Three times in the last four games, the Pittsburgh Penguins have wadded up victory and chucked it away like a used gum wrapper no longer serving a purpose. They have repeatedly dropkicked away wins that were theirs.
The situation that has vexed the Penguins is facing an extra attacker. Six-on-five has become automatic … for the opponents. To be fair, the situation is even worse than reported because, in reality, the Penguins have allowed an extra attacker goal in four of the last five games, but the NHL overturned the Tampa Bay Lightning’s goal on a controversial hand pass ruling.
Saturday, the San Jose Sharks scored a pair of goals with the goalie pulled, erasing a 5-1 lead and winning in overtime–just as each of their previous three leads met a near identical demise.
“It can’t keep happening,” said Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse.
“I have no idea,” said Bryan Rust told PHN, “but we’d better figure it out quick.”
Rust lingered in his dressing stall, still dressed in full gear, while most players ran from the intense glare of media lights before we even entered the room.
Rust, Sidney Crosby, and Erik Karlsson stayed to face the music for the team and to face the inevitable question.
What was that?!
A few one-goal leads are one matter. Blowing a four-goal lead in less than 11 minutes crossed the border from unbelievable to unacceptable.
However, one thing no one is talking about is that the same players are often at the center of the storm.
When asked what in the world is going wrong and how it can be fixed, Muse stared straight ahead. His pause to answer became a moment. Which then became a powerful silence.
“I think it’s something different every time. I don’t think it’s always the exact same thing. The common thread is we play one way for the great majority of the game, and then sometimes it’s a one-goal lead, two-goal lead, it’s been different situations, but the common thread is we get away from what works,” Muse said.
“Sometimes it’s a little structurally, we get away from what works. Sometimes we just put ourselves in bad positions. Sometimes, we’ve taken poor penalties, at inopportune times, giving them momentum, and we haven’t done nearly a good enough job of getting that momentum back–and we then look like a different team.”
PHN examined the structural issues just a few days ago.
When PHN asked Rust if he could explain the collapses that have happened with alarming regularity, including Saturday’s stunning four-goal faceplant, he bit his tongue as TV cameras arrived.
“It’s kind of embarrassing to be honest,” said Rust. “Like, we’ve had these situations here over the past couple of weeks, and you think we’d–I’m not gonna swear now that I’m on camera– but you think we’d learn, and it just sucks.”
He demurred from the blue air not humorously, but in disgust.
While Rust and Crosby were at a loss for words, Muse gathered his. And blamed himself.
Dan Muse Takes Blame,
There are a pair of issues that the new head coach may want to address.
One easy-to-fix problem is ceasing to unite the defense pairing of Erik Karlsson with Kris Letang against the empty net. Muse has done it three times this season. In the second game of the year, the pair’s lax defending yielded a last-second Grade-A scoring chance. Against Anaheim Tuesday, it yielded a goal with .1 seconds remaining when each made poor defensive stands. And, in their encore performance, the defensive pairing allowed yet another goal to make it 5-4.
Macklin Celebrin scored while a pair of Sharks forwards went to the net to screen goalie Arturs Silovs, and did so with no resistance from Letang or Karlsson. In Picture 1, the Penguins have the Sharks confined to the perimeter. All should have been safe and sound, but two seconds later, the Penguins’ defensemen hadn’t moved, but two Sharks were squarely in front of the crease, easily taking the inside position.
Also, a player, even Celebrini, shouldn’t score on a clean 45-foot shot.
Terrible on all fronts.
Silovs served a pizza, and needlessly scrambled on the tying goal, too.
A shot from the back of the circle should not produce a juicy rebound.
With the ultra-soft 59-foot wrister that was the Sharks’ first goal (Tyler Toffoli), Silovs did not have a stellar game.
OK, Silovs was a sieve Saturday, and it’s been a deepening trend. He has just one win in his last 10 starts, and six extra time losses, including four of those in the shootout. Six in 10 starts?!
Silovs was also in the net for the Nov. 6 game against the Washington Capitals, in which the Penguins lost a 3-0 lead, but won 5-3.
Muse also chided himself.
“So, I’ll take responsibility for this, too. There’s been enough of this where I’m not–believe me, it’s all of us,” Muse said. “We have to be better on the ice. I have to be better because it’s happened a number of times now. We’ll find a way. It’s cost us too many points already. It has to stop.”
He is not wrong on any front.
The Penguins’ defense down low has been a disaster against the extra attacker. In fact, it has become a spacious, generous, soft zone coverage … with spectators. See above.
In each of the empty net goals over the past week-plus, the opponent has controlled the area around the net and done so with the puck. That’s the common theme the Penguins seem to be missing.
It has been easy to score the goals because the extra attacker has neither faced pressure nor have the net-front charges faced opposition.
It’s too often a free pass.
The quiet part out loud is that Letang and Karlsson are not strong defenders. With the added pressure of the final minutes, them being paired together should be a no-fly zone.
The goaltender has to make average saves.
Who would have thought in August, we would write the sentence, “Kyle Dubas trading away Tristan Jarry may significantly hamper the Penguins’ playoff chances.”
And Muse has to understand the dynamics of his roster. The star players aren’t necessarily stars because of their stellar defensive work, and regardless of their status in the game, perhaps they should be spectators on the bench…not the ice.
Tags: arturs silovs Dan Muse erik karlsson Kris Letang Penguins Analysis Pittsburgh Penguins
Categorized: Penguins Analysis