Takeaways from the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-3 loss to Boston Saturday at PPG Paints Arena:
Ugly special teams
Following the Penguins’ practice Friday in Cranberry, coach Mike Sullivan reflected on the two prior meetings his club had with Boston on Nov. 1 and Jan. 2, both of which were close losses.
“We’ve got to find a way to get over the hump,” he said, while complimenting the depth, goaltending and completeness of the Bruins, who captured this year’s Presidents’ Trophy Thursday after only 75 games played.
Saturday afternoon featured the final meeting between the Penguins and Bruins and once again, it was a tight affair that Boston managed to win.
Regarding the Penguins’ failure to “get over the hump,” look no further than the hat trick scored by David Pastrnak as a primary reason as to why.
The 26-year-old’s slapshot from the heart of the slot with 2 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in regulation was his 55th of the season as well as the winner.
But outside of Pastrnak’s dominant performance, the Penguins saw their efforts to capture critical late-season points derailed by sloppy special teams.
The penalty kill allowed goals on two of three Boston man-advantages, whereas the Penguins’ own power play went 0 for 6.
“Our penalty kill, I think, was disconnected tonight and the power play, we just didn’t execute,” Sullivan said.
An interference call on Chad Ruhwedel put the Penguins on the penalty kill for the first time a little more than four minutes into the opening period.
After Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling attempted to disrupt a pass into the slot, and with Tristan Jarry out of position, a diving effort by Boston’s Pavel Zacha put the puck on the stick of Charlie McAvoy, who buried a shot into the open net with one second remaining on the power play.
Then, at the end of the second period, Evgeni Malkin blatantly tripped Brad Marchand in the offensive zone, heading to the penalty box with four seconds remaining.
Pastrnak went on to score his first goal of the game, a chest-high deflection of a shot by Dmitry Orlov that beat Jarry less than two minutes into the third.
The six power-play tries by the Penguins Saturday were tied for the second-most they have had in a game all season, eclipsed only by the nine against New Jersey Dec. 30.
Granted, their final man advantage began with less than a minute left in the third period.
But earlier in the second, trailing 2-1, the Penguins failed to convert on 45 seconds’ worth of a 5 on 3 power-play try.
Boston’s Jake Debrusk headed to the penalty box for high-sticking and was joined soon thereafter by Brandon Carlo for interference.
The Penguins, skating their top power-play unit of Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Rickard Rakell, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang, managed just a shot on goal on three tries during the sequence.
Asked about the lack of shots on goal following the game, Malkin was irked.
“Do you think we’re not trying (to shoot) or what? Sometimes, you see (a shooting lane) and they block a shot,” Malkin said. “We tried to move the puck, hoping something opened. Maybe shoot more, but we’re trying. It’s Boston. They already (won the) Presidents’ Trophy. They do everything … like … perfect. We (were) fighting tonight very well. Yeah, the power play doesn’t work. But we’ll listen to you and shoot a little bit more (Sunday) for sure.”
The Penguins never led Saturday and managed to tie the score on three occasions before responding to Pastrnak’s goal late in the third period proved too tall a task.
Little opportunity exists to spend time dwelling on the loss to Boston, however, as the Penguins have a quick turnaround with Philadelphia visiting PPG Paints Arena at 6 p.m. Sunday night.
“We battled back, and not to get any points out of it is frustrating,” Crosby said. “But, we’ve got a game tomorrow, so we’ve got to focus on that.”
Resurgent Rust
In terms of offensive production, this season has proved to be underwhelming statistically for Bryan Rust.
Rust had been stumbling through his most quiet month of the season, having managed one goal in March.
But he netted two against Boston on Saturday, Nos. 17 and 18 on the year, repeatedly equalizing the game for the Penguins, who played most of the afternoon with a deficit.
However, Rust remains at risk of snapping a three-season streak of scoring at least 20 goals.
Last year he had 24, with 22 in 2020-21 and a career-high 27 in 2019-20.
“He’s had a lot of really good looks as of late, and the puck hasn’t gone in the net for him,” Sullivan said. “… He’s bringing the game that he always brings. I just think tonight, it went in the net for him. Hopefully, that’s something that he can build on.”
