Consistency continued to elude the Penguins on Saturday in Utah, as the Mammoth came away with a 5-4 victory. The Penguins ended up going winless on their four-game road trip, and are now 1-6-1 after starting the season with wins in their first two games.
“We just didn't put a full game together,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “We had leads. We fought back. Just feel like we didn't put a complete game together.”
Before the game, I asked Bryan Rust what the mindset had to be coming in as they looked to stop their skid. He said they needed to focus on their start and go from there. And the Penguins had a good one, with Blake Lizotte drawing a penalty on the first shift.
Over the boards went a top unit made up of Erik Karlsson, Crosby, Rust, Rickard Rakell and Tommy Novak. They found a goal pretty quickly, with Karlsson’s shot deflecting in off a Mammoth player for his first goal of the season. After that, however, the Penguins struggled to get out of their own zone, and the Mammoth took a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
But when Pittsburgh’s power play got another chance, they capitalized. This time, Rakell got his first goal of the season with a power move to the blue paint, evening the score. The power play getting back on track has been a silver lining of their recent fortunes, as it had been 0-for-20 before finding one against the Golden Knights, and going 3-for-3 since then.
“Just simple,” Crosby said. “I think that group's pretty familiar with each other, and I thought that we just had a good mindset going into it. Obviously, getting one last game gave us a little bit of confidence, and then it was nice to see a couple go in there. It’s been some tough sledding a bit on the PP, especially Raks and Karl, happy to see those guys put a couple in the back of the net.”
Not long after the Penguins’ other special teams group came up with a monumental penalty kill against the NHL's top power play, the Mammoth took a 3-2 lead as Arturs Silovs was screened on a shot from Nate Schmidt. Utah then made it 4-2 on a re-direct before capitalizing on their next power play early in the third.
The Penguins did push back from there, finding goals from Egor Chinakhov and Declan Carlile to get within one with just over five minutes to play. And they nearly tied it with seconds to go. Karlsson put a shot on net that hit Ben Kindel, who managed to corral the puck and get it through Sebastian Cossa, hitting the post.
“The way we played in the last period, with desperation to try to accomplish something, and just simplifying things and taking the puck towards the net, I think that's what we're gonna need more of to be successful,” Rakell said.
The Penguins also have quite a bit of work to do defensively. Muse said they have to be tighter and harder to play against, as Mammoth players kept coming away with the puck, finding open space and winning battles, particularly around the netfront.
“They were getting sustained shifts in our zone, and we weren't able to get much of a forecheck, so that's a tough combination,” Crosby said. “You're not going to wear teams down, and they're going to have lots of juice to play offense. I think there's a lot of ways, whether it's being a little bit more crisp with the puck and making plays to possess it, or if we do put it in, that we find ways to get it back.”
The Penguins fly to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and will practice Wednesday before hosting Florida on Thursday, and Muse said they have to take it one day at a time as they look to get back on track.
“My viewpoint is, we're facing some adversity right now. This is an opportunity for us to come together and come out of even stronger,” Muse said. “And based on what I've seen with the group, I think they believe the same thing. That’s how we have to approach it. We have to stay together. We have to just be looking to make gains here each day, definitely each game, and we have to make the way we play on the defensive side a priority and a consistent one.”
NOTE: The Penguins put their lines and D-pairs in a blender to start the contest.
Up top, Egor Chinkahov returned to the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury and slotted in next to Crosby and Rust. Rakell moved next to Andrei Kuzmenko and Kindel, while Ville Koivunen was with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin. And Nick Robertson went on the fourth line in place of Elmer Soderblom, who was a healthy scratch.
They got even more jumbled when Rust suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return to the game. Muse had no update after the game.
On defense, Sam Girard was not available for the contest after going into the end boards on Saturday against Vegas. Carlile played in his usual spot next to Kaedan Korczak; Spencer Stastney moved up next to Karlsson; and Ilya Solovyov, just recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, was alongside Kris Letang.
