Penguins embarrassed by Oilers, suffer 4th consecutive loss

The Pittsburgh Penguins finally found a way to avoid losing a game against a Metropolitan Division rival on Thursday.

They got blown out by the Edmonton Oilers.

Providing seemingly little resistance to the dazzling skill sets of Oilers superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl as well as their supporting crew, the Penguins were shredded by one of the powers of the Western Conference, 7-2, at PPG Paints Arena.

It was, by any measure, one of the most humiliating defeats of the season for a team that has not suffered from a poverty of soul-crushing setbacks in 2022-23.

Things got so ugly on Thursday, hearty “Fire Hextall” chants rained down from the upper bowl in disgust of the roster general manager Ron Hextall has assembled.

FIRE HEXTALL pic.twitter.com/IQ3nmz1RsF

— J????ey Bag ????f D????nuts ???? (@joeybagovdonuts) February 24, 2023

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan offered a more measured but just as succinct evaluation of what went wrong on Thursday.

“Tonight, for me, was a step backwards,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think all of the results as of most recently are a reflection of how the team has played, for the most part. But tonight, without a doubt, was a step backwards.”

Thursday’s loss was the Penguins’ fourth consecutive defeat. Their three previous losses came against Metropolitan Division foes, the New York Islanders (twice) and the New Jersey Devils.

At this point, a division leader from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League might be able to pick up points against the free-falling Penguins.

Thursday’s result leaves them in fourth place of the Wild Card standings in the Eastern Conference with a 27-21-9 record and 63 points. The Detroit Red Wings (28-21-8, 64 points) currently hold the final (of the two) wild-card seeds.

The Penguins’ captain was blunt in rejecting any discussion over his team being in foreign territory with regard to fighting to even qualify for the postseason so late into the regular season.

“There’s lots of season left and we’re fighting for a playoff spot,” a terse Sidney Crosby said. “Ideally, we’d be in a better position, but we still have a chance to make the playoffs. It’s not easy to make the playoffs. We all realize that. There’s lots of hockey left. … It’s the NHL. You’ve got to compete and earn your way into the playoffs. We’re not in a spot right now, but we still have an opportunity to make it. I’m not going to talk about it that way because that’s not the situation.”

The Penguins appeared to be in a good situation early in Thursday’s contest but ultimately provided false hope by opening the scoring only 65 seconds into regulation with defenseman Kris Letang’s sixth goal of the campaign.

Draisaitl won a puck battle on his own end boards against Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin and attempted a pass but had it broken up partially by Malkin. Penguins forward Bryan Rust claimed the loose puck along the goal line to the left of the cage. Circling around into the left corner, Rust centered a pass to the slot for an on-rushing Letang. Showing great patience, Letang veered to the right of the cage, waited for Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner to drop on his left hip and elevated a wrister past Skinner’s glove. Rust and Malkin had assists.

A dazzling individual display by McDavid on a power-play opportunity tied the game, 1-1, at 13:18 of the first period.

Taking a pass above the left circle in the offensive zone, McDavid maneuvered into the circle, fended off passive pressure by Penguins defenseman Jeff Petry and dipped below the goal line before deftly elevating a wrister into a keyhole-narrow opening on the near side that banked off the back of goaltender Tristan Jarry’s right shoulder and into the cage for his 45th goal, a new career high. Defenseman Tyson Barrie and forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins registered assists.

Another power-play goal, albeit one with more of a meat-and-potatoes approach, supplied the Oilers with their first lead at 17:49 of the opening frame.

From above the right circle of the Penguins’ zone, McDavid teed up a one-timer at the left point for Barrie, who boomed a shot. Jarry rejected the shot but allowed an ample rebound to the right of the crease that was cleaned up with an easy forehand shot by Draisaitl for his 35th goal. Assists went to Barrie and McDavid.

Any hopes the Penguins would make this a competitive contest during the second period were quickly euthanized by a four-goal outburst from the Oilers. Forward Kailer Yamamoto’s fifth goal at the 6:06 mark put the visitors up by two scores.

Off the left wing, Oilers forward Ryan McLeod circled around the Penguins’ net and fed an errant pass through the crease that slid to the left wall. Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse chased down the loose puck and chopped a shot/pass toward the net. From the left circle, Oilers forward Zach Hyman deflected the puck on net and was denied by Jarry initially. A rebound squirted free in the blue paint and was swept in by Yamamoto. Hyman and Nurse tallied assists.

The Oilers went up by a field goal only 104 seconds later when forward Devin Shore scored his first goal of the season (and first since March 17, 2022) following a turnover by Jarry.

Corralling a dump-in on his end boards, Jarry tried to play it to the right corner but lost it to forechecking Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi, who claimed possession and quickly slipped a pass to the left circle for Shore, who buried a wrister into a mostly vacant cage. The only assist went to Puljujarvi.

That display prompted a timeout by Penguins coach Mike Sullivan to regroup his team. But that tactic did little to stymie the Oilers.

