A couple of players said they felt like the issue centered around the Penguins being more committed to putting the puck in the net versus keeping it out.
“Everybody wants to play in the offensive zone, maybe a little bit cheating,” said Evgeni Malkin, who returned to the lineup after missing four games with an upper-body injury. “We give them free goals in the third period. I can't say we played bad, but the last 15 minutes, we play like we're not disciplined."
There was a lot of frustration in the dressing room – “we’re giving away points. We have nobody to blame but ourselves,” Marcus Pettersson said – along with a lot of ownership after the Penguins concluded their five-game homestand with a 1-3-1 record.
They went into the holiday break on quite the run dating back to around Thanksgiving, going 9-4-1. But Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to string together results coming out of it, as they are 2-5-3 in that span.
“I think a lot of the games we probably came out of it feeling the way we did tonight, where we felt like we did a lot of good things but found ways to lose,” Sidney Crosby said when asked about the homestand in particular. “We’ve got to turn that into finding ways to win. Regardless if you outshoot teams or whatever, we need to find a way to win games.”
Recently, the Penguin were right in the mix for a Wild Card playoff spot. After tonight, they’re seventh in that race. There’s not a ton of points separating all of the teams, but every team in front of Pittsburgh does have at least one game in hand.
"We see standings. I think we understand we'd miss playoffs, and half the season is gone,” Malkin said. “Yeah, we understand everything. But again, I mean, if we want to play in the playoffs, we need to play so much better in every zone, every moment, every detail.
“I think everybody here has played a long time in the league, and I think everybody understands what's going on. We have a nice organization, we have great history. And the last two years, we've missed playoffs. I don't like to miss again. It's not good enough. I hope we look in the mirror tonight and tomorrow and start to play better."
The Penguins are heading into their upcoming 15-day road trip that has seven different stops with the mindset that their season is on the line.
“A big trip coming up here. A big trip for us. There’s no way around it,” Pettersson said. “The answer is in this room. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves how you win and do it consistently.
“We dominate them for two periods then we get in our (defensive) zone and we just want to spend time in the (offensive) zone. We don’t pay attention to details and give them looks. It’s really frustrating right now, and there is nobody else but us to fix it.”