Penguins enter offseason after overtime loss to Blue Jackets

Sidney Crosby did something he hasn’t accomplished with much frequency throughout his nonpareil career.

Play every game of a regular season.

With Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena in nearby Columbus, Ohio, Crosby suited up for this 82nd contest of the 2022-23 campaign. It marked only the second occasion Crosby accrued a full set of 82, the previous coming in 2017-18.

Another scarcity for Crosby?

Not being in the playoffs.

In the days prior, the Penguins were formally eliminated from postseason contention as the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders consumed the Eastern Conference’s wild card positions.

For the first time since his rookie campaign of 2005-06, Crosby’s team won’t be competing for the Stanley Cup.

“It’s nice,” Crosby said of reaching 82 games on Wednesday in Cranberry. “I’d take 81 and a playoff spot, to be honest with you.”

Plenty of blunt honesty should unfold in the next few days and weeks for this disappointing edition of the Penguins, a club that professes the highest of expectations, i.e. the Stanley Cup.

General manager Ron Hextall — and many others in the front office, including president of hockey operations Brian Burke — will bear the responsibility for the failure of not meeting even the most basic component of those aspirations and his employment status could reflect the ramifications of those shortcomings.

Coach Mike Sullivan is also a claimant of this unappetizing result. But given that he is under contract through 2027, he is not likely to be updating his LinkedIn profile anytime soon.

Beyond that, several of those on the ice will likely be moving on.

Forwards Josh Archibald, Nick Bonino, Danton Heinen, Jason Zucker, defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Dmitry Kulikov and, most prominently, top goaltender Tristan Jarry are all pending unrestricted free agents this upcoming offseason.

The fates of others signed to ample contracts beyond this season — including forwards Mikael Granlund and Jeff Carter, defensemen Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta and backup goaltender Casey DeSmith — must be sorted out by Hextall’s presumed successor.

As for Thursday’s game, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang’s 12th goal of the season opened the scoring 4:28 into regulation during a power-play opportunity.

Taking a pass at the left point of the offensive zone, Crosby slid the puck to the opposite point for Letang who surveyed a shooting lane and chucked a wrister through a forest of arms and sticks beyond the grasp of journeyman goaltender Michael Hutchinson’s glove on the far side. Crosby and forward Rickard Rakell had assists.

The Blue Jackets got on the scoreboard at 2:12 of the second period via defenseman Andrew Peeke’s sixth goal.

After Blue Jackets rookie forward Hunter McKown beat Penguins forward Ryan Poehling on a draw in Pittsburgh’s right circle, Peeke wrangled the puck at the right point and teed up a slapper that toasted Jarry’s glove on the near side. McKown had the only assist.

Penguins forward Jake Guentzel scored his team-best 36th goal 3:53 into the third period on another power-play scenario.

At the center point of the offensive zone, Letang accepted a pass, considered his options and distributed the puck to the top of the left circle. From there, Guentzel deadened the puck, turned to his right and chopped a slapper past a kneeling Peeke and between Hutchinson’s left arm and ribs on the far side. Assists went to Letang and Crosby.

As was the case in many of the Penguins’ first 81 games of the season, they gave up a lead late in regulation when Blue Jackets forward Emil Bemstrom scored his seventh goal at 16:35 of the third frame during a power-play sequence.

Off puck movement on the perimeter of the offensive zone, Blue Jackets rookie forward Mikael Pyyhtia snapped a clever pass from the top of the right circle past the stick of Dumoulin to the far side of the crease where Bemstrom buried a forehand shot behind the blocker of a sprawling Jarry. Pyyhtia and rookie defenseman Stanislav Svozil — each of whom made their NHL debuts in this contest — recorded assists.

In overtime, forward Johnny Gaudreau’s 20th goal claimed victory exactly one minute into the extra period.

After Crosby missed a shot from the slot of the offensive zone, Blue Jackets forward Sean Kuraly collected the rebound on the left wing wall and dished it to defenseman Adam Boqvist on the end boards. As the Penguins attempted a line change, Boqvist identified opportunity and snapped a stretch pass to Gaudreau trekking into the Penguins’ zone from the left wing. As Petry provided a futile pursuit, Gaudreau approached the net and faked a forehand shot that jammed up Jarry. Gaudreau then maneuvered to his backhand and slipped the puck under Jarry’s left leg. Boqvist and Kuraly had assists.

Jarry stopped 31 of 34 shots as he completed his season with a 24-13-7 record.

His team finished with a 40-31-11 mark that generated a surplus of questions and a deficit of answers on what went wrong.

“We can talk about that at a different point,” Crosby said Wednesday. “It’s hard to cover (82) games in a 30-second soundbite. Every team tries to find consistency. There’s some good teams. The Islanders are a good team. Florida is a good team that had to fight to get to this point. It’s hard to break it down to that extent right now.

“I think every team tries to find consistency. And that’s something that, like a lot of teams, we’ve tried to find.”

Notes:

• Penguins forward Bryan Rust did not record a shift beyond the 19:00 mark of the second period. There was no word on his status.

• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, Crosby, Rakell and Dumoulin played in all 82 games this season.

Malkin reached the 82-game mark for the third time in his career. The previous two occurrences came in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Dumoulin and Rakell each reached the 82-game mark for the first time.

• Dumoulin finished the season as the team’s reigning “iron man” having played in 105 consecutive regular season games dating to the 2021-22 campaign.

• Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson was activated from long-term injured reserve Thursday afternoon and returned to the lineup after missing 12 games due to an undisclosed injury.

• To make room for Pettersson on the roster, defenseman Mark Friedman was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League after clearing waivers.

• Penguins forward Alex Nylander had his recall status changed from emergency to regular.

• Archibald, Rutta and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel were scratched by the Penguins.

• Malkin (1,230 points) surpassed Hockey Hall of Fame forward Norm Ullman (1,229) for 43rd place on the NHL’s career scoring list.

• The Penguins had an eight-game winning streak against the Blue Jackets snapped.

The Blue Jackets’ most recent win against the Penguins was a 5-2 home victory on Nov. 29, 2019.

• In addition to Pyythia and Svozil, Blue Jackets forward Tyler Angle and defenseman Samuel Knazko all made their NHL debuts.

• The Blue Jackets’ most recent overtime win against the Penguins was a 2-1 home victory on Feb. 17, 2017. Forward Brandon Dubinsky scored the winning goal against goaltender Matt Murray.