More consistent and thorough efforts had allowed the Penguins to bank important points before the NHL’s Christmas break. Coming out of the annual respite, however, a second-period lull on Saturday cost them.
It also offered a reminder of what not to do over the subsequent weeks and months.
The Penguins, sloppier than they have been of late, allowed three goals in four minutes to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena and could not recover, suffering a 6-3 loss in the first half of a home-and-home set with a division rival.
The game was the Penguins’ first since Monday’s 7-3 throttling of the Flyers, which helped Pittsburgh improve to 9-3-1 since Thanksgiving Eve, a run that has resuscitated what once looked like a lost season.
The Penguins (16-16-5) struggled to start the middle period — losing puck battles, standing around in the defensive zone and largely getting out-worked — and paid the price by creating a deficit too large to overcome.
"We have to do a better job controlling the puck, helping each other and winning the net front on both sides of the ice," Rickard Rakell said on SportsNet Pittsburgh. "We didn’t get the job done [Saturday]. Not good enough."
The first Islanders goal came at 5:39, when left wing Anthony Duclair finished a beautiful two-on-one feed from right wing Kyle Palmieri. While Tristan Jarry could’ve been quicker moving laterally, the more frustrating gaffe came next.
Following left wing Anders Lee’s rebound attempt, Kris Letang inadvertently stuffed the puck into his own net at 8:36. Center Casey Cizikas made it 4-1 at 9:39 with a nifty redirect.
At that point, it felt like the Penguins were finished. But Noel Acciari gave them some life when the rebound of Matt Nieto’s shot squirted between goaltender Ilya Sorokin’s legs. Acciari whacked home the rebound at 13:49.
Rickard Rakell cut the Islanders’ lead to 4-3 with his 17th of the season at 19:56 of the period, the forward’s mid-range redirect eluding Sorokin seconds before the horn sounded.
While the Penguins recovered during the second half of the middle frame, they could not carry that momentum over to the third, mustering just one shot through the first 14-plus minutes.
Cizikas notched his second of the night when he picked up a puck in the neutral zone and beat Jarry at 14:43 of the final period before Lee tacked on an empty-net goal late.
“They played a good team game,” Jarry said. “It was hard for us to get traction. They had a little more jump than we did and were able to make some plays.”
Bad habits re-emerge
The Penguins had found success since Nov. 27 with better habits ... and they slipped a couple times in this one.
An ill-timed pinch (combined with the lack of any sort of reload) cost the Penguins’ on Cizikas’ back-breaking goal in the third.
Letang’s own-goal was obvious. Palmieri won a loose puck along the boards mostly uncontested before setting up Duclair for the Islanders’ second marker.
Bottom line, the Penguins were not tough enough in front of their own net, nor were they able to generate enough second-chance opportunities on offense.
“We didn’t play a conscientious game, like the game we’ve been playing for the last six weeks,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Our decisions with the puck weren’t where they needed to be.”
No sugarcoating it
Whether it was Erik Karlsson, Letang or Matt Grzelcyk, what the Penguins showed Saturday was that the progress made recently isn’t permanent. That there are still concerns.
All three have been guilty of over-aggressive pinches, and that was once again the case against the Islanders. The Penguins simply aren’t dynamic enough to outscore teams when this happens. The Islanders, who were 28th in the NHL at 2.6 goals per game prior to Saturday, offer the perfect example.
If the Penguins are going to pick up where they left off before the break, they must employ a more buttoned-up, responsible style, both when it comes to their defensemen and the play of their goaltender.
“We know have to be a lot better,” Karlsson said. “They were the better team for pretty much 60 minutes. It’s unfortunate because we really wanted to get off to a good start in the first game after the break. We did the exact opposite. It sucks. We have to move on. Hopefully we can be better [Sunday].”
Bright spots
Bunting (power-play goal in the first) and Rakell have been two of the Penguins’ better stories this season.
After a slow start, Bunting has re-emerged as one of the team’s most productive players, as well as an asset on the Penguins’ resurgent power play (30.8% over the past 13 prior to Saturday).
After tallying just one assist through 12 games, no Penguin has more power-play goals this season than Bunting (6), who scored at 16:03 of the first period after drawing an interference penalty.
Rakell, meanwhile, leads the team with 17 goals and has 19 points (tied with Bryan Rust for the team lead) since their 9-4-1 run started.
Bunting can be a pest, an eager forechecker and disruptor. Rakell has plenty of skill and continues to show that last year was nothing more than a fluke for him.
Ice chips
• Pittsburgh’s first goal featured a sizable tease. An assist was originally credited to Sidney Crosby, which for a few minutes moved him past Mario Lemieux for the most helpers in franchise history with 1,034. However, it was later changed and credited to Rakell.
• Marcus Pettersson, who’s been out since Dec. 14 with a lower-body injury, was cleared for contact and participated in Saturday’s morning skate, which likely means he’s close to rejoining the team for game action.
• It appeared the Islanders scored at 4:59 of the first, but the Penguins successfully challenged for goaltender interference. That wiped out center Brock Nelson’s wrister from the right circle because Duclair had made contact with Jarry. The Penguins have won four of five challenges this season.
• One of the referees Saturday was also named Mike Sullivan. It marked the first time in NHL history an on-ice official and head coach had the same name.
• No surprise the Penguins bested the Islanders’ penalty kill for their first of the night. New York came into Saturday’s game operating at just 64.4%, last in the NHL.
Coming up
The Penguins return home to host the Islanders for the second half of this home-and-home set on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena. Puck drop is set for 5:30 p.m.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and @JMackeyPG on X.
First Published: December 29, 2024, 3:22 a.m.
Updated: December 29, 2024, 4:32 a.m.
