NEWARK, N.J. — This is hockey on an endless, 60-minute loop.
Has been for years.
The Penguins come to Newark. They fall behind. They can’t score.
They lose.
And so it was again Saturday night, when New Jersey beat them, 4-0, at the Prudential Center.
But this game — the Penguins’ 15th defeat in their past 18 visits — was a bit different than most.
Because rarely have the Penguins (10-7) seemed so lifeless. So hopeless.
It was, without question, the low point of their 2015-16 season. And perhaps a few more.
The Devils not only shut them out, but outdid them in every facet of play.
The only positive for the Penguins was that goalie Jeff Zatkoff, who finished with 33 saves, somehow managed to keep New Jersey out of double-figures.
“It was a terrible game,” center Sidney Crosby said. “We haven’t had great ones here, but that was pretty ugly.”
Devils goalie Cory Schneider stopped 21 shots to earn the shutout, but rarely was tested.
Of course, not many goalies have been by the Penguins this season; they have 36 goals in 17 games. Which is not to suggest that a lackluster offense is their only issue.
Just the most obvious one.
“It’s bad penalties,” center Evgeni Malkin said. “Turnovers. It’s everything.”
His explanation for their problems: “We’re not playing right. We’re not working hard.”
They certainly didn’t seem to against the Devils, who dominated throughout the evening.
“We just didn’t have it,” Zatkoff said. “It just felt like we were chasing the game all night.”
And they never came close to catching it.
But losing two points might not have been their only significant setback, because right winger Patric Hornqvist left the game in the second period and did not return.
Coach Mike Johnston said after the game that he didn’t have any information about Hornqvist’s condition.
Defenseman David Schlemko gave the Devils the only goal they would need at 15:28 of the opening period, when he flipped in a puck that was laying in the crease after Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi had blocked a cross-ice pass and slid toward the net with the puck underneath him.
Mike Cammalleri threw a close-range backhander between Zatkoff’s legs at 6:44 of the second and Penguins alums Bobby Farnham (2:09) and Lee Stempniak (14:54) added goals in the third period.
Stempniak scored on a two-on-zero break, one of many odd-man rushes the Penguins allowed.
“The position we put him in was awful,” Crosby said. “He had to make save after save. That’s not the way you play.”
It was far enough from it that the Penguins conducted a closed-door meeting after the game to discuss their performance.
Scuderi endorsed the idea, noting that “there are games in the past in my career where I thought maybe it was a little too much” to have such a gathering.
This time, he said, it seemed completely appropriate.
Johnston said, “I wasn’t happy. The players weren’t happy,” and effectively called out his players for their poor work ethic in the second and third periods.
“We let it slip once they got their second goal,” he said. “Rather than push through it, we sort of gave in to the game a little bit at times. We need better effort, better intensity.”
He added that “I expect we’ll respond” to such a dismal performance in the Penguins’ next game, Tuesday night against the Minnesota Wild at Consol Energy Center.
At the very least, they have to know that they can’t get much worse.
“That was just a total stinker,” Scuderi said. “Top to bottom. No other way around it.”
Dave Molinari: dmolinari@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG.
First Published: November 15, 2015, 2:48 a.m.
Updated: November 15, 2015, 4:18 a.m.
