Issues linger over holiday
stands at 18-16-3 after losing for the fifth time in their past seven games, the sixth loss for them in their past nine.
• Even at home, where the Penguins used to be indestructible, they now have lost four of seven, all of them in regulation.
• The only teams the Penguins have beaten in regulation this month are the NHL’s two worst, Buffalo (twice) and Arizona.
• Saturday, the Penguins were a Flyers shootout goal away from finding themselves in last place in the division at the Christmas break, an unimaginable spot for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs.
“We all have to be better,” Sullivan said. “My hope is, over the next couple of days, every one of us does a little bit of soul-searching and comes back to the rink re-energized with the right frame of mind to make sure that we move this team in the right direction.”
The Penguins lost Saturday for a few familiar reasons.
Anaheim’s first goal, by Ondrej Kase, came on a botched pass from Kris Letang to Brian Dumoulin, the puck bouncing hard off the boards into dangerous territory.
Rickard Rakell made it 2-0 on a leaky goal that Matt Murray probably should’ve stopped, as it trickled through his legs.
Two freebies while the Penguins took until 8:07 of the first to attempt their first shot against a netminder (Whitehall’s John Gibson) who has struggled big time in this building ... not good.
The Ducks won the special-teams battle — Andrew Cogliano hit the Penguins up for the first short-handed goal they’ve allowed this year in the second — before Cam Fowler delivered the decisive blow on the power play with 4 seconds to go in the period.
A goalie change from Murray to Tristan Jarry after three goals allowed wasn’t enough. The Penguins failed to score a five-on-five goal for the second consecutive game and now have a total of seven of those in their past six games.
“It seems like it’s been a struggle for us to put the puck in the net,” Sullivan said. “I do think we’ve created a fair amount of scoring chances. I have to believe with the talent we have in this room, that some of those are going to go in.”
History would say so, anyway, at least among the Penguins stars, but there are certainly some interesting slumps to track.
• Sidney Crosby has just two goals and two points in even-strength play over his past nine games. He’s on pace for 18 goals and 38 points at even-strength, which would both be lowwater marks for his career.
• Jake Guentzel doesn’t have a goal, period, in 10 games.
• Conor Sheary has one in his past 17.
Bottom-six scoring, which had been an asset for the better part of two years, has become a glaring weakness for this group, and the lack of consistent offense has forced Sullivan to constantly tinker with his forward lines.
It took less than seven minutes Saturday for Sullivan’s first adjustment.
Surely general manager Jim Rutherford will look to address the lack of scoring — specially the need to once again be a three-line team — out of the break. But will trading Ian Cole, which seems inevitable at this point, even be enough?
Let those types of questions go for a couple of days, though, at least for those who aren’t in Penguins management.
For players and coaches, this three-day break comes at a time when the Penguins — as Sullivan and others said — need to get away from it, think about something else and come back to the rink readyto right the ship.
“Things aren’t going as well as we’d like them to,” Murray said. “We’re not going to hang our heads or feel sorry for ourselves, either. It’s hard to win in this league. We’re going to embrace that. Adversity comes everybody’s way at some point.”
Then there was this from Crosby, who’s no stranger to turning things around over the holidays: “It will be good for us to get away from it here for a few days. We’ve got a big second half coming up.”
Good or bad, it’s darn near impossible to argue with that last point.