The Penguins dropped the first game of a home-and-home with the Flyers on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center, 6-1.
“I don’t think we played particularly good today,” Erik Karlsson said. “It’s unfortunate... it’s one of those nights where it didn’t feel like we had much of anything... they did everything better than we did tonight.”
The Penguins were coming off a strong performance against the Rangers on Sunday, where they played well but didn’t get the result they deserved in a 5-3 loss. Head Coach Mike Sullivan actually felt like his group did carry over some good energy into tonight’s start, and while they got down 2-0 in the first 12-plus minutes, there was still a lot of hockey left to be played.
Phil Tomasino got Pittsburgh within one just over six minutes into the second to give him three goals and five points in his last seven games. However, the Flyers regained their two-goal lead a few minutes later – and doubled that at the end of the period. Philadelphia tallied twice in 11 seconds to make it 5-1 going into the intermission.
“We're right there, and then we proceed to not win puck battles, be careless with the puck,” Sullivan said. “It's just not a recipe for success. If you don't manage the puck in this game and you don't play straight ahead, you're going to give teams easy offense. And that's what we did.”
Alex Nedeljkovic took complete ownership after the game, describing how he should have come up with saves on those goals and saying the guys deserve better from him. “Just frustrated right now. I don’t know what else to say. It’s disappointing,” he said.
But Sullivan wouldn’t let Nedeljkovic shoulder the blame.
“Listen, the goaltending had nothing to do with it tonight,” Sullivan said. “We simply weren’t good enough as a team.”
The Penguins return home to host the Flyers on Thursday, with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 PM at PPG Paints Arena. All they can do is look at that one game in front of them as they try to stay in the fight for a playoff spot and snap this four-game losing streak.
“We know the position that we're in,” Karlsson said. “If you start thinking big picture, it might get a little bit discouraging. We can't let that happen. We still got a lot of hockey left, and we got a good group of guys in here, and we just got to stay in the moment and try and find it for each day. Today, obviously, we fell short on that.”
Lineup Notes
*Bryan Rust returned to action after missing the last two games due to illness, and the last game before the break – also in Philadelphia – with a lower-body injury.
*Matt Grzelcyk was good to go following a hit from Matt Rempe in the first period of Sunday’s matchup with the Rangers that sent Penguins defenseman to the locker room for the remainder of the day.
“It was kind of just like a scary kind of incident, probably more just caught me by surprise than anything,” Grzelcyk said. “I never touched the puck, I never had possession of the puck. So, in that spot, I don’t think I’m really expecting to get finished there. If anything, maybe rubbed out. I think his teammate had the puck the whole time through the neutral zone and dumped it in. I chased it from the other corner. I know he’s a big man, but probably think you’ve got to have a little bit more awareness in situations. He’s coming from my blind side there, so I’m not really expecting to take a big hit in that position.”
