The Pittsburgh Penguins started their weekend set of back-to-back games with a 4-3 shootout loss against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
“I don't really think that we've played up to the level that we had coming off the break,” Erik Karlsson said. “We had a couple of down games here in a row now, and it's unfortunate timing. But I think we know what we are in here. We're a good team, and we're in the position we are for a reason.”
Saturday was the team’s first game without Evgeni Malkin, who was suspended for five games by the NHL Department of Player Safety. It was also the sixth game without Captain Sidney Crosby, who is still dealing with a lower-body injury.
“Obviously missing two absolutely incredible players, so that doesn't help," Bryan Rust said. "But we have very capable guys in here, guys that need to and that will and can and that have stepped up for us,. And we got to just continue to do that.”
Before puck drop, Head Coach Dan Muse said that the loss of Malkin provides the opportunity for other players to step up and fill in those minutes. Ville Koivunen, who was recently named the AHL’s Player of the Month with 16 points (6G-10A) in 11 games, was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, is one of those players.
Without Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins switched up their power-play personnel. The team’s second unit got on the board first after Koivunen worked the puck down low to Justin Brazeau, who then found Tommy Novak in the slot. Novak’s 13th goal of the season gave the Penguins an early 1-0 lead.
The Flyers would quickly respond after Trevor Zegras corralled an airborne puck and found Owen Tippett streaking into the zone and one-timed a shot past Stuart Skinner.
As the period progressed, the third line of Koivunen, Ben Kindel, and Avery Hayes began to build momentum for the team. While they were unable to get one past Vladar, Hayes laid a huge hit on Cam York. Hayes then got into his second career NHL fight when Jamie Drysdale came to the defense of his teammate.
Drysdale would take an instigating penalty on the play, but the Penguins were unable to convert. They ended the first period tied despite outshooting the Flyers 8-2.
Rickard Rakell reclaimed the Penguins’ lead early in the second period, but shortly after, the Flyers forced a defensive-zone turnover by the Penguins. Nikita Grebenkin found the loose puck and passed it to Alex Bump, who scored his first career goal in his NHL debut to tie the game 2-2.
“Those are unfortunate because we get the momentum, and we got to keep it,” Rust said. “Those next 2, 3, 4 shifts are big to keep the momentum. We don't need to score again, but we can't give them life. We got to play hard.”
After an offensive zone faceoff win by Rakell, Chinakhov quickly passed it over to Karlsson, who one-timed a shot to beat Vladar.
But once again, the Flyers were able to tie the game, with this goal coming off the stick of Denver Barkey.
“They played hard. Gotta give them credit,” Rust said. “They played really hard and in our face. I don't think we handled that as well as we could have.”
Throughout the game, Skinner didn’t face much action as the Flyers only had 10 shots on goal through 50 minutes. Philadelphia generated some quality chances that Skinner was there to shut down, keeping things tied.
“I thought for the most part, we kept them on the outside,” Skinner said. “It was an interesting game for a goalie tonight. I think Vladar would probably say the same thing. Not a ton of action but a lot of work in zone.”
The Penguins did get two more power play opportunities in the third period, but the Flyers were able to limit them from generating any sort of offense.
“We couldn’t really get our rotations, probably as we wanted to get into shooting threats,” Rakell said. “Still had the chances that were there, but we just didn’t take advantage of it.”
In overtime, both teams exchanged scoring chances before Vladar took an interference penalty on Karlsson to give the Penguins a 4-on-3 power play.
“Late in the game like that, body and mind are not working as well as you want it to, and we couldn't get the looks that we were looking for,” Karlsson said. “It's unfortunate. It was a great opportunity for us to put the game away, and we didn't do it today.”
Anthony Mantha, Rakell, and Chinakhov were all stopped by Vladar on their shootout attempts. Zegras, one of the league’s most premier players in the shootout, got the only goal for the Flyers to hand the Penguins their ninth loss in the shootout this season.
“Everybody knows that everybody really wants to score in the shootout,” Rakell said. “It might be one of the instances now where we’re gripping the stick a little bit too tight and not really doing what we wanted to.”
The Penguins ultimately pick up one point with Saturday’s loss and will look to quickly turn the page as they face the Boston Bruins at home on Sunday.
“Playing 82 games throughout a year, you’re going to get dips and you're going to have highs and you're going to have lows,” Karlsson said. “We just got to make sure that our lows are not too low and don’t last for too long.”
“We play a good team again tomorrow. We know it's going to be a tight game, and it's a great opportunity for us to come in and hopefully come together a little bit better than we have in the previous games.”
