PITTSBURGH — Call the Penguins fragile. Call their habits very poor. Call their inability to defend leads sub-AHL level.
All of the above is accurate.
In a week of meltdowns, the Penguins took their inability to protect leads to an extraordinary low in Saturday’s 6-5 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
The Penguins were ahead 5-1 with under 14 minutes remaining in regulation time.
Then, disaster struck.
In a week that started with Dallas evening the game with the goalie pulled, and continued with Anaheim tying the game with 0.1 seconds remaining — while the Penguins were on a power play — the Penguins saved their worst for last.
They’ve now permitted four goals with the goaltender pulled in their past four games.
San Jose pulled within three goals on John Klingberg’s power-play goal. It was a five-on-three power play, as Connor Dewar was in the box for an unnecessary hooking penalty and Erik Karlsson took an even worse penalty when he failed to drop his stick after it had broken.
Kris Letang, whose recent play has been indescribably bad, then had a horrible shift that resulted in a William Eklund goal.
Still, the Penguins found themselves ahead by two goals with less than three minutes to play and the puck on Sidney Crosby’s blade. Crosby found Bryan Rust, whose shot at the empty net — goaltender Yaroslav Askarov had long been yanked for an extra attacker — clanged off the post.
About 20 seconds later, with Letang and Karlsson remarkably on the ice together again in a situation where the Penguins were attempting to protect a late lead, Macklin Celebrini scored to make it 5-4.
The silence in PPG Paints Arena at that moment was pretty deafening.
With 2:28 remaining, Dan Muse called a timeout.
He sent a defensive-minded group onto the ice. That plan didn’t work, either.
Ryan Shea and Parker Wotherspoon were deployed as the defensemen for the upcoming shift with Noel Acciari, Dewar and Kevin Hayes at forward.
It took less than a minute for Tyler Toffoli to even the game, as the Penguins were simply caved in on the play, looking horribly tentative, like a team that knew it was about to allow another goal.
Less than three minutes into overtime, Klingberg danced around an exhausted Crosby, sent a pass to Celebrini, then received a pass back and buried the game winner.
“I’ll look in the mirror first,” first-year head coach Muse said.
Muse’s first season behind the bench started magnificently, but this has been an agonizing week.
“I’ll take responsibility,” he said. “We have to be better. I have to be better because it’s happened a number of times now. … It’s cost us too many points. Obviously it has to stop.”
Muse wasn’t finished.
“We have to be disciplined,” he said. “We clearly have to be better five-on-six at the end of games. There are multiple parts to it. We’ll continue to work on it, continue to address it. There’s no question in my mind that this group can play much better than they are. But we have to get there.”
They’re still in the playoff mix for now, but they won’t be for long with more performances like this.
“We’ve got to close out games,” Crosby said. “We’ve got to be better.”
Ten postgame observations
• It’s hard to pinpoint just one thing when a team endures a meltdown like this. These meltdowns are becoming a habit, after all.
Bad penalties? Check.
Bad goaltending? Check.
Bad defense? Check.
Bad situational play? Check.
And here’s another item: Far too many Penguins look more interested in empty net goals than winning the damn game. I see way too many forwards leaving the defensive zone before the puck has been secured. Not a good look.
• I don’t specifically blame Artūrs Šilovs for any of the goals except for the first one, which was terrible. Šilovs was way off his angle on Toffoli’s shot.
TYLER TOFFOLI! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/VL7qeoiraB
— NHL (@NHL) December 13, 2025
It was more of a meltdown defensively than it was anything else.
However, the numbers aren’t pretty as they pertain to Šilovs.
The Penguins are 1-3-6 in his past 10 games. He’s given up 33 goals in those 10 games and has been yanked in two of them.
He’s hardly the only problem, and I thought he played better against Anaheim on Monday. Still, those numbers and his performance are a problem.
If making the playoffs is the goal for the Penguins this season — Kyle Dubas spoke pretty passionately about the Penguins’ postseason chances 24 hours earlier — it’s time to think about recalling Sergei Murashov right now.
Oh, he was the backup in this game on an emergency basis because Stuart Skinner wasn’t able to play due to immigration reasons. I’m talking about even when Skinner can play.
Skinner will receive some playing time following Friday’s trade, as he should. He might not be a star, but he’s a perfectly competent NHL goalie. I’m not sure what Šilovs is, but if the Penguins are going to make the playoffs, they might not have time for much patience with him.
Murashov is putting up video game numbers in the AHL and is the most talented goaltender the Penguins have. If they are going to make the playoffs, I think they need him in Pittsburgh permanently.
• Letang and Karlsson were on the ice together for a goal against. Again.
It’s baffling beyond words. Even if the Penguins were caught in the middle of a change, those two should never touch the ice together in a defensive situation.
I think we’ve seen enough evidence.
Mack’s goal for ya. 😤#TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/4xToqPfOES
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) December 13, 2025
They stood on each side of the net, allowing two Sharks to set up shop in front of Šilovs on the Celebrini goal. Šilovs probably should have made that save, but still, it was a terrible defensive look and an even worse look for the coaching staff.
• Letang endured another brutal outing and was especially bad on the Sharks’ third goal.
Eky puts it home. 🏠 pic.twitter.com/BcQb35AyGW
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) December 13, 2025
He’s absolutely lost right now, and while there aren’t necessarily “better” players behind him, I’m not sure how much longer the Penguins can use him in serious situations.
• Crosby stayed on the ice far too long on two occasions.
After Rust missed the empty net, Crosby had an opportunity to go to the bench, and he was already on the ice for a fairly long time. He opted to stay on the ice despite looking tired, and Celebrini scored 20 seconds later.
In overtime, Crosby looked tired and skated toward the bench. Then, he circled back and stayed on the ice.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! #TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/rHuVtpVAOc
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) December 13, 2025
He looked out of gas on the overtime goal. He’s got to keep his shifts shorter in those situations.
• A problem for Muse and the Penguins is that the majority of the mistakes we’re seeing in the third periods of recent games are being made by his best players. You can’t just bench everyone, especially your best players. It doesn’t work that way.
But those best players are wired only to score goals and not to play sound, situational hockey. It’s a problem. A big one.
• A couple of the Penguins spoke after the game about how many good things they did in this game.
Sure, they fired a lot of shots on goal. Forty-three, to be precise. And sure, they scored five goals.
Meltdown aside, they forced Šilovs to stop two breakaways earlier in the game, took a number of foolish penalties and were cavalier with the puck all afternoon.
• Once again, the most composed Penguins were the rookies. Ben Kindel played another strong game and Rutger McGroarty scored his first goal of the season. They need to remain together.
• Muse said all the right things following the game. I’ve gotten to know the man and everything about him is impressive. His passion to right the ship in Pittsburgh is sincere.
He says he’ll figure it out and I’ll take him at his word. Sitting some of his veterans in key situations won’t be an easy move, but it might be the right one. Let’s see how he handles it.
• Kudos to the Sharks. They’re fun. They’re fast. They’re going to have something impressive in a couple of years.
However, this game was about the Penguins and the mess that they’ve become. I can’t imagine a team has ever given up a game-tying goal in the final second of a game in the same week that it allowed an empty net goal and blew a 5-1 lead in the third period.
It’s unprecedented. It’s embarrassing. And there’s a very strong chance all of these blown points will keep them from making the playoffs.
All they had to do was make simple plays, make simple line changes, make Hockey 101 decisions and avoid dumb penalties.
They shot themselves in the foot anyway.