Tim Benz: For the Penguins, 'solid' effort vs. Devils sums up adjusted eye-level of the team

It was the kind of loss just about any hockey player or coach could live with.

Maybe even some of the fans.

Especially if it had been late October and there were still 70 games to play.

Now, though, Tuesday’s outing for the Pittsburgh Penguins became the kind of game you can live with for a different reason — because our level of acceptance in early February has dropped so much.

But, at this point, any port in a storm, I guess.

The Penguins came back from two goals down before falling 3-2 in a seven-round shootout to the New Jersey Devils Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena. A significant chunk of the third period was played without captain Sidney Crosby, who wrenched an arm in a collision where he got “tangled up” between New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes and forward Erik Haula.

Yet, the Pens knotted the score at two apiece during the eight minutes Crosby (who didn’t skate at practice Wednesday) was absent thanks to a goal by Kevin Hayes.

Not only that, but the Pens could’ve gotten the first goal of the night at 18:34 of the opening period courtesy of Rickard Rakell. But his effort was waved off for kicking the puck in the net.

The Pens also outshot the Devils 27-21, won 63% of the faceoffs, killed all three penalties, and blocked 21 shots.

If you get a comeback point like that in late autumn against a divisional foe who is in front of your team in the standings (without your star player for a portion of the night) under normal circumstances, you feel pretty good about it.

“I thought we pushed hard in the third. We just got better as the game went on. Sometimes it goes like that,” Crosby said. “I thought we played pretty solid. They’re a dangerous team. I thought, for the most part, we did a pretty good job.”

The only problem is that in Pittsburgh in 2025, it’s just another victory the last-place Penguins (53 points) didn’t get in the Metropolitan Division race.

Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic blamed himself for not being better in the shootout. He is 1-3 in those situations this season.

“It (stinks). There’s been five or six extra points this year that we’ve given away just because I haven’t been very good in a shootout,” Nedeljkovic said. “I think the one win we have in a shootout is San Jose (4-3 on Nov. 16), and I still gave up (two) in that one. Guys are doing an unbelievable job of putting the puck in the net. I had two chances to shut them down and win. So I just want to get the job done.”

However, head coach Mike Sullivan chose to dwell on the positives against the third-place Devils (66 points).

“I thought we played hard against a real good team,” Sullivan said. “I thought we defended hard. We did a pretty good job playing on top of them. We came back from a two-goal deficit. There’s a lot to like about our game. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get the two points, but it’s a hard-fought one point.”

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In particular, the Penguins have at least been responsible and competitive in the wake of trading Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver on Friday night. Since then, the Pens got three of a possible four points and have allowed just two goals in 125 minutes by virtue of Tuesday’s result and a 3-0 shutout of Nashville on Saturday.

Those results are in stark contrast to how the Pens performed after trading Jake Guentzel last year when they went into an emotional funk and dropped seven of nine, getting outscored 38-26 along the way. They scored just two goals in the first three games after Guentzel was dealt.

“Coming out of our zone, we’ve done a pretty good job the last few games. When we do spend time there, I think we’re doing a good job of not giving up a whole lot,” Crosby added. “Sometimes we get late in shifts, you can make big mistakes. We haven’t been beating ourselves, and that’s a big part of being in games and winning games consistently.”

As opposed to last year, Sullivan feels like the team is settling into a better spot after the moves made by Kyle Dubas last week.

“The guys are competing. We’re trying to stay in the fight here for a playoff spot,” Sullivan said. “We know what we’re up against. I think the guys have embraced the challenge. I think they’re competing extremely hard. The new guys (Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais) that have come in, I think they fit in really well.”

That’s good. Because for as gutty as the Penguins may have been Tuesday night, the likelihood is that Dubas is going to make more moves. Most of them won’t be adding to this year’s roster.

In fact, it’ll probably be exactly the opposite.

“Solid” was acceptable Tuesday night. I just wish we had seen more of that a month or two ago, when “acceptable” had an entirely different connotation.