It wasn’t quite like many of the terse postgame press conferences Mike Sullivan would stage during his decade as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins following losses at Consol Energy Center-turned-PPG Paints Arena.

And it wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as that tour de force Michel Therrien infamously offered nearly two decades ago within the cramped media room at Mellon Arena when he utilized the adjective “soft” in a fashion few others would dare to.

But first-year coach Dan Muse was angry Saturday. And he made no effort to hide it.

Following the Penguins’ 3-2 come-from-ahead overtime home loss to the Seattle Kraken at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday — which came less than 24 hours after a bowling shoe-ugly 5-0 defeat at home to the Minnesota Wild — Muse was blunt in assessing his scuttling squad.

“We just came out of this weekend here with only one out of four points,” Muse seethed. “That’s not good enough. Was our process better? It was. But we need to get points.”

The Kraken got the full set of two points Saturday thanks to a goal by defenseman Brandon Montour in overtime.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that’s good enough,” Muse said. “It’s not. We’re past that. We need points right now. We have a weekend here were the game was no good (Friday), it was much better today. But if you go through this month, there’s been too many games here where I’ve said there’s positives to take from.”

Since the calendar flipped to November, the Penguins are 2-4-3 in their past nine games. That rate of success equates to only seven out of a possible 18 points.

The Penguins exited October as one of the league’s top teams and in second place of the Metropolitan Division with an 8-3-2 record.

Following Saturday’s setback, they’re 10-6-5 and sit outside of a playoff-worthy position in the standings as it pertains to the wild card (albeit, with five months of regular season play to go).

“We can’t afford here to be just giving away points,” Muse said. “There was a lot of good. I’m not going to go past that and say that there wasn’t. The brand of hockey that we played today was better. But I’m not going to keep coming in here and saying that one point is good enough. It’s not. We’re better than that. Our standard needs to be better than that.”

If nothing else, Saturday’s game was better than Friday’s outing. Then again, another bankruptcy declaration by the franchise would be required to be worse than what they offered against the Wild on Friday.

The Penguins outshot the Kraken 32-21 and controlled most of the play in the overtime period.

They even had a lead relatively late in regulation before allowing the tying score as well as the winner in overtime.

“We carried the play,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said. “We gave ourselves some chances and unfortunately, it didn’t go. It’s how it goes sometimes. We had the lead there and just couldn’t close it out.”

In the immediate aftermath of Friday’s clunker, Penguins rookie goaltender Sergei Murashov offered a vow, stating there would “be a really good response tomorrow (Saturday)” and he mostly backed up his portion of that boast by stopping 18 of 21 shots.

“Everyone can get better, said Murashov, whose record slipped to 1-1-1. “Me, myself also can improve my game. Overall, I think efforts were there. We just maybe get some luck and keep working.”

Following a scoreless first period, Kraken forward Mason Marchment opened the scoring with his second goal this season 84 seconds into the second frame.

1-0 #SeaKraken

Marchment takes the puck back twice and fires beating Murashov pic.twitter.com/TfHKBoZbEC

— Alison (@AlisonL) November 23, 2025

Penguins rookie forward Ben Kindel tried to lead a rush out of the defensive zone and made a weak pass attempt to the right wing intended for linemate Sam Poulin. Marchment snatched away the puck with ease and converted that charity by ripping a wrister from the left circle to the far side under Murashov’s blocker. Marchment provided a bit of levity for the home fans by tripping to the ice while celebrating on the near boards. There were no assists.

Crosby got the hosts on the scoreboard with his team-leading 13th goal at 16:16 of the second period.

Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer settled a dump-in behind his net and tried to rim a backhand pass to the left wing. The only problem was the puck wound up on the stick of Penguins forward Connor Dewar, who immediately centered a pass to the top of the crease where Crosby buried an easy forehand shot into a mostly vacant cage. Dewar was deemed worthy of the only assist.

pic.twitter.com/1gAs9KzYd4

— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) November 23, 2025

“(Dewar) made a great play to forecheck and find a lane there,” Crosby said. “It wasn’t easy. A nice pass by him for sure.”

The Penguins took their first lead of the contest during a power-play sequence at 5:56 of the third period via forward Evgeni Malkin’s sixth goal.

Accepting a feed low to the right of the cage, Malkin forced a pass attempt to the front of the crease intended for Penguins forward Bryan Rust in the far circle, but Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson slid down to block the puck. After Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren was unable to clear the rebound, Kindel and Malkin each jabbed at it within the blue paint before the latter was able to guide a forehand shot past Grubauer’s left leg. Kindel and Crosby collected assists.

pic.twitter.com/2dH6273EFV

— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) November 23, 2025

After failing to score on their first four power-play opportunities of the game, the Penguins finally converted on their fifth chance.

“We kind of simplified it,” Rust said. “You saw the goal in the third, we just got pucks to the net and kind of created a scramble and scored. Just try to take a five-on-five mentality and get pucks to the net.

The Kraken seemed to employ the same mentality on the tying goal by forward Matt Beniers at 12:36 of the third frame.

Off a cross-ice pass from Marchment, Beniers surveyed from the right circle of the offensive zone and elevated a wrister over sliding Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves and past Murashov’s left shoulder on the near side. Marchment and defenseman Ryker Evans registered assists.

Matty Beniers with a lethal finish. Marchment's 200th point is a pretty seam pass that sets up 10's shot #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/90cQprvp33

— Alison (@AlisonL) November 23, 2025

In overtime, the Penguins had plenty of chances to score. Most notably, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang put a wrister off the right post only 55 seconds into the period.

pic.twitter.com/N2LKZYdZkL

— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) November 23, 2025

Montour buried his team’s first and only shot of overtime at the 4:10 mark. It was his fourth goal this season.

Driving the puck up the left wing into the offensive zone, former Penguins forward Freddy Gaudreau pulled up above the circle, drew in Crosby and Letang, then fed a pass to an approaching Montour. With an ocean liner-sized opening above the left circle, Montour gripped and ripped a wrister to the far side under Murashov’s blocker. Gaudreau and Evans had assists.

GAME WINNER FOR THE KRAKEN ????

Brandon Montour scores the Subway Canada OT Winner for Seattle! pic.twitter.com/GJnSHNCewK

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 23, 2025

“It looked like a game that we did everything but win the game,” Rust lamented.

The Penguins haven’t won many games as of late.

“We had a lead and then we didn’t and now we have one point,” Muse said. “That’s not good enough.”

Notes:

• The Penguins have yet to win a game that goes beyond regulation this season. They are 0-2 in overtime and 0-3 in shootouts.

• The Penguins have lost four consecutive games to the Kraken (0-3-1). That matches their longest active losing streak against an opponent (Winnipeg Jets, 0-4-0).

• This was the Penguins’ second overtime loss against the Kraken since the expansion franchise entered the NHL in 2021.

During a 2-1 win at PPG Paints Arena on Jan. 27, 2022, Larsson scored on goaltender Tristan Jarry:

Adam Larsson scores against the Pittsburgh Penguins to make it 2-1 #PITvsSEA #LetsGoPens #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/T0E2ttQfLw

— nopClips (@nopClips) January 28, 2022

That was the first overtime win in Kraken history.

• Penguins defenseman Matt Dumba was in the lineup after being a healthy scratch in seven of the previous eight games.

• Penguins defensemen Harrison Brunicke and Parker Wotherspoon, along with forward Philip Tomasino, were healthy scratches.

• Penguins forward Blake Lizotte appeared in his 400th career game.

• Former Penguins forward Jared McCann and goaltender Matt Murray were not in the lineup for the Kraken as undisclosed ailments have landed them on injured reserve.

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