The rout was on at the 15:10 mark thanks to forward Warren Foegele’s 10th goal.

After an offensive zone turnover by Penguins forward Drew O’Connor, Foegele wrangled the puck near his left point and fed it to Draisaitl, who generated a two-on-one rush with Foegele against Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Draisaitl dealt the puck past Dumoulin’s right skate to the left circle, where Foegele elevated a forehand shot past the blocker of a beleaguered Jarry. Draisaitl and defenseman Brett Kulak claimed assists.

Nugent-Hopkins poured it on with his 28th goal at the 18:54 mark.

Backtracking to his own zone, Letang attempted a stretch pass from the high slot only to have it intercepted by McDavid near the center red line. Accepting the charity, McDavid surged into the offensive zone on the left wing, shielded the puck from Letang in the left circle and dealt a seam pass to the right circle for Nugent-Hopkins, who wired a far-side wrister beyond the reach of Jarry’s charred blocker. The lone assist was credited to McDavid.

Jarry was pulled after the second period and was charged with the loss — dropping his record to 16-7-5 — after making 23 saves on 29 shots. He was replaced by backup Casey DeSmith, who stopped 14 of 15 shots.

A would-be power-play goal by Malkin 2:28 into the third period was wiped out after the Oilers issued a successful coach’s challenge, claiming the sequence to be offside.

Another potential score by Penguins forward Jeff Carter at 8:25 of the third period was nullified when officials ruled the puck was directed into the cage by a high stick.

McDavid completed the onslaught with a penalty shot goal at 16:27 of the final frame. After being tripped by Dumoulin on a rush at the net, McDavid was granted the shot. Approaching the net methodically, McDavid stickhandled like a tornado, jammed up DeSmith and snapped a nasty forehand shot past the goaltender’s blocker.

A power-play goal by Letang at 18:12 served as a bookend for all of the Oilers’ offense.

Taking a pass at the left point of the offensive zone, Malkin whacked a pass to the right of the net for Crosby, who then needled a pass across the crease for Letang who slammed in a forehand shot for an easy but nugatory score. Crosby and Malkin had assists.

Letang placed blame for the team’s ongoing skid on the shoulders of himself and the team’s other leaders.

“It’s frustrating right now,” Letang said. “We’re not playing the way we’re supposed to play. We get discouraged pretty quick. It’s something that we should have in this dressing room. It starts with the main guys, like me, Sid and (Malkin). We have to step up our game and find a way to win. Doesn’t matter if it’s pretty or not. We have to grind it out and we have to push each other to be better. It’s just not good enough right now.”

With the NHL’s trade deadline looming just over a week from now (March 3), change was always possible for this group, even in the best of circumstances.

At the moment, the Penguins aren’t even within the gravitational pull of moderately acceptable circumstances. As a result, they were showered with boos from the home crowd for much of the evening.

“You definitely don’t want to hear that,” Crosby said. “It was a tough night for everybody. We don’t like putting on a performance like that in front of them. (Fans) can act however they want. They pay (for) their ticket and they want to see better. I understand that.

“It wasn’t a great night for anyone.”

The Penguins haven’t had many great nights as of late.

“We’ve got to stick together,” Sullivan said. “It always starts with an attitude and a certain resilience to our group. That’s how we have to look at it. The reality is we’re still in the heat of the battle here. We still have control over our own destiny. We’ve just got to make sure that we put a game on the ice that gives us the best chance to be successful.”

Notes:

• Teddy Blueger recorded the Penguins’ first shot by a forward at 5:36 of the second period.

• In two games since returning from his latest injury, Jarry has a 0-2-0 record, a 5.50 goals-against average and an .850 save percentage.

Sullivan offered his thoughts on Jarry’s play over these two games:

“He’s working his way back,” Sullivan said. “This was a tough one for all of us. We knew the circumstance that Tristan is in. It’s not a perfect scenario. In a perfect world, you get lots of (repetitions) in practice. But the reality is we don’t have the luxury of time right now. He’s trying to work his way into his top version of himself through a combination of practice and some of it is just simply going to have to be through the games.”

• Rust (304 points) surpassed forward Phil Kessel (303) for 25th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• McDavid scored the first penalty shot goal by the Oilers against the Penguins. They were denied on their previous two attempts.

Most recently, McDavid was denied by goaltender Matt Murray during a 3-1 home win by the Penguins on Feb. 13, 2019. Previously, forward Benoit Pouliot was rejected by goaltender Jeff Zatkoff during a 3-2 road shootout win by the Oilers on Nov. 28, 2015.

• Nugent-Hopkins’ goal was his 600th career point.

• During Game 5 of the 1989 Patrick Division Final, Hextall, then the Philadelphia Flyers’ goaltender, infamously chased Penguins forward Robbie Brown following a goal and was given a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

After Flyers backup goaltender Ken Wregget was later given a game misconduct penalty, Hextall returned to the ice and was greeted with very different cheers than what he heard on Thursday: