Articles in Pittsburgh Penguins

from Rob Rossi of The Athletic,

The Pittsburgh Penguins were officially eliminated from postseason contention Wednesday when the Islanders clinched the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card berth with a 4-2 win over Montreal. Here’s what you need to know:

• The Penguins’ streak of 16 consecutive postseasons (2007-22) was the longest of the NHL’s salary-cap era and the longest in any of North America’s four biggest sports leagues.
• Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang — known in Pittsburgh as The Big Three — had never missed the playoffs since becoming teammates in 2006-07.
• The Penguins are 9-10-1 since GM Ron Hextall’s moves in the week leading up to the NHL trade deadline (March 4).
• The Penguins controlled their playoff destiny before losing 5-2 at home to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

What went wrong

Actually, it’s more a case of nothing going right for these Penguins.

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from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

There is only one way to describe the Penguins’ 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena:

It was the worst regular season loss of the Sidney Crosby era.

Go ahead, try to find a worse one.

Let me put it another way:

The defeat was so bad, the ticket holders who received the players’ jerseys on Shirt Off Their Backs/Fan Appreciation Night probably wanted to give ’em back.

“We just didn’t get it done,” a glum Mike Sullivan said.

In some ways, the loss was stunning. The Penguins had been given unexpected life in the playoff chase Monday night when the Washington Capitals surprised the New York Islanders. They could have taken a big step toward their 17th consecutive postseason trip by beating a Blackhawks team that had played Monday night in Chicago and had lost 11 of its 12 previous games, all of the defeats by at least two goals.

But in other ways, this defeat was all too predictable.

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from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

Where was this much of the season?

Strong goaltending. A conscientious defensive effort. Excellent special teams. A little secondary scoring. A shutdown third period.

All of it added up to one of the Penguins’ better performances and better wins of the season in, arguably, the biggest regular-season game of the Sidney Crosby era.

The Penguins kept a pulse in the playoff chase by beating Minnesota, 4-1, Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. The only bummer about the evening was that Florida and the New York Islanders also won. The Penguins still trail both teams by one point with three games remaining for all three clubs, which are fighting for two postseason spots. The Penguins have to make up two points on either the Panthers or the Islanders to make the postseason for a 17th consecutive season. They lose tiebreakers to both teams....

They haven’t won consecutive games since March 11 and 12. They will play at Detroit Saturday against a Red Wings team that crushed it, 7-4, on March 28.

And even if the Penguins win that game and their final two against woeful Chicago and Columbus, will it be enough? They need to pick up those two points on Florida, which finishes with games against Washington, Toronto and Carolina, or the Islanders, who finish with games against Philadelphia, Washington and Montreal.

Sullivan is looking only at his team’s game at Detroit.

Control what you can control, right?

“I don’t think they’ve seen our best,” Sullivan said of the Red Wings.

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No penalty on the play.

from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

It was a little of the best of Evgeni Malkin. He had two assists — the second a tremendous pass — in what amounted to a season-sustaining 4-2 win for the Penguins on Sunday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. That gave him 80 points for the season, a number he has hit six times during his Hall of Fame-caliber career.

It also was a lot of the worst of Malkin. He took not one, not two, not three, but four minor penalties. He topped off the fourth — for unsportsmanlike conduct — early in the third period with a 10-minute misconduct and then a 10-minute game misconduct for, presumably, yelling obscenities in English or Russian or maybe both at referee Chris Schlenker with increasing fury. Malkin is not the Penguins’ all-time leader in penalty minutes for nothing. You can add 28 minutes to his career number.

Mike Sullivan loves the good Malkin. He has talked about him frequently, with complete justification, as being “a generational talent.” Malkin showed his elite ability on his second assist, faking a shot before setting up Rickard Rakell for the goal that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead. Malkin has just two goals in his past 18 games, but his playmaking has been brilliant, with 16 assists in those games. He has 80 points in 77 games this season, a nice 1.04 points-per-game average that is especially impressive for a player, 36, with plenty of wear and tear on his body.

But Sullivan doesn’t care much for the bad Malkin. He clearly wasn’t happy, again with complete justification, by what happened Sunday night.

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Kris Letang has been through a lot in his career, happy to see him reach game 1000.

from Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh Tribune,

Jarry hasn’t displayed much consistency when he’s been available this season. He played 13 games since returning from his latest injury, getting pulled four times. His goals-against average on the year is 2.98, which ranks 32nd in the NHL. His save percentage of .908 stands 21st. So, Jarry isn’t sparkling when he can play.

Does Jarry have good moments? Sure. Every goalie does.

But Jarry broke into the NHL in 2017, and he’s never truly established himself as a No. 1 goalie.

There have been too many injuries, too many failures, and he’s never won a playoff series. Heck, he’s only played in eight playoff games, going 2-6.

Jarry played in one full series, a 2021 first-round loss to the New York Islanders. Jarry did a lot to lose that series, not least an awful turnover in the second overtime of Game 5 that gifted the Islanders the game-winning goal and a three-games-to-two series lead.

Jarry made two All-Star thingies, but who cares? Small potatoes.

Does Jarry help you win? The answer is no, not enough.

The decision to let Jarry go is made easier when you consider he reportedly wants a six-year contract worth $6 million per. Perhaps those demands come down given recent circumstances, but Jarry shouldn’t be retained at any price unless it’s so meager that the Penguins have money to sign a co-No. 1 goalie.

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from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

When the Wings wheezed to the end of their 25-year streak in 2016-17, I argued at the time that no team was further away from the Stanley Cup. The only thing worse than being a terrible NHL club is to be a mediocre one that won’t admit it’s mediocre, because it dooms you to keeping the team on life support and finishing in the mushy middle. Even once the Wings started missing the playoffs, they had enough veterans on immovable contracts to stick around and keep them from being too bad. They didn’t even secure a top-five draft slot until 2020, when they snagged Lucas Raymond. It marked Detroit’s first top-five pick in 30 years.

The Wings of the past decade serve as a cautionary tale. They couldn’t let go of the idea that they were contenders and, by choosing quick solutions, they hurt themselves in the long run. They’re about to miss the playoffs a seventh consecutive year, and they’re hardly a lock to avoid an eighth straight miss next season. They traded one streak for another.

So what am I getting at, picking on the Wings?

I want to highlight the team I believe to be the furthest in the NHL from a Stanley Cup today. Have a look at the active playoff streak leaderboard. The Pittsburgh Penguins are hanging by a thread, clinging to the hope of crawling into the postseason as an Eastern Conference Wildcard seed and extending their streak to 17 years. They kept the band together last summer, re-signing thirtysomething franchise legends Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to keep the championship dream going with captain Sidney Crosby still playing elite hockey.

But look at the circumstances surrounding this team and you’ll find alarming similarities to the Wings as the end of their streak. These Pens enjoyed a decade and a half of incredible success, punctuated by three Stanley Cups, but they haven’t won a playoff series in six years, bowing out in Round 1 every season since their consecutive championships in 2016 and 2017. Because of their continued success, they haven’t owned a top-five draft pick in 17 years. They are perceived to have one of the very worst prospect crops in the NHL. Their “upgrades” at the 2023 Trade Deadline were Mikael Granlund and the since-injured Nick Bonino and Dmitry Kulikov.

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from Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

You can look at Tuesday’s crazy comeback against the Columbus Blue Jackets, capped off by Sidney Crosby’s one-time winner in OT, a couple of ways.

One is that Penguins at PPG Paints Arena climbed out of a four-goal deficit, their first comeback of that magnitude since 2006, to pick up two critical points and avoid an embarrassment loss to the NHL’s last-place team. You could say their 5-4 win suggests they are still capable of something special this spring.

