Musings: Penguins Leave Things to Chance in Loss to Chicago

There was a lot to like about Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win over Dallas on Saturday. That feeling did not carry over to Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Chicago, which kicked off a four-game road trip.

“It’s disappointing. We want to be stacking games together,” Dan Muse said. “Now we have to look at this, address it, correct it, and we're going to move on.”

The Penguins did claw their way back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game at 3-3 in the third period before Teuvo Teravainen’s sharp-angle shot snuck through Sergei Murashov. The rookie goaltender had put together a solid performance before that, following his 43-save effort in a 3-2 shootout loss to Columbus on Friday.

“He’s played unbelievable. Tonight, too, he played really good,” Evgeni Malkin said. “Like, one mistake, but it's fine. We need to support him. He’s good goalie. Just first year, you're a little bit nervous, maybe. But we need to be a team, be together, and again, everybody have mistake. But we need to support him, and he’s a great goalie.”

And, as both the head coach and the captain pointed out, they were rolling the dice at that point.

“We did enough to be in the game, but you don't play hockey that way, though,” said Sidney Crosby, who scored twice. “I mean, you got to play the right way. You leave it up to chance, and that's what happened tonight.”

Murashov was his usual reflective self when queried about how to regroup from here.

“In such a moment, you ask yourself, what's going to be the best thing to do right now?” the 22-year-old said. “There is no need to feel sorry, first of all. There is no need to carry it with me. I always try to do my best. Sometimes I do (make) mistakes. I truly appreciate the efforts from the guys this night, because the third period I think was really solid. Penalty kill was great, a lot of blocked shots. But yeah, it’s just part of the journey. Morning is wiser than evening, so let me get a night of sleep, and I'll be all right.”

The Penguins got behind early, as the Blackhawks struck just 28 seconds into the game. They pressured Penguins defenseman Declan Carlile behind the net, forcing a turnover. From below the goal line, Anton Frondell found Teravainen in the slot. His shot was perfectly placed, and the play happened so fast, there was nothing Murashov could do.

With just under seven minutes to go, the Penguins got it back with Crosby’s first of the year. After getting a great pass from Erik Karlsson, Crosby looked off Rickard Rakell before burying a shot far side.

Special teams dominated the rest of the first period, and Chicago won that battle pretty handily. The Penguins haven’t found their footing on the man-advantage, unable to take the lead on a power play assessed just under 13 minutes into the frame. After that, the penalty kill – which had given up just one goal on 17 opportunities coming into this game – couldn’t keep Roman Kantserov from converting for Chicago.

The Penguins went back to the power play early in the second, with Erik Karlsson throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the net, to no avail.

“We understand it's huge,” Malkin said. “Again, nothing easy. Just play hard and support each other, do the right things, goals coming.”

Kantserov then found another goal about midway through the period, but Pittsburgh’s fourth line gave the team some much-needed life a couple of minutes before the horn sounded. Blake Lizotte made one heck of a play to poke the puck loose before Spencer Knight could freeze it. Nick Robertson picked it up and put a shot through to get the Penguins within one.

Then, just over nine minutes into the final frame, the Penguins tied it up. Crosby had hopped over the boards for Blake Lizotte and ended up getting a rebound off a shot from Connor Dewar, once again putting it over the line.

Chicago then retook the lead on that tough bounce before icing the win with an empty-net goal.

“I think that we played a little bit to the type of game that I think they want to play in terms of making it a track meet,” Muse said. “There were times there, I think, in terms of with the puck, opportunities to possess it, opportunities to come up ice together, work for the neutral zone together. When you miss those opportunities, you're missing opportunities to be in the offensive zone, and you're leading to more time defending, and so, there’s some structural pieces that we need to continue to look at and work at and get better at.”