Flattened at end of a long road trip
Florida jumps on the chance to gain ground
SUNRISE, Fla. — When Mike Sullivan said his players could relax a little now that the trade deadline had passed, this probably wasn’t what he had in mind.
After showing so much passion and poise during the four-game winning streak that preceded Friday’s trade deadline, the Penguins came out flat Saturday against the Florida Panthers and stayed that way, losing 4-1 at FLA Live Arena.
“We had our moments. But overall, consistently, shift in and shift out, we weren’t good enough,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t play with the urgency [needed].”
The first period felt like an air hockey game, with the two teams just whacking the puck back and forth and hoping for the best. Breakouts were chaotic. There was a lot of dumping but not much chasing. Puck possession was sparse and brief. The visitors had more icing infractions (four) than shots on net (three).
“We weren’t as sharp tonight. We didn’t have the jump that we had in the first two games [of the road trip],” Jeff Carter said. “Give them credit. They came out and played hard, played physical. They were on pucks and winning battles.”
The Penguins’ sloppy play with the puck finally cost them with 22 seconds left in the period. With no open targets, Kris Letang chipped it out of their zone in resignation then went to the bench. The Panthers jumped it. Jeff Petry got caught cheating up the ice. Then Sam Bennett pounded a rebound past Casey DeSmith.
Florida pushed it to 2-0 with a power-play goal in the second. Nick Bonino lost the first faceoff and the Panthers played keep-away for 81 seconds. Finally, Aaron Ekblad scored to allow four exhausted Penguins killers to go get a breather.
The Penguins have given up 20 power-play goals in their past 20 games, and their flailing penalty kill could end up being a fatal flaw if they don’t fix it fast.
“It’s been a concern. We haven’t done a good enough job,” Sullivan said. “Now we’ve got some new guys that we’re trying to get into the fold, so there’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve. ... We’ve got to find a way to shore it up.”
The Penguins answered with a power-play goal of their own, cashing in on a long 5-on-3. Evgeni Malkin spotted Jake Guentzel alone in front and slipped the puck through to him. Instead of whipping a shot on
goal, Guentzel made a savvy setup to Letang, who blasted his one-timer behind Sergei Bobrovsky.
The game’s deciding sequence came late in the second, as Pittsburgh pushed for the tying goal. Bobrovsky committed larceny on Sidney Crosby. A moment later, Eetu Luostarinen flicked in a rebound to restore Florida’s two-goal lead.
Carter Varhaeghe’s longrange wrister in the third period made it a 4-1 game.
Tempers flared down the stretch after Jason Zucker bowled over Bobrovsky. The Panthers pounced on Zucker. Bobrovsky bolted into the fray. DeSmith inched out of his crease, ready to even it up. But an official warned him to stay put.
“If [Bobrovsky] kept going after our players, I was probably going to try to go down,” DeSmith said. “The ref got him out of there ... so I didn’t have to.”
The Penguins showed spunk the rest of the way. But it was too little, too late.
“They were the more urgent team early on,” Petry said. “Coming down the stretch here, we need to be able to go into games and set the tone in the game, force teams to defend the style of game we want to play rather than chasing it.”
With 20 games left, the Penguins remain on firm playoff footing. But they allowed the Panthers, one of the few teams still within striking distance of them for the final wild-card spot in the East, to gain two points on them in the standings.
Sullivan said the Penguins must put this loss behind them and not let it snowball, like they have on
a few occasions this season, including just last month.
“We’d like to think we’ve learned through the experiences. The stakes get higher with every game that we get under our belts,” the coach said. “We’re in a fight here to make the playoffs and every game is going to be a high-stakes game. We have to bring the urgency.”
Ice chips
• Bonino was in the lineup a day after the Penguins acquired him from San Jose. He centered the fourth line, with Drew O’Connor and Josh Archibald on his wings. As expected, Bonino was also featured as a penalty killer right away.
• Dmitry Kulikov, Friday’s other trade acquisition, didn’t travel to Florida to join the team due to logistical challenges. He will meet the team in Pittsburgh.
• Sullivan said the initial plan was to start Tristan Jarry in Saturday’s game. But Jarry wasn’t feeling well, so DeSmith got the nod.
• With his hooking penalty in the second period, Malkin moved into a tie with Kevin Stevens for the most penalty minutes in Penguins history at 1,048 each.
Stat n’at
28 – shots from the slot for Florida, the most Pittsburgh has permitted in a game this season, per Sportlogiq. The Penguins generated just eight themselves.
They said it
“We need to go back home and start a winning streak again,” Malkin said. “We have a great team. We traded
a couple guys, but I think this team can [beat] any team. It’s a tough loss, but if we play better, we win, for sure. Last five games, we played better and better. We need to go backhome and start again.”’
Coming up
The road trip over, Penguins
players will get Sunday off. They will practice Monday in Cranberry ahead of Tuesday’s home matchup against Columbus.