Musings: Too Little, Too Late in Washington

Too little, too late.

Bryan Rust used that phrase multiple times when discussing Pittsburgh’s loss to Washington in the final home opener for Alex Ovechkin on Wednesday at Capital One Arena. The Penguins had battled back from a 4-1 deficit to make it 4-3, but ultimately, the Capitals won by a score of 5-3.

Rust scored in his season debut, while Tommy Novak and Nick Robertson also got in the goal column. It was the first loss of the season for Arturs Silovs, who won his first two starts against Philadelphia and Montreal.

“First half of the game, we weren't the team we wanted to be,” Rust said. “We gave them way too many opportunities. I don't think we played hard enough or fast enough.

“But I think the second half of the game was a bit of a different story. I think we played hard. We got in their face. We got on the forecheck. We got to some five-man offense, and I think that's something to build on. But I think it was a little bit too little, too late.”

The Penguins seemed off from the beginning, carrying over their defensive struggles from their 3-2 loss to Winnipeg on Monday night. And Washington capitalized on the first shift, with former Anthony Beauvillier finishing off a sequence that started with a miscue on the offensive blue line.

But Rust, sidelined with an injury in the preseason opener, provided a spark like he always does. Opening the game on a line with Ben Kindel and Ville Koivunen, the seven-time 20-goal scorer quickly found the back of the net.

“Got a really nice play from Kindy at the blue line. Had some space on the wall, kind of took it, made a little cut to the net, just tried to throw a shot to the far side, and it squeaked in,” Rust said. “It’s always nice to see one go in when you come back from an injury.”

After that, the Penguins kept the greatest goal scorer of all time off the board during a stretch of power-play time that included a 5-on-3 for Washington. But more defensive miscues led to more Capitals goals. 

A wide-open Tom Wilson buried one from the slot; Silovs then misplayed a puck and couldn’t get back into position in time; and finally, Declan Carlile’s pass intended for Erik Karlsson was picked off by Alex Tuch, who scored a breakaway goal.

From there, the Penguins started to get it together. “To be honest, I'm not sure (why), but we figured it out,” Rust said.

He moved up with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, a tried-and-true combination. But it was the one line that hasn’t changed yet this season that scored a big response goal. Egor Chinakhov fed Evgeni Malkin on a 2-on-1, his shot rang off the post, and Novak was there for the rebound.

Just under four minutes later, Robertson – playing with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte – redirected a shot from Kaedan Korczak to get the Penguins within one. But Ryan Leonard potted one with three seconds left on a man-advantage to put the game out of reach.

Here’s what Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse had to say following the contest.

At least three of their goals were the result of terrible turnovers. We've seen a lot of that in the last couple of games. How do you fix it? I think it's on the puck carrier, but it's also on the support working to be good options. I think each one of those has been different. There's times that we're vacating too early, or we're not providing the support that's necessary. And when you don't have options, that's what's going to happen. Turnovers happen all the time, but when we're too spread out, you're not in a position to recover. And so, it's both parts. I thought each one was a little bit different, but it's got to be better.

A lot of turnovers on the blue line by the defense. What can they do differently or better in those situations? Yeah, I think there's other options that are there. I think again, it's the awareness there, where the pressure is coming from. I think sometimes it's a little bit of just that feel at the line, and then I think sometimes, especially when plays are bobbled, it's a rolling puck, you just got to live to fight another day. So now, it's just going to be about putting it into an area where maybe it is a 50-50 puck, but it’s in an area there where we have a chance to get it back, and it's definitely in an area where they're not going to be coming at us with speed.

You mentioned maybe a lack of structure. Is that a result of the shortened camp in preseason? You look at the games, I feel like there's been games where the structure has been in good spots and the support's been in good spots. So, I'm not going to be looking to that. I think we've shown that. We just have to be way more consistent.

When you're giving up these kinds of Grade-A looks like you have the last few games, is it hard to gage your goaltending (between Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov), and how good or bad or indifferent it's been? I think the guys have been battling. Within these games, games where it's been wild and where we have to clearly give them some more help, they've still kept it where the games are close. We don't want them to be facing that high of quality, and definitely that amount of high quality.

You've had to change your lines up a little bit the last couple of games. Are you confident in where you are in that process of kind of finding four consistent lines yet? I mean, I'm changing them, so. I mean, right now in the season, it's not something where you go into the game saying, "All right, we're going to start this way, and I plan on changing it.” There's different reasons each time. Sometimes you shuffle things because somebody's going to get a skate fixed, and you like what you see, or it's after a special team, and you say okay, there's a little bit of momentum with them. So, sometimes you stick with it. It's different every time. Then sometimes, you just need to change it to see if you can get a spark. And so, we'll continue to look at those options, and we'll firm it up as we go into Columbus.

Every game is different, but if you could pinpoint what has changed between a week ago with what you did in Philadelphia versus today, particularly in terms of what you're giving up, what would you say that is? They worked, too. They won battles there that we could have been better in that area. So, for us, we just got to manage the game better. We got to manage momentum. I think even in the first period, it was a big goal by Rusty there, get it back to even after getting scored on in the first shift. But at the same time, I didn't like the way we played, the type of chances they were getting. So, we got to control the momentum of the game. It’s especially important on the road. It's important all the time, and we just let it get way too loud there today.