift, as if Jolly Ol' Saint Nick and his elves were dressed in black and gold.
"The chances that we gave up were big ones," Dan Muse said after the game. "There was a lot we could have controlled to not allow those types of chances. It ended up factoring in a big way in the game."
Take away the Maple Leafs' final two goals. Those were empty-netters and don't really tell the story of this game. The first four goals the Penguins allowed were far too easy, starting with William Nylander batting an attempted pass by Kevin Hayes out of the air at the Toronto blue line, taking it down on a breakaway and beating Stuart Skinner on a backhand shot.
While Bryan Rust answered just 44 seconds later, the Maple Leafs recaptured the lead on a wonky play in which Parker Wotherspoon tried to bat a puck from Matias Maccelli to the wall, only for it to ricochet off his stick and slide under Skinner's pad:
"They caught all the breaks today," Erik Karlsson said after the game. "And they capitalized on them."
But the breaks weren't all happenstance like Maccelli's goal. There were self-inflicted wounds, such as Karlsson himself running out of room while dancing along the blue line, only to give the puck away to Steven Lorentz -- yet another giveaway at the Toronto blue line:
Yes, Lorentz did score on the breakaway, even after Skinner saved the first two of three total shots on one breakaway, putting the Maple Leafs up, 3-1:
"He did a good job to stay with me. I kind of ran out of options, lost an edge and fell," Karlsson said. "They capitalized on it. It stinks. It's obviously stuff like that you can eliminate."
What probably needs to be eliminated more than anything else is the sequence that led to Toronto's game-winning goal. After Lorentz's goal put Toronto ahead, 3-1, Rutger McGroarty put an exclamation point on another promising performance for the Kid Line, cutting the deficit to 3-2 with a rocket shot from the high slot. Then in the third period, Anthony Mantha took advantage of a great screen by Justin Brazeau, burying a one-timer from the point past Joseph Woll to tie the game, 3-3.
All the work was undone by Brett Kulak being walked by Max Domi, putting the Maple Leafs back ahead, 4-3:
Mind you, Domi hadn't score a goal since Oct. 28.
Tonight's game isn't an outlier. Over the past eight games, the Penguins have allowed four or more goals in seven of them. And today's result could have been much worse. Believe it or not, that play above wasn't Kulak's worst moment. He also had a turnover behind his own red line that led to back-to-back chances all alone with Skinner -- one for John Tavares and another for Maccelli. Skinner bailed him out on both with a couple of great saves.
Maybe the break is coming at a good time. Maybe it'll give Muse an opportunity to look back on some of the dangerous trends that are killing this team right now.
"We play a forward game. We try to do the right things," Karlsson said. "When the puck doesn't bounce your way sometimes, like I said, they caught all the breaks today and they capitalized on them."
When the Penguins have simplified their game, they've been much more difficult to beat. When they get pucks deep and establish a forecheck, they not only play much more soundly in the offensive zone, but they play more responsibly. They limit the odd-man rushes because the chances of turning the puck over in dangerous areas, such as the opposing blue line, are far lower than what we witnessed tonight.
Muse explained some of that responsibility when discussing whether or not his team is playing too much of a high-risk game.
"I don't know if it's overall all the time," Muse said. "I think you've gotta kind of recognize some of the situations, too: Where you are on the ice, where you are in your shift. I think that's recognition that today's game would have been improved."
The Penguins now head into a four-day break for Christmas, still sitting at 13th place in the Eastern Conference with 39 points, with their next game coming up on Sunday against the Blackhawks in Chicago. Perhaps this break will provide the reset this team desperately needs. If not, it's hard to see this team winning a lot of games with the brand of hockey they're playing.
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