After being unable to generate any semblance of offense against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins looked to capitalize on chances and dictate play in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The offense, for the most part, wasn’t an issue. However, their defensive play was.
The Penguins blew a 2-0 lead and ultimately fell to the Jets, 6-3. Kevin Hayes and Lars Eller – twice – scored for Pittsburgh, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Winnipeg, which is the only remaining undefeated NHL team.
Pittsburgh registered 42 shots on goal, and Winnipeg blocked 25 shots. So, the offensive effort was there, the Penguins were simply too irresponsible with the puck.
“From an effort standpoint, I thought our team played really hard,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think we’ve got to play a little smarter. And that’s on all of us to try to cure some of those areas.”
Here are a few observations from tonight’s game:
– Alex Nedejlkovic, who made 31 saves on 37 Winnipeg shots. Those numbers don’t look great on the surface for Ned, but make no mistake: He was good in this game.
The Penguins’ defensive breakdowns are a glaring problem. Defensemen are joining the rush too early and leaving their partners and forwards out to dry. Forwards aren’t covering. Net-front defense is abysmal. Way too many turnovers in the defensive and neutral zones.
If the Penguins don’t address their team defense – which has given up more goals than any other team in the league at 31 – it won’t matter who is in goal. Goaltending can only do so much to mask defensive deficiencies as glaring as those that the Penguins are showing right now.
Related: 3 Takeaways From Penguins’ 6-3 Loss To Jets
– The top two defensive pairings were atrocious tonight, but Kris Letang and Marcus Pettersson were particularly brutal.
It hasn’t been a good start to the season for either of them. Letang was caught pinching and joining the rush prematurely on several occasions, and Pettersson keeps getting beat one-on-one and at the net-front.
This might be some of the worst hockey I’ve seen Pettersson play in a Penguins’ uniform. And the timing could not be worse for him, as he’s a pending unrestricted free agent in a contract year.
– Something is not right with Sidney Crosby.
Over the past few games, he largely wasn’t taking faceoffs when sharing the ice with another center option. He wasn’t shooting the puck much. Things on that front seemed to semi-revert to normal Sunday, so that is a good sign.
But he and Bryan Rust are a mess in all three zones right now. They were on the ice for five Winnipeg goals. They’ve been turnovers machines. They’re not achieving much sustained pressure in the offensive zone.
They really need to start stepping up if the Penguins are going to win games.
Related: Penguins Fail To Generate Offense, Fall to Hurricanes, 4-1
– The top-six is still a mess as a whole. Malkin’s line, despite missing the scoresheet the past two games, is still generating some chances, but they’re not nearly as loud as they were in the first five games.
The entire lineup was put into a blender for this game, but I did like the decision to put Jesse Puljujarvi in the top-six. Even if Michael Bunting returns to the lineup, I think Puljujarvi has earned an extended look there as well as Drew O’Connor.
Personally? I’d like to see Rakell with Crosby and Rust for a few games to see if he can spark some offense on that line. I like the idea of a combination of O’Connor and Puljujarvi with Malkin.
– Despite the negatives coming out of this game, one shining bright spot on the season so far has been the bottom-six.
GM and POHO Kyle Dubas knew what he was doing when trying to construct a bottom-six that can produce. Because thet have done just that.
Hayes has three goals, as many as Rakell. Eller leads the team in goals with four. Others like O’Connor (three goals, four points) and Puljujarvi (one goal, five points) started in the bottom-six and were elevated because of their production.
This is a very encouraging sign for the Penguins. This is something that needs to continue throughout the season, and if it does, it should give them a chance to win a lot of hockey games.
Related: Malkin And Crosby Hit Major Milestones As Penguins Defeat Sabres In Overtime, 6-5