The alternate viewpoint is they put themselves in that position with another sleepy start, and their bad habits and that whiff of arrogance just aren’t going away. They were fortunate the Blue Jackets were so carefree and counting on a journeyman between the pipes. Good luck winning this way in the playoffs.

Mike Sullivan focused on the positives after the Penguins won for the fifth time in six games. But the coach has clearly grown weary of recurring mistakes.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations. Now it’s about acting,” the Penguins coach said. “You’ve just got to go out there and perform. And we’ve got to stay in the moment. It’s not always going to go the right way. We’re going to have struggles. We’ve got to work through them. And I thought that’s what we did tonight.”

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Game highlights are below.

from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

We also have been hard on Ron Hextall during this NHL season. I still can hear the “Fire Hextall!” chants that filled PPG Paints Arena last week during the Penguins’ embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Again, it was so easy to jeer the man because his team has underachieved and is in a brutal fight to make the playoffs. He will take most of the blame if it comes up short.

Canada and Hextall get it.

“I understand the fans’ frustrations. We have high expectations, as well. I totally get it,” Hextall said.

“When you’re a GM, you know what you’re signing up for. Criticism is part of the business. We work in the public eye. And [fans] pay good money to come to the rink. They certainly have the right to chant and say whatever they choose.”

Spoken like a true professional.

But there’s something else that is easy for us. It is easy to forget that Canada and Hextall are human beings. They might be able to shrug off the criticism and accept it as part of the job, but what about their families? I can’t begin to imagine how much it stings the people who care about them the most.

You’re damn right we forget about that.

Sports can be such a cruel business, even for those who are well-compensated and make a living that most of us can’t even dream of making.

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from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

As long as veteran stars Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos and John Tavares have played in the NHL, the Stanley Cup playoffs have included both Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

Or look at it this way: Gary Bettman will in the very near future surpass Clarence Campbell and become the longest serving chief executive in NHL history. For more than half the time he’s been in office he’s been able to count on having Crosby and Ovechkin involved when the second season began....

Having superstars of that calibre has meant those teams haven’t even been able to consider rebuilding, and won’t be able to do so until they retire or leave to play for another team, the latter of which seems hard to imagine in both cases.

The NHL has been dining out on the Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry for a very, very long time. It’s been compared favourably to the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird period in the NBA.

Crosby and Ovechkin, in some ways, saved their respective franchises along the way, and did an awful lot to repair the damage caused by the NHL’s shutdown that obliterated the 2004-05 regular season and the ’05 Stanley Cup playoffs. The league enacted a slew of new rules coming out of that owners lockout and the two newcomers were able to flourish immediately. In the 2005-06 season, Crosby notched 102 points, and Ovechkin scored 52 goals.

That helped ignite a debate that raged for years. Which player was better? It hardly mattered in Washington, a franchise that had been an NHL afterthought for a quarter-century before general manager George McPhee authorized a tanking project that resulted in getting Ovechkin first overall in 2004.

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from Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

The Penguins are 8-12-4 since Christmas with a minus-22 goal differential. Their current losing streak is their third of four or more games. That has happened only one other time during the Mike Sullivan era, four years ago in 2018-19.

Even so, he believes they can as currently constructed still make the playoffs.

“The hardest part about our team right now is probably the volatility,” Hextall said. “It’s a tough one, quite frankly, to put a finger on. ... Some nights you ask yourself, ‘What team are we?’ But I know this: We’ve shown that we’re capable of being a very good team and we’ll continue to try to make our team better.”

Hextall knows fans are frustrated. He heard them loud and clear Thursday at PPG Paints Arena, when “Fire Hextall!” chants erupted in a loss to Edmonton.

“We have high expectations, as well, and we haven’t met them. So I totally get it,” Hextall said calmly. “When you’re a GM, you know what you’re signing up for. We work in the public eye. And they pay good money to come to the rink, and they certainly have the right to chant and say whatever they choose.”

