3 takeaways: Meager offensive production plaguing Penguins on current skid

Three takeaways following the Penguins’ 3-1 loss to Seattle on Saturday night:

Offense dries up

The Penguins’ loss at the hands of Seattle on Saturday concludes their longest road trip of the 2022-23 season.

Following a victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 22, the Penguins proceeded to drop the next four games against Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and the Kraken.

Now, they will return to Pittsburgh to prepare for a Nov. 1 showdown with Boston.

Long gone seem to be the days of earlier this month, when the Penguins jumped to a 4-0-1 start and were regularly scoring six goals per game.

In the place of such impressive hockey has come a stretch of offensive struggles, with the Penguins having been limited to a lone goal in three consecutive games.

In addition to managing just three even-strength goals in as many games, the Penguins’ special teams units have left much to be desired of late, with a stale power play that has gone 3 of 16 (18.8%) over the current skid.

Additionally, the penalty kill went 8 of 12 (66.7%) over the last four games of this now-completed road trip.

Peculiar penalty kill

Of all the parts of the Penguins’ game that need some fine tuning, the penalty kill is prominent on the list. Heading into Saturday evening, it ranked fourth-worst (29th) in the NHL at 69%.

The Penguins being without Teddy Blueger, a leading presence on the unit who was placed on long-term injured reserve Oct. 23 (retroactive to Oct. 11), has undoubtedly contributed to the struggles.

Five minutes into the second period against Seattle, coach Mike Sullivan found himself down another one of his go-to penalty-killers when Josh Archibald headed to the box for tripping.

In Archibald’s absence, Sullivan rotated some unlikely faces into the penalty-kill: Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel, both of whom skated with Kasperi Kapanen.

Rust is no stranger to the penalty kill. For several years earlier in his Penguins career, he was deployed in that fashion often, logging a career-high 142 minutes and one second of shorthanded ice time in 2018-19, per Natural Stat Trick.

But over the last two seasons, his time on that unit has decreased considerably.

As for Guentzel, his insertion into the penalty kill is interesting on a number of fronts.

For starters, Saturday marked Guentzel’s return to action after missing four straight games due to a head injury sustained Oct. 20 at home against the Kings.

Clearly, Sullivan was not treating Guentzel as a fragile object in need of protection from contact or pucks in the air.

Guentzel also has played less than nine shorthanded minutes over the last two seasons, in 124 games played.

Later in the game, about midway through the third period, Kris Letang took an interference penalty.

This time, Sullivan reverted to his normal forward pairings, with Archibald and Kapanen cycling in with Ryan Poehling and Brock McGinn.

While Guentzel didn’t pull more penalty-kill duty, Rust technically did, as he took the ice with Sidney Crosby ahead of a defensive zone faceoff with seconds remaining on the Kraken’s man-advantage.

Two men gained, one lost

Guentzel’s return to action Saturday night was a welcome one for the Penguins. In his absence, Sullivan had tweaked the Penguins’ lines, with Danton Heinen playing left wing alongside Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell in Guentzel’s absence.

Things did not completely return to normal with Guentzel in the lineup against Seattle, as Sullivan opted to play Rust on the Crosby line, with Rakell playing right wing on Evgeni Malkin’s line.

Also rejoining the fold Saturday was Jason Zucker, who had been sidelined for two games with an undisclosed injury following the Penguins’ 6-3 loss to Edmonton on Monday, a game in which he had a pair of assists.

Zucker reclaimed his normal position to the left of Malkin, logging 15:51 of ice time Saturday with two shots, two hits and a blocked shot.

Unfortunately for the Penguins, while they got two key players back, they lost one mid-game, with Jeff Carter failing to take a single shift following the first period.

Following the loss, Sullivan told reporters in Seattle that Carter was being evaluated for a lower-body injury.