Penguins maintain belief in being a playoff team despite another ugly loss

When things have gone bad for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the past decade and change, Evgeni Malkin has usually been there to serve as the franchise’s prime meridian.

Usually through his actions but certainly with his words as well.

The superstar forward doesn’t speak after each and every game. But on the occasions a defeat is particularly repugnant, Malkin has often been a voice of reassurance.

Monday was one of those occasions.

Following another come-from-ahead 4-2 home loss to a New York Islanders team missing several of its key players at PPG Paints Arena, Malkin came close to offering a guarantee.

“If we play (the) same, we fight every inch, we try to play hard, we’ll win,” Malkin said. “We have a great team here. I believe (in) everyone. If we play the same, we’ll be in the playoffs for sure.”

Just getting into the playoffs is hardly a unique occasion for a franchise that has qualified for postseason games the past 16 years.

But for a team that slipped out of a wild-card seeding due to Monday’s loss, extending that streak to 17 years feels like a slightly more arduous task than it has in the past.

Malkin wasn’t alone in his optimism.

“It (stinks) losing right now, the way we’re losing,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “Nobody’s happy. But we believe in each other. The only way we’re going to get out of this is together with what we have in this room. We’re right in the fight here. We can’t get discouraged. It’s for sure tough losing but we’ve got to keep going.”

One player who was a full go Monday was starting goaltender Tristan Jarry, who returned to the lineup after missing nine games due to an undisclosed injury. His record fell to 16-6-5 as he made 28 saves on 31 shots.

There was at least one anxious moment with regard to Jarry’s well-being when he appeared to be stunned a bit after absorbing a shot from Islanders forward Bo Horvat at 5:03 of the third period.

Jarry took a few moments to gather himself after being struck on the right side of his neck.

“Just hurting,” a stoic Jarry said following the game while displaying a slight welt on his neck.

The Penguins’ top line hurt the Islanders by opening the scoring 6:12 into regulation.

After Jarry denied Islanders forward Anders Lee on a quality scoring opportunity, Penguins forward Jake Guentzel claimed the rebound and transitioned it into an offensive rush, gaining the Islanders’ zone on the left wing. From just inside the blue line, Guentzel centered the puck to linemate Rickard Rakell, who then offloaded the puck to forward Sidney Crosby in the right circle. Low in the circle, Crosby shuffled a backhanded pass attempt toward the slot but had it partially blocked by the stick of backchecking Islanders forward Bo Horvat. As goaltender Ilya Sorokin overplayed Crosby a bit, the puck bounced across the crease, where Guentzel tapped in an easy forehand shot for his 24th goal of 2022-23. Crosby and Rakell had assists.

A would-be power-play goal by Penguins forward Jeff Carter 3:54 into the second period was prevented by Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov, who made a desperate dive to sweep a sliding puck off the goal line.

That defensive stand allowed the Islanders to tie the contest 85 seconds later with forward Brock Nelson’s 25th goal.

After Islanders forward Zach Parise chipped a puck up the left wing wall of his own zone, Penguins forward Drew O’Connor failed to keep the puck inside the blue line and allowed it to bounce to the neutral zone. Nelson claimed the puck near the center red line and generated a two-on-one rush with linemate Kyle Palmieri against Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Surveying his options for a moment, Nelson elected to shoot and lasered a wrister past Jarry’s right shoulder on the far side. Parise had the lone assist.

The Penguins’ second power-play unit restored a lead, 2-1, with forward Jason Zucker’s 15th goal at 12:51 of the second frame.

Emerging from a puck battle in the Islanders’ left corner, Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen distributed a pass to the right point for Penguins defenseman Jeff Petry. Searching for a shooting lane, Petry wound up and clapped a slapper that hit off far post. The puck bounced across the front of the goal line to the right of the crease, where Zucker swatted it off the outside of the cage. On the ensuing rebound, Zucker was able to push a forehand shot into Sorokin’s back and into the cage before it was dislodged. Petry and Kapanen claimed assists.

A wild scene unfolded late in the second period at the 17:15 mark.

After Sorokin made an acrobatic diving save with his stick to prevent a seemingly easy rebound goal for Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, Islanders forward Matt Martin shoved Zucker, who was in search of a rebound. That confrontation touched off a five-on-five scrum that lingered for several minutes. Eventually, all 10 non-goaltenders on the ice received some sort of penalty. Zucker and Islanders forward Ross Johnston each set the “high score” in the fracas with 14 penalty minutes each.

The entire ugly sequence could have been prevented during the prior shift when Islanders defenseman Sebastian Aho wrestled Crosby to the ice and pinned him there for roughly 10 seconds. Instead of calling a penalty, referee Peter MacDougall opted to be a spectator and watched the two tussle on the ice from roughly 10 feet away.

Penguins forward Teddy Blueger could have put his team up by two goals early in the third period but had a short-handed breakaway attempt roughly 16 seconds into the third period snuffed out by Sorokin.

Sloppy puck management by the Penguins in their own zone ultimately did them in.

First, Horvat claimed his 35th goal at the 8:34 mark. After a defensive zone turnover by Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph was claimed by a leaping Islanders defenseman Hudson Fasching at the right point, Horvat slinked his way up the right wing wall and snapped off a short-side wrister that hit off Jarry’s left arm and clunked into the cage. Fasching had the only assist.

The winning goal came at the 10:15 mark after an ugly turnover by Jarry.

Settling a puck behind his own net, Jarry blindly played the puck to the left corner, where Horvat accepted the charity and fed a pass to the slot for Martin. Instead of shooting, Martin moved the puck to the right of the cage. A backchecking Blueger momentarily broke up the sequence, but Lee was able to claim the rebound and tucked in an easy forehand shot for his 22nd goal. Martin and Horvat had assists.

“We made a call and they got in between it,” Jarry said of the decision to send the puck to the corner. “They were able to funnel it out front and just out-man us.”

An empty net goal by Nelson at 19:35 secured victory. Parise tallied the lone assist.

“Instead of finding a way to win, we found a way to lose,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We made a couple of mistakes that ended up in the back of our net.”

The loss was the Penguins’ ninth consecutive defeat against Metropolitan Division foes and added some doubt to their playoff prospects.

At least externally.

“Just stay focused, stay positive,” Malkin implored. “A couple of practices before the next game. Support each other. It’s not over. It’s (26) more games. We need to win a lot. Play same level, same energy and I think we’ll be fine.”

Notes:

• The Penguins’ most recent win against a Metropolitan Division rival was a 3-2 home victory against the New York Rangers on Dec. 20.

• With Jarry being activated from injured reserve on Monday afternoon, reserve goaltender Dustin Tokarski was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL) in a corresponding transaction.

• Penguins forwards Danton Heinen (healthy), Ryan Poehling (undisclosed injury) and defenseman Mark Friedman (undisclosed injury) were scratches.

• Islanders rookie forward Arnaud Durandeau made his NHL debut after being recalled from Bridgeport of the AHL on Sunday.