PENGUINS FALL TO DEVILS IN OT
The Penguins made history of sorts Sunday afternoon. Not by losing to a bad opponent. That happens a few times every season. It even happened occasionally during the Lemieux Era.
No, the Penguins made history by playing their fifth game in 6½ days. It’s believed that is the most grueling stretch of games the team has had to endure. The 2018-19 Penguins played five games in 7 days in December 2018.
So, of course, the game Sunday went to overtime.
Who didn’t know that was going to happen?
That’s why it’s hard to work up too much angst over the 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Sure, it’s troubling that the Penguins went just 1-1-1 in the threegame miniseries against the Devils, who are 14 points behind them in the East Division standings. It also was the Penguins’ third loss in four games, although that pain was eased just a bit because of the loser point they picked up.
But the Penguins looked and played like an exhausted hockey club for much of the game, although, inexplicably, the third period was their best. They also looked and played like a shorthanded team with good reason. They were without Evgeni Malkin, Brandon Tanev, Teddy Blueger and Jason Zucker.
A day off Monday comes at a perfect time for a tired, beat-up bunch.
“They’re going to get almost a day-and-a-half,” Mike Sullivan said. “Just getting away from it and trying to give them an opportunity to recover physically, but also mentally … To reenergize and recharge the batteries, I think, is a critical aspect of the recovery process.”
The rest should take care of the fatigue factor before the next game against the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night at home. But those injuries? They remain problematic, although there is a chance Tanev will be available after missing the past two games with an upper-body issue. Sullivan listed him as day to day.
Tanev had two goals and eight
points in his past eight games.
Could the Penguins use that production or what?
The team has scored just seven goals in the past four games. Five of the seven came from topline forwards Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. Crosby scored the lone goal Sunday on a beautiful passing play that went from Brian Dumoulin to Rust to Guentzel to Crosby.
It’s hard to win in the NHL with just one line. But, right now, that’s exactly what the Penguins are. They are a one-line team.
“We’ve got to get contributions throughout our lineup if we’re going to get consistent results,” Sullivan said. “It would help if we could get some more from the bottom nine. That’s one of our challenges right now.”
The Penguins remain in a good spot in the standings. They are in third place with 40 points, four ahead of the Boston Bruins, who are on pause because of COVID-19, and seven ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers, who are having major goaltending problems and have given up 32 goals in their past six games. It helps that the Penguins still have six games remaining with the lastplace Sabres and five against the Devils.
But as the three games in four days against the Devils showed, there are no guarantees.
The Penguins can’t take anything for granted.
“I think they’re fine,” Sullivan said of his players. “I think they like to compete. They like to play. We’re not going to dwell on any one circumstance. Every game is an opportunity to establish ourselves in the standings, an opportunity for people to step up and contribute. That’s how we’re looking at it. This is a resilient group.”