Musings: "We All Have to Dig In"

Just one minute and 18 seconds into Thursday’s game at Ottawa to kick off this year’s Dads Trip, goaltender Arturs Silovs was assessed a questionable tripping penalty.

“I hadn’t seen (something like that before,” Head Coach Dan Muse said. “It had an impact... We're on the road, second shift of the game, and we're killing. They made a nice play.”

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk scored on the power play shortly after, and that pretty much set the tone for the night. Ottawa shut the Penguins out, 4-0.

“It felt like we gave them way too many opportunities off the rush,” forward Rickard Rakell said. “I mean, every time we had a turnover, they went the other way with speed. We couldn't really get any good pressure on their D-men, keeping pucks alive and spend some time in their zone. Yeah, we definitely got to play a better hockey game to win.”

Over midway through the second period, with the Penguins trailing 3-0, they had an opportunity to get momentum on their side. A Pittsburgh goal was waved off for goalie interference with Rakell in front, but the Penguins challenged, as they had a strong case.

“I thought based on the score and also just based on what I saw, I thought Raks was started outside the blue paint,” Muse said. “Pushed him towards the end. But even there, I didn't see it the way they did.”

The explanation from the officials, Muse said, was that they disagreed with him.

“There’s not much else to say,” he said. “I spoke with them. They said what they thought. They felt like it was goaltender interference. I didn’t. I would challenge it again.”

Rakell said they were in a position in the game where they had to try and take a chance.

“I wasn't sure what happened,” he said. “I just tried to jump by the D-man on the faceoff and try to get position there in front of the net, and I try to stay outside the crease when a battle is going on there and we're fighting for the same ice. So, I don't know.”

The Penguins came up with a big kill on the delay-of-game penalty assessed after the unsuccessful challenge. But overall, they’ve given up at least one goal on the man-advantage in five straight games, with the Oilers getting three on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

“It's not just one thing,” Muse said. “Sometimes when it's one thing, it becomes pretty obvious. But I think right now, there's been some misreads. We’ll continue to address, to clean up. Last game, the neutral zone, their pressure, that was something that I think ended up impacting it a lot. Today was in-zone.”

With tonight’s loss, Pittsburgh’s winless streak is now at seven games, and they have gone 0-3-4 in that stretch.

“I just think from the start, we were a step behind. It can't happen. You can't go on the road, play a game like this. We got to be better, regroup tomorrow, and that's all we can do right now. Like, I'm not coming in here trying to say the same thing over and over again. Every game is going to be a little bit different. Something's going to come up

In the latest episode of the GM Show, Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said the team had to get back to their foundation in order to end this streak. Muse referenced that tonight as well.

“Everybody going, everybody playing faster, more connected,” Muse said. “We've got the ability to do that, and we've shown that enough over the course of the season for me to be able to say that and say it with confidence. We have to do it. So, that's on all of us. I'm not just putting this on the players. It’s coaches. It's everybody involved. We all have to dig in, and we got to find a way to be better.”