Penguins' penalty kill continues to falter in loss to Sabres

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center in Buffalo on Sunday was not strictly because of their penalty kill.

No, there were far too many malfunctions to their overall game to blame this setback on any one segment of players.

In many ways, this ugly defeat was a rather complete effort. Just about everyone who dressed in a black and yellow jersey contributed.

That said, the winning goal Sunday came while the Penguins were killing a penalty. That score continued a string of futility throughout April for the penalty kill, which has allowed seven goals on 23 short-handed sequences, equating to a not-so-nice kill rate of 69.6 %.

Generally, allowing the opposition to score nearly a third of the time it has a power-play chance is a rather efficient way to lose games. As it is, the Penguins are just a hair over .500 during that span, going 5-3-1.

The penalty kill has been a work in progress throughout the course of the season. At 76.7 %, it’s one of the worst units in the NHL.

“That’s not great,” said Penguins forward Teddy Blueger, one of the team’s top short-handed players. “That’s something that we felt like for the large part throughout the second half (of the season) was heading in the right direction. We’ve just got to kind of stay on it. As soon as we loosen up a little or lose a little bit of concentration against any team in this league, you’re going to get punished.

“We’ve got to figure it out.”

The Penguins seemed to have had the lowly Sabres figured out this season before Sunday’s setback. They had won the first five meetings of the season between the two squads and seemed poised to sweep the entire eight-game set.

But any notion of the Sabres laying down to a superior opponent was extinguished early on when Sabres forward Arttu Ruotsalainen scored on the game’s first shot, converting a two-on-one rush only 26 seconds into regulation for his second goal of the season.

That score snapped a shutout sequence of 180:18 against the Sabres for Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith that dated to November of 2018.

The Sabres didn’t seem interesting in giving DeSmith a chance to establish a similar sequence as they scored again 2:18 into the second period when forward Sam Reinhart collected his 16th goal.

Reinhart scored the eventual winner on a power-play chance at 8:02 of the second period, using Penguins defenseman John Marino as a screen from the right circle.

“I wouldn’t say just one thing,” Marino said of the team’s short-handed struggles as of late. “It’s always a collective effort. It’s something that we’ve been trying to work on all year. We’ve gone through stretches where we’ve been pretty good. Obviously, we haven’t been that good. But definitely something we want to work on.”

The Penguins avoided a shutout at 10:18 of the third when forward Jason Zucker netted his seventh goal, but an empty-net score by Sabres forward Rasmus Asplund at the 18:12 mark, his sixth, nullified any flirtations with a comeback.

Blueger’s fifth goal capped the scoring late in regulation at 19:36 of the third.

DeSmith made 25 saves on 28 shots as his record fell to 10-6-0, partly because of his team’s faltering penalty kill.

“There’s no excuses,” coach Mike Sullivan said Saturday. “We’ve got to get better as a group. The coaching staff has got to do a better job in getting these guys on the same page.”

Notes: With the NHL’s 23-man roster limited lifted following the trade deadline April 12, the Penguins activated defenseman Mark Friedman from injured reserve. He had carried that designation since March 8 because of a suspected head injury. … The Penguins recalled rookie forward Anthony Angello from their taxi squad to the NHL roster before the game and returned him to the taxi squad following the contest. … Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson made his NHL debut after being recalled from Rochester of the American Hockey League before the game. He is the son of ex-Penguins defenseman Kjell Samuelsson.

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