PENS FALL TO FLYERS
Penguins blow early 3-goal lead as Giroux sparks Flyers to win
Speaking with reporters Saturday, a couple of weeks into his new gig, Penguins general manager Ron Hextall shared an early observation about his team.
“I’m impressed by a lot of things. … [But] I’d like to see a little bit more consistency out of our group,” he said. “It’s a tough season right now with so many games in so few days. But it’s something that you’ve got to battle every night.”
That night, the Penguins played arguably their best third period of the season to take down a tough New York Islanders team. A day later, they were at their worst, giving up two power-play goals and getting shut out by those
Islanders.
Tuesday, they overcame the loss of Sidney Crosby to thump the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena. Any guesses how Thursday night’s rematch went?
The Penguins blitzed the Flyers with three early goals but eventually coughed up that lead. Claude Giroux scored with 2:08 left to give the Flyers a 4-3 win.
“We settled. We didn’t keep pressing,” Kris Letang said. “We came out of the gate pretty aggressive, got rewarded, but we let our foot off the gas for the rest of the game thinking we could get away with it. But in this league there’s too much talent and skill. A three-goal lead, especially early in the game, is not safe.”
The Penguins in 2021 have pulled off some bold comebacks and won a bunch of onegoal games. But the game-togame consistency just hasn’t been there. They have yet to string together three complete performances in a row. And with two months left in the season, they are lingering outside playoff position.
Whether it has been early deficits, subpar special teams, shaky January goaltending, Evgeni Malkin’s malaise or enemy attackers alone in front of their net, coach Mike Sullivan’s squad has yet to click on all cylinders.
So why is this talented team having such a hard time gaining traction?
“If I had an answer for you, I could probably fix it,” Sullivan said. “It’s frustrating from the coach’s standpoint because I know we’re capable of more consistent play.”
“But we haven’t found it yet,” the Cup-winning coach continued. “Some nights, when we play the game hard and we play committed and we play the right way and we work together, we’re a competitive hockey team. And then, for whatever reason, other nights we get away from it.”
And it could be a night that comes back to bite Sullivan’s Penguins in May.
Crosby returned to the lineup Thursday after he missed Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Flyers because he was placed on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. The 2,800 fans in the house roared when their captain was announced as one of the starters. Crosby’s activation, and the crowd’s reaction, sparked the Penguins early.
Letang scored on a shot from the point. Before the fans finished screaming about Letang’s fifth goal of the season, Flyers goalie Brian Elliott shrugged off a shot by Crosby and the puck skipped through the slot to Mark Friedman. The new guy whacked it between the goalie’s pads for his first NHL goal. It came against his former team.
Jared McCann scored another on a hard drive to the net, finishing off a nice feed from Kasperi Kapanen to put the Penguins up, 3-0, just 3:57 into the game.
“We came out of the gate strong, fast,” Letang said, biting his lip when asked to explain how they could let it slip away. “We knew we had Sid back. Everybody was excited for it. And we think it’s going to be easy for the rest of the game.”
The Flyers soon took over the game and Sean Couturier got them on the board in the first period. And then Friedman got knocked out of the game by Nolan Patrick early in the second, forcing the Penguins to play with five defensemen.
Giroux pulled them within 3-2 in the second, taking advantage of a defensive breakdown to bury a rebound with Jarry sprawled on his stomach.
In the third, the Penguins had chances to pull away. They couldn’t convert on a power play and Elliott made a sweet glove save on Malkin midway through the period. Then Giroux shot’s hit Scott Laughton and went in for the tying goal.
Giroux’s game- winner came after Mike Matheson blocked a shot and was unable to clear the zone. Nicolas Aube-Kubel got to the loose puck and spotted Giroux on the backdoor. Giroux nudged it over the goal line with 2:08 remaining.
Jarry made 31 saves but had another third-period letdown, allowing two goals in the final seven minutes. The loss was hardly his fault, though. Far from it.
“We just didn’t play the game hard enough or smart enough for the majority of the game,” Sullivan said.
Added Letang: “I can point to a lot of things we don’t really do well consistently. But when we’re on our game, we do the little things … we get rewarded.”
Thursday’s game was the second of three in a row against the Flyers, all of them at home. The Penguins play host to them again Saturday.
“There’s nothing we can do. We’ve got to move by [this loss], learn from it and have a short memory,” Crosby said. “You know, whether you win or lose, you’ve got to learn from it. But we definitely can’t allow games like this to happen.”