After being without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on Friday against the Rangers, Bryan Rust joined them on the injury list for Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Philadelphia, their final game before the two-week 4 Nations Face-Off break.
The star winger was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, but Mike Sullivan said he anticipates Rust being available when the Penguins return to action on Feb. 22, hosting Washington at 3 PM.
“It was more about having roster flexibility so we could call somebody up, so we could have 12 forwards (tonight),” the Penguins head coach said. That player was Vasily Ponomarev.
Malkin (lower body) was injured on Jan. 25 in Seattle, and is listed as week-to-week. Crosby, who is set to captain Canada at the upcoming international tournament, missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury after seeing his consecutive games played streak end at 229.
“We're going to take each day as it comes,” Sullivan said. “He skated for a long time this morning. He felt significantly better today than he did yesterday, and that's really encouraging.”
So, all of that being said, the Penguins certainly had some challenging circumstances tonight at Wells Fargo Center, but managed to put together another solid performance. Unfortunately, they found themselves on the wrong end of the result after beating the Rangers last night. Their point streak ended at four games (3-0-1).
“I'm proud of these guys. We're playing hard,” Sullivan said. “I mean, let's just state the obvious. We're a little undermanned lately, and these guys are stepping up. We’re competing. It's not perfect. It's a game of mistakes. But most of them are mistakes of enthusiasm, and we'll live with those. We'll work through them. I think we got a good group. I think we have good people. They care an awful lot about winning and trying to play the game the right way. Their intentions are in the right spot.”
Erik Karlsson and Kevin Hayes both scored for Pittsburgh. The forward slotted into the top-line center role after Rickard Rakell had filled in there on Friday.
“I think we played well today. I think we played really well yesterday as well,” said Karlsson, who wore an ‘A’ along with Rakell – Pittsburgh’s leading scorer and his teammate on Sweden at 4 Nations – in the absences of Crosby, Malkin, and Rust.
“Obviously, on the back-to-back today, but I felt like the guys, we were into it. I think for the better part of this game, except for scoring goals, we played really good... when we made mistakes, everybody was there to back you up. We worked hard for each other.”
The Penguins had a significant amount of offensive zone time in the first two periods. While they didn’t give up much over that time frame, they did surrender some high quality looks on rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist by not managing the puck correctly.
“A couple breakdowns here and there led to their grade-A looks, and then it kind of takes momentum away,” Hayes said. “Overall, we didn't come away with any points. That's the main goal every night. But thought everyone stepped up, worked hard.”
The Flyers pushed back in the third to take a 3-1 lead, when Travis Konecny’s shot changed direction 4:27 in. But just over a minute later, Hayes got it back. It was initially called no goal, but the Penguins were able to challenge the goalie interference call, and it was overturned.
“I was kind of shocked they waved it off. But I mean, not everyone had my view,” Hayes said. “I could see the puck the whole entire time, so I was nervous that we weren't going to be able to challenge it. When we challenged it, I felt pretty good that it was going to be a goal.”
With over six minutes to go in regulation, Danton Heinen had a shorthanded breakaway, drawing a penalty. The Penguins couldn’t score during their abbreviated power play, or later with the extra attacker.
After the game, the Penguins recalled Tristan Jarry and re-assigned forwards Emil Bemstrom and Ponomarev, along with Blomqvist, to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. They have five games scheduled while Pittsburgh is off.
