It was an awful day for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Putrid. Disgusting. Depressing.
Everything that could have gone wrong for the Penguins did, as they watched control over their own fate slip from their grasp in a 6-4 loss to the Bruins.
But it wasn’t just a loss to the Bruins that helped destroy their playoff hopes. It was every other team that they needed to lose that wound up winning. Washington pulled out a victory out of Tampa Bay. The reeling Flyers beat the Devils 1-0. And the Red Wings, facing mathematical elimination, blew a 4-1 lead, but recovered to win in overtime.
All three of those teams now sit in front of the Penguins with days left to go in the regular season.
Today really, really hurt the Penguins.
The only team they have any games in hand on is Philadelphia, but they are dead even in games played with everyone else. Let’s take a quick look at everyone else’s remaining schedules.
Washington: @ Boston (Monday), @ Philadelphia (Tuesday)
Detroit: vs Montreal (Monday), @ Montreal (Tuesday)
Philadelphia: vs Washington (Tuesday)
Pittsburgh: vs Nashville (Monday), @ New York Islanders (Wednesday)
It’s the Detroit schedule that really worries me. Two games against an eliminated Montreal team. They have nothing to play for (except spoiler), while Detroit has everything to play for. If they win both those games, it doesn’t matter what the Penguins do to close out the season.
Had the Penguins won out starting with the Bruins, they would have made the playoffs without question. Now, they’ve surrendered their fate to several teams in direct competition with them, all of whom would love nothing more than to take their place in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The unfortunate part in all of this, was that the Penguins did not play the whole game looking like the team that needed to win. For parts of the game sure? But far from a full 60 minutes.
Alex Nedeljkovic’s heroic run came to an unceremonious end when Mike Sullivan pulled him midway through the second period after allowing three goals, the last of which was pretty brutal.
Tristan Jarry saw in-game action for the first time in weeks, but while Ned clearly was subpar today, so was Jarry. The first shot he faced resulted in shorthanded goal for the Bruins.
That goal isn’t totally Jarry’s fault. Erik Karlsson is doing only god knows what on this play, and his inaction to go get the puck allowed the Bruins to take control while down a man.
Still, for a guy like Jarry, who has had questions about him for a while now, it was not a good first look back.
Playing time was, in my opinion, a contributing factor in why both goalies were poor today. Ned was starting his 11th straight game for the Pens, the longest starting streak for a goaltender in the NHL this season. He has probably been gassed for a while, evident by his declining numbers even as the Penguins continued to pick up points.
Tonight was finally the last straw for him.
On the other side, Tristan Jarry had not played since that 5-4 overtime loss to Colorado. Doesn’t that feel like forever ago? In NHL terms, it was. That was March 24th.
Jarry didn’t even start that game, he appeared briefly in relief while Ned was injured, and Jarry did not finish that game. Jarry’s last start came two days earlier, when he started against Dallas but was pulled early.
Safe to say that Jarry was a little rusty in this game. Did the team need more from him tonight? Yes, but it’s understandable that he wasn’t perfect in this game.
Defense continued to be an issue for the Penguins. Erik Karlsson, celebrating his 1,000th NHL game tonight, suffered another harsh defensive performance, and unlike Thursday, he did not redeem himself.
Reilly Smith had another night of doing cardio on the ice. I get that he’s been snakebitten on some chances recently, but as his Penguins tenure is likely coming to an end, he is leaving on a rather quiet note.
I found a tweet by Rob Rossi rather interesting, pondering on whether Smith has been the worst acquisition the Penguins have made in the 20 years he has been covering the team.
It’s an interesting question. It’s nothing personal against Smith, but the trade has just completely flopped. In every definition of the word.
The team as a whole did not rise to the challenge. That ugly shorthanded goal was, to be, the ultimate killer. The Bruins scoring that goal made it a 4-1 game, and even though Michael Bunting would later score on that power play to make it 4-2, that was a big deficit against a team like Boston to overcome.
And the Penguins didn’t.
Drew O’Connor did his best to try, scoring a beautiful shorthanded goal of his own to get the Penguins within one.
O’Connor’s goal was a much needed spark for the team, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to pull even with the Bruins.
This was an awful loss to take, particularly given its implications for the team. The Penguins now need serious help to make the playoffs, assuming they can win their own last two games, neither of whom are push-over teams.
Even though this game did not mathematically eliminate them, it sure does feel like it after tonight. Time will tell if that feeling is correct.
And I guess we should talk about this too: David Pastrnak’s end of game antics.
Pastrnak takes a slap shot at Jarry at the very end of the game, while up two goals, with seconds left on the clock.
Sidney Crosby took exception to it, yapping at Pastrnak after the whistle.
My take: yeah, Pastrnak shouldn’t have done it, it was cheap, but it’s not a huge deal. I don’t agree at all with Ray Ferraro, who said on the broadcast Pastrnak wasn’t trying to score. If you aren’t trying to score, you don’t take a wind up slap shot at the goalie. However, not a major deal.
I appreciate Sid sticking up for his guys, as I would expect Pastrnak to had the situation been reversed.
(Featured photo from Getty Images)
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