Musings: Penguins Come 0.1 Seconds Away From a Full 60

Everything was going well for the Penguins as the clock ticked down on Tuesday against Anaheim.

Pittsburgh had taken a 3-2 lead on a power-play goal from Anthony Mantha with under four minutes left to play. Then, when the Ducks pulled goalie Ville Husso for the extra attacker, the Penguins were battling to get clears. With 18 seconds left, they went back to the man-advantage after Chris Kreider was called for tripping.

Then, it all fell apart.

Rookie forward Bennett Sennecke ended up getting the puck to the blue paint, where it deflected off Erik Karlsson, went through Arturs Silovs and crossed the line for a shorthanded goal with 0.1 seconds remaining. The Penguins ended up losing in a shootout, 4-3.

“It’s obviously a very frustrating feeling right now,” Karlsson said. “That was a game that we all thought we had in the bag. Scoring a late power-play goal, putting all the pressure on them. They still created a fair amount of chances. (Silovs) played great for us and bailed us out when we needed to.

“Being up a goal like we were with 18 seconds left, that’s a game that we should win 99.9% of the time. This was a game that shouldn’t have happened the way that it did.”

Both Karlsson and Sidney Crosby said they would need to rewatch what happened in that sequence, but the captain did his best to explain what he saw in the moment.

“I think that they went to pull their goalie, and we kind of fumbled the puck near their blue line,” Crosby said. “They had a rim that was eight feet high that somehow ended up where they were able to handle it. Tried a play, and they got a bounce with 0.1 left. It’s crazy. We did a lot of good things tonight, it’s unfortunate.”

In overtime itself, Pittsburgh remained on the power play to start. They didn’t convert, but went on to have some glorious chances. Crosby produced a fantastic feed to Connor Dewar, whose shot rang off the post and caromed off the blue paint with Husso scrambling.

“We should have scored a goal or two in overtime. It didn’t (happen) for us,” Karlsson said. “The shootout is what it is. They’ve got some really skilled guys over there and it’s obviously not something that we’ve been great at this year. It’s hurt us quite a bit.”

This is the team’s fifth loss in the shootout this season, and seventh loss beyond regulation. Arturs Silovs has yet to find a victory past regulation, but the skaters have been struggling to score. Tonight, Crosby, Tommy Novak and Ville Koivunen were kept off the board.

“We’re not helping our goalies,” Crosby said. “I think just got to find ways to get that first one and put pressure on the other team. That’s basically all you can do in a shootout.”

The Penguins were coming off three hard-fought games against strong competition, and Tuesday’s game was no different. Anaheim came into the matchup with 18 wins, which trailed only Colorado and Dallas.

The Penguins did get off to a strong start by outshooting the Ducks 16-8 in the first period, and got one past Husso off the stick of Noel Acciari. It was his first goal of the season and came off a faceoff, where he went 8-3 on the night.

Jackson LaCombe and Troy Terry each scored for Anaheim in the second period before Novak tied the game at 2-2 with just under 40 seconds left in the period. He now has seven points (3G-4A) in his last six games and has done well playing on a line with Crosby and Bryan Rust, starting on Sunday against the Stars.

Before the game, the team announced that forwards Evgeni Malkin and Blake Lizotte are both week-to-week with upper-body injuries. As a result, Danton Heinen was recalled from Wilkes-Barre and slotted in on the fourth line alongside Acciari and Connor Dewar.

The Penguins are now 2-0-2 in the month of December and have four games remaining on their season-long five-game homestand.

“We can sulk for a day or two and come back Thursday (against Montreal), play again,” Karlsson said. “We know we’re a good team, but obviously, we still have a lot of things to work through and figure out to be able to close games. Close, but not close enough.”

Here's what Head Coach Dan Muse had to say following the game.

Can you take us through the last few seconds of the game-tying goal? You went with two of your most offensive-minded defensemen on that faceoff. What was the strategy there, and what about the execution didn’t you like in the last few seconds?

Both of those defensemen are out there on every situation. They're out there. They play 5-on-6. They're both guys that are used in defensive situations as well. You get into a situation like that – also, if you have possession, you know pressure is going to be coming – we feel like the goal is to keep possession. The goalie doesn't come out of the net. It didn't happen. Then on the play, we got it, we tried to make a play there, it ends up going in. They pulled the goalie and they got space to get it to the net. So, absolutely, it can't happen. But the question being, for who's out on the ice, the line that was out there was the same line that was out there for a good chunk of the 5-on-6 as well.

With Silovs struggling so mightily in shootouts all year, would you give any thought to subbing in Jarry for a shootout the next time it happens when Silovs is in?

We’re going to keep working on shootouts.

Arturs overall played a much better game compared to his previous two outings. What did you think was the difference for him tonight?

It was definitely better. I think even just in the first period, he had to make some saves, I think he got into the game. I think he looked himself. He’s had a couple good weeks of practice, too. And I would attribute that to the work that he's been putting in.

Going back to the shootouts, what more can you do? Because it's not like you're not practicing them, and at this point, when you're really not getting any goals, how do you decide who goes out there? Crosby’s struggled the last two years, and he’s going out there still. So, how hard are those decisions?

We're going to continue to evaluate from game to game. There's a lot of things that get looked at. You look at our guys, the options that we have, we're going to look at the goalie in the other net, and if there's anything where you think it could be an advantage. Obviously, we went with a couple of different guys there as well tonight, and so, we're going to continue to work on them.

Tommy Novak scores tonight, he has seven points in his last six games. Just how valuable has he been with his lineup versatility, just given all the injuries, and how do you feel like he's molded into that top six for you guys?

Tommy's playing well. You can see he's attacking the game with the puck. He's making plays. I think he's playing well at both ends of the ice. I think he's a guy that, if you go out throughout the course of the year, he's gotten a lot of chances. He's been pretty consistent in terms of getting those areas. I think he's getting to the inside even more. He's getting a lot more looks from right around the net. And so, we're happy with this play.

Dan, you guys had a lot of chances in regulation as well. What did you need to do more of tonight to get a couple more across the line?

We'll look at the game, you know? There'll be things that afterwards, we'll look at, and could be more specific with it. I think the big thing that stood out there that there was a lot of pucks right around the net that we didn't get an opportunity to get to. I’ll have to look again at what the final shots were (49). I think that there was good chances. I think it's just continuing it. We probably passed up some opportunities to shoot. There were some times there when we got moving around the outside, we had good zone time, but we weren't getting it to the net as much as we could.