Observations from the Penguins’ 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

This is a hard game to have some sort of deep or clever or unique take on.

The Penguins stunk. That’s pretty much it.

It wasn’t the faceoffs or how the power play didn’t click or what the goaltender did.

They just weren’t ready to play against a pretty bad team and got clobbered right from the get go.

If there’s a theme to this game and that is how they played defense. Obviously, it wasn’t good.

But that’s what did them in on Thursday in that hideous 4-0 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto.

They know their defense has been shoddy. But what’s being done about it? Coach Mike Sullivan wondered that aloud after this game.

“I’m both disappointed and concerned,” Sullivan said. “We’re saying the right things but our actions have to follow our words.”

Sullivan will often talk about cohesive effort. There wasn’t a lot of that in this game. Plenty of individuals went all out to drag the Penguins back into this game.

Evgeni Malkin scored each of the team’s goals.

Patric Hornqvist tried to drive anyone he saw in a Sabres jersey through the boards.

Brandon Tanev skated as if he were being chased by bill collector.

And several others offered honest efforts individually.

But little of what the Penguins offered was done as a team.

“We need to play five guys in (the) offensive zone, five guys backchecking and play (defensive) zone,” Malkin said. “We understand we (did) not play great but we have time to fix our mistakes and (get) ready for playoffs.”

What happened

Off the opening faceoff, Sabres forward Kyle Okposo lobbed a wrister from the right wing which goaltender Tristan Jarry steered to the far corner with his blocker. Sabres forward Johan Larsson tried to rim the puck behidn the cage but had it intercepted by a backchecking Malkin whose clearing attempt was swiped by Okoposo. From behind the cage, Okposo slipped a pass to the slot for wide open forward Zemgus Girgensons who put a wrister past Jarry’s left skate for his 11th goal of the season a mere 14 seconds into regulation. Okposo had the lone assist.

(Video courtesy NHL)

They made it a 2-0 game at 6:45 of the first period. Off a pass from Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson, defenseman Kris Letang fumbled a puck from behind the Penguins’ blue line into the neutral zone. Sabres forward Sam Reinhart leaned down, chipped the puck back into the Penguins’ zone and surged past a flat-footed Letang to create a breakaway. Going backhand to forehand, he lifted a wrister past Jarry’s blocker for his 22nd goal. There were no assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

A power-play goal put the Sabres up, 3-0, at 10:51 of the first period. After Malkin took a slashing minor in the offensive zone at the 9:44 mark, Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen settled a puck at center point and slid a pass to the left circle for forward Jack Eichel. Moving in slightly, Eichel roofed a wrister to the near side past Jarry’s blocker. Ristolainen and Reinhart collected assists. The Penguins called a timeout to get collected after that goal.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The Penguins finally got on the scoreboard at 11:10 of the second. After Penguins forward Jared McCann forced a turnover inside the Sabres’ blue line, Malkin claimed it on the right half wall, sashayed his way around a sliding block attempt by Sabres defenseman Henri Jkiharju and attacked the net, lifting a wrister past goaltender Carter Hutton’s blocker for his 19th goal. There were no assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The Sabres secured victory at 5:39 of the third. Gaining offensive zone on the right wing, Sabres forward Marcus Johansson pulled up on the right half wall and lobbed a pass to the top of the crease. Sabres forward Jeff Skinner had a step on Penguins forward Sam Lafferty, leaned forward and poked the puck through Jarry’s five hole for his 12th goal. Johansson and forward Michael Frolik recorded assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Eichel got another power-play goal at 12:17 of the third. Off a pass from center point by defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, Eichel ripped a wrister from the left circle, once again past Jarry’s right shoulder on the near side. Assists went to Dahlin and Ristolainen.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Malkin scored again at 17:57 of the third on a goal-mouth scramble. Hornqvist had the lone assist.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins dominated shots, 43-26. The bulk of those came in the third period when they had 18.

• Hornqvist led the game with five shots.

• Rookie forward Sam Lafferty was the lone Penguins skater who failed to record a shot.

• Okposo, Skinner and Johansson each led the Sabres with three shots.

• Letang led the game with 25:09 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• Ristolainen led the Sabres with 23:13 of ice time.

• The Penguins led the game in faceoffs, 32-24 (57 percent).

• Penguins forward Sidney Crosby was 13 for 23 (57 percent).

