Their winning streak is over. The Penguins got shut down by a goalie making his first NHL start. And they are suddenly down two of their top three centers.
But the conversation in PPG Paints Arena after Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins centered on a hit by Brandon Tanev that got the winger booted from the game and had Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh’s captain and the NHL’s marquee player, later asking for “some clarity on what’s a good hit and what’s not.”
“It’s tough to really gauge when you’re out there,” Crosby said. “I know it’s fast, but right now it’s really hard to know what is in fact clean and what’s not.”
First things first, let’s get to those injuries. Because they could be costly.
Teddy Blueger did not suit up Tuesday because of an upper-body injury that coach Mike Sullivan said will keep Blueger out “longer term.” Then Evgeni Malkin left the game with a lower-body injury that was still being evaluated late Tuesday.
Malkin went down during the first period of a physical 60-minute affair against the Bruins. The puck on his stick, he charged down the right wall and into the corner. He saw Bruins defenseman Jarred Tinordi, a former Penguins minor-leaguer, at the last second but couldn’t step out of the way of his hard bodycheck.
Their right knees appeared to clack together and then Malkin temporarily went airborne before landing hard on his left hip. Malkin picked himself up slowly and gingerly made his way to the bench and eventually to the dressing room.
About seven minutes of game action had elapsed when Malkin returned. He took just one more shift, on the power play, before leaving the game for good.
The red-hot Russian entered Tuesday night on an eight-game scoring streak. That included two points in Monday’s 4-1 win over the Bruins at PPG Paints Arena.
Malkin’s teammate, Brandon Tanev, would later be booted from the game in the second period for a hard hit that sent Tinordi careening into the boards.
Tinordi reached the red line at center and dumped the puck into Pittsburgh’s zone. Tanev charged across the ice and hit Tinordi square in the chest and right shoulder as the blue-liner let go of the puck several feet from the boards.
Tinordi lost his balance and slid into the boards. His head hit the wall hard and his stick flew in the air. He remained down on the ice for more than a minute. He went to the dressing room and would remain there for the rest of the night.
The officials gave a five-minute major for boarding to Tanev plus a game misconduct. The call was confirmed via replay and Tanev was done for the night, too.
“I didn’t get much of an explanation [about why it was a major],” Sullivan said. “[He] plays the game hard. He was trying to finish his check. The player was a long way from the boards. It was unfortunate how the circumstance evolved.”
Crosby calmly empathized with the officials but expressed puzzlement when asked for his reaction to his teammate’s hit and the ensuing five-minute penalty.
“I hope [Tinordi] is okay. ... But I don’t think there was any intent,” he said. “I thought he hit him clean. He hit him timely as far as the puck being there.”
He added: “You see some hits throughout the league, especially in the first half of the season here, it’s hard as a player to know. We see a hit and we think, ‘Oh, that’s a suspension.’ And it’s not. Or we think, ‘Oh, it’s a penalty.’ And it’s not. Then you see a hit like that. You don’t expect a five-minute major. It ends up being one.
“It seems like it’s a little gray right now. Again, I’m never going to argue with [the league and its officials] protecting us. I think that’s what they’re trying to do.”
The Penguins, without one of their top penalty killers in Tanev, were brilliant on the ensuing five-minute power play. The best chance on that major came on the stick of Mark Jankowski, who hit the left post on a shorthanded breakaway.
But Trent Frederic gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with 12:53 left. His wrist shot from the point made it through a bunch of bodies, including Casey DeSmith’s.
The Penguins, down two key forwards in the second half of a back-to-back, were unable to rally back in this one. Their winning streak was snapped at six.
“We played well in that game. There was a lot of adversity, a lot of things that happened. Losing some guys and things like that,” said DeSmith, who stopped 31 of 33 shots. “So everybody knows we battled hard and everybody’s staying positive. We’ve been on such a good run. We’re not going to let this affect us.”
David Pastrnak scored Boston’s other goal. Tanev got the lone Pittsburgh goal on Dan Vladar. In his first career start, the massive netminder made 34 saves, including a sprawling stick save on Colton Sceviour, to seize his first NHL victory.
The Penguins are scheduled to visit the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. It will be the first of three games in four days against the division’s seventh-place team.
In the meantime, they await word on Malkin, presumably holding their breath.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: March 17, 2021, 12:25 a.m.