Hextall added, “It’s not going to affect anything I do or anything I don’t do.”

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from Michelle Crechiolo of the Penguins' website,

On Friday in New York, the Islanders ended up scoring late in regulation to cap off a comeback and win the game 5-4. It was a particularly disappointing loss for the Penguins, who put forth a spirited effort and played well.

In the rematch on Monday in Pittsburgh, the Penguins again entered the third period with a lead… before eventually falling 4-2.

It was their third straight setback to a division opponent as the Penguins fight for playoff positioning. The Islanders moved into the first Wild Card spot with 65 points (and 60 games played); Florida moved into the second Wild Card spot with 64 points (60 games played); and Pittsburgh (63 points) is now in third, with Washington, Buffalo, Detroit and Ottawa all hot on their heels.

"We should play the same if we lead by two goals or one. Don't wait - try to win," Evgeni Malkin said. "Stay moving, play the same game, try on the forecheck. The last couple games, we feel pressure, you know? We need points... We start to wait too long and they start to change momentum.

"If we play the same, we fight for every inch, we try to play hard, we will win. We have a great team here. I believe in everyone. If we play the same [throughout the game], we'll be in the playoffs, for sure."

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Watch the hit below.

from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

Where do you rank Sidney Crosby on the all-time player list? Give an exact number.

MATT LARKIN: For me, he slots in fifth. Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe form my all-time hockey Mount Rushmore. But if a second group of sculptures was commissioned? Sid makes the cut along with Nick Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek and Alex Ovechkin for me....

FRANK SERAVALLI: After careful consideration, I have Sidney Crosby ranked third all-time, behind only Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr. I think at this point, Crosby has passed his mentor and former owner in Mario Lemieux and also Mr. Hockey. Those are bold statements, but I believe it speaks to the consistent excellence of Crosby’s career....

more on each of the above plus other writers chime in...

from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

The Penguins are winless in their past seven games. The Blues have lost six straight in regulation. The Capitals are playing .462 hockey.

Oy.

Three programs with lengthy histories of being winners, going back more than a dozen years, that have combined for four Stanley Cups since 2016, are fighting it big time. Which is not to say they won’t come out of it. There’s too much institutional knowledge to write any of them off yet. But there are clearly some question marks.

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The Penguins have lost seven straight games.

from Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

If the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have a good, hard think about doing what’s needed instead of what they prefer, they could be buried by Thanksgiving. No playoffs for the first time since 2006.

The Penguins are too old, not fast enough and not good enough to play a high-octane blitzkrieg attack style for 60 minutes vs. every foe every night. It’s not 2017.

The blown leads confirm that. So do the turnovers. So does the general sloppiness. The list of problems is lengthy. The stench is overwhelming.

Indulge ego, go splat. That’s what’s happening.

It’s not an arrogant form of ego. The Penguins, particularly their coach and core, sincerely believe they can operate as they always have. They’re convinced, not conceited.

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from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

As Penguins players funneled out of the cramped visitors’ dressing room here, chucking equipment bags onto a cart without anyone uttering a single syllable, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin sat a few feet from one another, heads down, their frustration not hard to detect.

“It’s not easy,” Malkin said. “It’s a tough situation.”

“It’s not a great feeling,” Crosby continued. “We have to find a way to get out of it.”

The escape plan for the Penguins’ current funk could take on any number of forms and might soon require a heavy equipment operator, but at this point it’s impossible to ignore that there’s a large hole developing after what transpired at KeyBank Center, the Penguins blowing another third-period lead and suffering a 6-3 loss to the Sabres.

It extended Pittsburgh’s losing streak to six, something that has happened only one other time in the Mike Sullivan Era (Feb. 20-29, 2020). Furthermore, it’s the third time the Penguins have lost when leading after two periods in the past 17 days, already matching their total from the 2021-22 season. It’s the third time a Sullivan-coached team coughed up five-plus goals in the third period.

continued and watch the highlights below...