• Sabres forward Curtis Lazar was 7 for 13 (54 percent).

• Sabres defenseman Colin Miller led the game with three blocked shots.

• Defensemen Marcus Pettersson, Zach Trotman, Johnson and Tanev each led the Penguins with two blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• Hornqvist (260 points) surpassed defenseman Sergei Gonchar (259) for 31st place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

Randomly speaking

• Dominik Kahun, who appeared to injure his left leg in Toronto on Thursday, took warmups but did not play. Sullivan labeled him a “game-time decision” in the morning. He was replaced by rookie forward Anthony Angello.

• Sullivan did take Juuso Riikola out of the lineup and replaced him with Zach Trotman. Riikola was burned pretty badly on a breakaway Thursday.

• For Trotman, it was his first NHL game since Dec. 4. Teamed primarily with fellow right-hander Chad Ruhwedel, he logged 13:48 of ice time on 21 shifts and had three shots on six attempts.

• It’s not accurate to pin this on Jarry given how bad the team was as a whole, but he wasn’t good. It was, statistically speaking at least, his worst game of the season as he allowed a season-high five goals.

• Hornqvist had some kind of beef going with Johansson, a fellow Swede. He clobbered Johansson with some big-time hits throughout this contest. In the third period, once the game was all but decided and the building cleared out, several four-letter words directed at Hornqvist from the Sabres’ bench were audible.

• The Penguins were 0 for 2 on the power play and 1 for 3 on the penalty kill. So … the special teams were consistent.

• Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz has gone 19 games without a point.

• Hutton has the Penguins’ number for some reason. In eight career games against the Penguins, he has a 5-1-0 record, a 1.95 goals against average, a .939 save percentage and two shutouts.

• Skinner scored his first goal since Dec. 2. Yeesh.

Publicly speaking

• Malkin on his team’s play:

“We (were) not ready. We (have) not played great the last I think 10 games. Same mistakes. We try to play easy. It’s not (the) right way. With 20 games left, everyone is in a fight to (the) playoffs. … Every team is close. Try (to) forget this game. Be ready for (a) big fight tomorrow (against the Washington Capitals).”

• Sullivan on his team’s play:

“I know our guys know how to play. But that’s not the issue. The challenge is the mindset. Are we thinking the right way before the puck drops. And are we committed and willing to play that way for 60 minutes. That’s a discipline and we haven’t had it the last few games. This is what happens. You have to play hard but you have to play smart. I thought our team worked hard to try to get back into the game today. But we didn’t play smart. So we got beat. It’s not good enough just to play hard. You have to play smart. It’s the combination that gives you a chance to win. We don’t have that combination right now.”

• Malkin suggested his team wasn’t ready due to the early start:

“We need to be ready. It’s an early game, 12 o’clock (noon). It’s the same (Sunday). We’re not ready (for the) first period. I have a couple of mistakes (in the) first period. They score. It’s not right. We need to be focused. Have to play the way we played in the second and third period.”

• Sullivan spoke about the timeout he took:

“My message was that we’re beating ourselves right now. We’ve got to grab a hold of it. I called a time out because I thought we had a lot of that game left. It was an opportunity to try to help change the mindset so that we’d give ourselves a chance to get back in the hockey game. We played hard. We battled to get back into the game. But give their goaltender credit. He made some big saves. That’s hockey. That’s why you can’t beat yourself because sometimes, you’re going to run into a goalie that makes some big saves. Our guys have done that for us on a number of occasions. That was the message, that was the intent. That’s why I did it. I give our players a lot of credit because I do think we battled. But at that point, it’s hard to spot teams a couple of goals and think you’re going to win.”

• Malkin on his team’s defense being bad as of late:

“A couple games, maybe more. We understand we’re a better team for sure. We understand we should play better. We talk every day. Coach shows us video every day. But I hope we understand it’s not easy to win every game. We have so (many) good players here. But we need (to) fight. We need like (how Hornqvist) plays. He’s an unbelievable player. He never stops. Okay, we (were down) 3-0. It’s fine. We need fight. We (had) chance to win this game. But we have a bad penalty, a couple turnovers and they score a couple of goals. No chance to win.”

• Jarry is optimistic the defense will get better:

“We just have to keep working on it in practice. It’s something that’s going to come. You see early on in the season, how well we’ve played and how well the team played together. It’s just getting back to that.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

Follow the Penguins all season long.

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