As far as games in late July following a four-plus month break due to a worldwide pandemic in front of a mostly empty venue go, Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena wasn’t the crispest display for the Penguins.

There were bad passes, a wretched power play and a too many men on the ice infraction which involved 10 skaters.

But it was hockey. And even if it was sloppy, it was a welcomed sight. Particularly for the participants.

“It was exciting,” Penguins goaltender Matt Murray said in a postgame video conference. “The atmosphere was something different, something that I’ve never seen before. But it was a ton of fun. It was a long time since we played a real competitive game like that. I know I had a blast, and it seemed like everybody else was too. It was just great to be back out there.”

Perhaps most notably, Sidney Crosby was back out there for the Penguins after dealing with an undisclosed ailment during training camp. He logged almost 20 minutes centering the team’s top line, recording one shot attempt and winning 13 of his 21 faceoffs.

And while the Penguins were happy to be back on the ice, they clearly need to work on what they put on that ice starting with their next practice.

For all the precision and discipline they are celebrated to possess, they looked exactly like a team that hasn’t spent much time on the ice for several months.

After a goal by Penguins forward Conor Sheary 5:06 into regulation opened the scoring, the Flyers responded with scores by forwards Sean Couturier at 11:32 of the first and Kevin Hayes at the 19:31 mark.

Hayes’ score was particularly hideous from the Penguins’ perspective as it was set up by a seemingly perfect tape-to-tape pass by Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin from his own left corner to Hayes in the slot. Accepting the charity, Hayes tucked a wrister past the left leg of a helpless Murray.

Any hopes the Penguins would rely on their talented power play were unfounded throughout the contest as it went 0 for 3 and rarely looked like a threat to put a quality shot on net.

Considering the Penguins’ struggles on the man advantage during the regular season, Tuesday’s futility offered one of the few instances of normalcy this contest could offer.

“My impression of the power play is we need to be whole lot better,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We have a ways to go to get it firing on all cylinders. And I think we all have to just go back to work tomorrow in practice and make sure we get better at it. I think it will improve. I know these guys are proud guys. They want it to be successful. For me, the solutions are lying in simplifying the game. I don’t think we moved the puck as quickly as we needed it to. And I don’t think we were shooting the puck when we had opportunities to put the puck on the net.

“We’ll go back to work with it, and we’ll get it moving in the right direction.”

The Penguins appeared to get things going in the right direction as far as five-on-five play was concerned throughout the second half of the game and had the bulk of the quality scoring chances. That surge allowed them to tie the game with a score by forward Jason Zucker on a goalmouth scramble at 16:05 of the third.

A breakaway goal by forward Scott Laughton against goaltender Tristan Jarry at 2:40 of overtime gave the Flyers the victory.

Jarry recorded the loss after replacing Murray, by design, at 9:55 of the second period.

The Penguins didn’t look good. But they weren’t surprised by that considering the circumstances.

“It’s something that we expected,” Zucker said. “Some hiccups and and some little things that you’re not necessarily going to feel and see in an intrasquad (scrimmage). So it was good for us to get out there, get the feel and see what we need to shore up before Saturday.”

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