Penguins start slow in loss to Toronto
the Penguins’ spokesman when things aren’t going so well, and he again hit it out of the park with this one.
The Penguins are 14-3-2 when they get the first goal of a game, 2-9-1 when they do not. They’re 10-0-1 when leading after the first period, 2-8-1 when trailing.
The game Saturday featured a very good final 40 minutes — the Penguins were terrific in the third period — but again, it’s the classic case of too little, too late.
Especially considering that Patric Hornqvist, the Penguins’ net-front presence and one of their emotional leaders, took a puck to the temple and played just 49 seconds in the third period. There was no postgame update available on Hornqvist’s status.
“We’ve got to be ready to play the exact same way every night, home or on the road,” Sidney Crosby said. “We have to establish our game similar to the way we played in the second and third, but it’s a little too late at that point.”
The six solid starts the Penguins (16-12-3) strung together were great, but it probably bears repeating that, in the other 25 first periods the Penguins have played, they’ve scored just 16 goals and have allowed 33, a minus-17 goal differential that’s worst in the league.
“We’re not understanding that the first five minutes are very important,” Malkin said. “We think it’s easy. It’s not. It’s the NHL. Every team is young and hungry; they want to win the Stanley Cup. We need to start to understand that.”
Saying that the Penguins need to have stronger starts is one thing. Figuring out how they do that is something else.
For the what the Penguins can and should correct, let’s take a listen to coach Mike Sullivan.
You know, because somebody here should.
“I just think it’s a readiness on our part,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got numbers back. It’s a lack of awareness. It’s a compete level in front of our net. There’s a lot of things. But it starts for me with a mindset and a readiness and a willingness to play the game hard and play the game with a certain level of commitment right from the drop of the puck. For whatever reason, we didn’t have it [Saturday].”
The first-period goals featured a little bit of everything.
Morgan Rielly found Connor Brown with a nifty feed. James van Riemsdyk converted from the doorstep thanks to an alert, tap-back pass from Mitchell Marner. And Tyler Bozak got a couple of whacks at a rebound.
Don’t blame Tristan Jarry. The Penguins hung the poor kid out to dry, and he was pulled in favor of Casey DeSmith at first intermission.
As Sullivan said, the Penguins have to be more aware in front of their net and can’t give Toronto’s dangerous forwards so much time and space.
To the Penguins’ credit, they did stop the bleeding and tightened up defensively. But the opening 12:55, when they fell behind, 3-0, haunted them the rest of the night.
“It’s tough to chase the game like that,” Dumoulin said. “I thought we had good bounce-back. I thought we had good pressure. It’s tough to come back game after game like that.”
The Penguins certainly tried.
Riley Sheahan scored for the second game in a row, and Malkin converted on the power play to make it 3-2. But Bozak got a tip-in goal to short-circuit any momentum just 22 seconds later.
Crosby finished a Letang feed in the third as the Penguins buzzed, taking chances to try to create offense, but they were never able to shake their lackluster start, a growing trend that has infuriated and confounded Sullivan.
“We just weren’t good enough, and it was the difference in the outcome,” Sullivan said of the Penguins’ slow start. “We can’t keep chasing games the way we’re chasing them. When you play good teams, you can’t spot ‘em a three-goal lead. When you give up a couple goals so early in the game, it’s a head-scratcher for me. I’m not sure I understand why. But that’s something that we as a group have to solve if we’re going to become the team we want to be.”