Tim Benz: Penguins' dud of a return from break is a (not so) sobering reality check for fans

The Pittsburgh Penguins returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off this weekend and lost two home games. They fell 8-3 to Washington on Saturday and 5-3 to the New York Rangers on Sunday.

The Pens are in last place of the Metropolitan Division with 57 points. The Buffalo Sabres (51 points) are the only team in the Eastern Conference with fewer. After Sunday’s defeat, Pens coach Mike Sullivan was asked about the current emotional level of his players.

“It’s not doom and gloom if that’s what you are asking,” Sullivan replied. “I think this group understands that type of attitude doesn’t get us anywhere. We’re going to have to dig in here. We’ll keep battling, we’ll keep fighting to get the result in the next game.”

It may not be “doom and gloom” for the players, but the fans are apparently looking for alternative methods to cope. On Sunday, the Penguins put up a post on the team’s Facebook page, trumpeting their new beer sticks.

You got it! Sip a beer at the game in a plastic hockey stick.

The responses were … well … as you might expect.

Jeff: “At least the fans have something to wash the pain down.”

Troy: “I think our defense has been hitting these at intermission.”

Roger: “If I drink the whole thing, will the Penguins at least appear to be playing better?”

Ellen: “When you can’t win games, you need gimmicks.”

Yes, Ellen. Get used to that. It’s almost Pirates season, after all.

It’s already so bad for the Penguins that they even got two goals from Ryan Shea in the same game on Sunday and couldn’t win.

That’s right. A guy who had one goal in his first 53 NHL games scored twice, and it still wasn’t enough to win.

“I thought we had a great game as a (defensive) corps,” Shea said. “It was just a few bounces here and there, and we couldn’t score as much as we would like today.”

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Unfortunately for the Penguins, it seems that there are “just a few bounces here and there” in every game. That’s kind of the way things go with hockey at this level, given that it’s the best players in the world skating against each other every night. That’s why the great separator has to be good goaltending, and the Penguins haven’t gotten that all year.

That was certainly on display this weekend when Alex Nedeljkovic gave up five goals on 14 shots against Washington before he was pulled for Joel Blomqvist. The rookie proceeded to allow three more to the Caps before looking overmatched at times against the Rangers on Sunday when they put four by him on 15 attempts.

Meanwhile, Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves for New York on 39 shots.

“Tough day. I thought our team played really well. So it was a tough loss,” Blomqvist said. “It’s for sure a different pace in the NHL as compared to the AHL. Everything happens faster. So you need to be faster with everything.”

Sullivan tried to get the media to focus on the big picture with Blomqvist.

“He is athletic. We are really excited about this guy. But he is a young goaltender (23 years old). He is going through a learning process here,” Sullivan said. “The challenge is on us as a coaching staff to help him.”

The challenge is on the fanbase to adjust its eye level as to what’s happening here as well. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten used to the Penguins failing to make the playoffs. That’s happened two years in a row now after 16 straight years of postseason play.

What we aren’t used to is having March and April for the Penguins look like August and September for the Pirates. Two months of playing out the string is something normally reserved for PNC Park, not PPG Paints Arena.

Even during the last two seasons, the Penguins had a pulse in the last few days of the year. That doesn’t look like it’ll be the case in 2025, though.

So drink up from those plastic hockey sticks, Penguins fans.

You might need another round after the trade deadline.