After the Penguins shut out Winnipeg 3-0 coming out of the bye week/All-Star break on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena, they knew the Jets would be ready to respond in the rematch on Saturday at Canada Life Centre, especially having dropped five in a row. Fueled by a strong start, the Jets came away with a 2-1 victory.
Bryan Rust scored Pittsburgh’s only goal, and Tristan Jarry ended up with the first loss of his career to Winnipeg, as he entered tonight with a 5-0 record. "Jars played great for us. We gave up some great looks for them, and they created some great looks for themselves," Erik Karlsson said. "He was there to bail us out and it's unfortunate that we can't find a way to score a little bit more goals to give ourselves to a better chance."
The Penguins weren’t happy with their start in a fast-paced opening frame, with the Jets building a 2-0 lead. “They came out really hard. I think we expected that,” Rust said. “This is a hard building to play in, and they usually come out fast and hard. But having lost five straight, I think we expected even more, and that's exactly what they did.”
Pittsburgh rectified that in the second, putting together a much better period of hockey and cutting the deficit to one, with Rust beautifully re-directing a feed from Karlsson for his second goal in as many games against the Jets. They continued building on that in the third, but couldn’t find a tying goal.
"First period was not good. Let's leave that at that. That certainly wasn't good enough. I don't think anybody thought it was. I think from there on out, we started to play a little bit harder,” Rust said. “Obviously, there's gonna be mistakes out there. Could have been a little a little bit tighter defensively. But I think overall, for that last 40 minutes, we played hard, got a lot of chances, and just didn't put enough pucks in the net."
It didn’t help that Pittsburgh’s power play, which scored twice on Tuesday after the coaching staff made changes to the personnel units, went 0-for-3 on the night and didn’t generate much of anything.
“Obviously, everyone’s working hard, everyone wants to score, everyone’s trying to get there. It’s just that little bit more, maybe that extra reach or that extra little fight for body position, things of that nature,” Rust said. “It’s been frustrating, especially at this time of year when we’re in a spot where we need to get as many points as we possibly can.”
John Ludvig returned to the lineup for his first NHL game action since Dec. 31 against the Islanders, where the rookie defenseman sustained an upper-body injury in a fight with veteran heavyweight Matt Martin. He replaced P.O Joseph, a healthy scratch for the first time since the calendar flipped.
Up top, the Penguins lost former Jet Jansen Harkins, playing in his first game in Winnipeg since being claimed off of waivers from the team that drafted him in 2015, in the second period following a hit from Adam Lowry.
Here’s what Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the game, Pittsburgh’s second setback in as many nights after falling to Minnesota, 3-2, on Friday at Xcel Energy Center.
What kind of message do you give to the players after a weekend like this, where they competed hard, but a loss is a loss: “Yeah, for me, it's more about how you win and how you lose. I thought we competed hard last night. I don't think we played a complete game tonight.”
When you look at the offense… is it getting to the point where it's just some people who aren't getting the job done, aren't scoring the way they're supposed to? “Well, we need more guys to step up, and I think I'm probably stating the obvious when I say that. It takes a complete effort. We need everybody to make contributions here throughout our lineup, on both sides of the puck.”
When you say it was not a complete effort, what did you think was missing? “(At the start), we didn't establish the game we wanted to play, we gave up I don't know how many odd-man rushes in the first period, we were careless with the puck. It’s not a game that's conducive to winning. You know, we're coming into a building and playing against a team that we knew was going to play with urgency, they had dropped five games in a row. Those of us who have been in the league long enough understand what that circumstance is like. So, I don't think we matched the urgency off the start that we needed to, and I don't think we played a smart game like we needed to. So, we didn't set ourselves up to play the game that I think gives us the best chance to win. I thought we responded. The second period, I thought we competed hard, third period… but we're chasing the game at that point.”
Can there still be a temptation with this group, you come out, you’re trading chances, there's nine minutes of no whistles to just say, ‘oh, cool, we can do this’: “You know how I feel about this, I've said this a lot – I don't know that that's a game that's conducive to winning consistently. You'll win some, but you're gonna lose some, too. The chance-for-chance game is not a game that we want to play. We've had a lot of conversations around it. We’re trying to establish a game out there that we think gives us the best chance to win. Part of that is we got to be hard to play against. We got to make good decisions with the puck. We can't give teams easy offense. We got to stay above it. We got to have numbers back. We got to be willing to defend. We got to be committed to play away from the puck, and then when the opportunity presents itself, we've got to give our talent an opportunity to do their thing. But I think all the other things have to come first.”
Is there frustration that these things are piling on in February, maybe becoming habit? “No, I mean, frustration for me is a useless emotion. We've got to understand that there's a certain type of game that gives us the best chance to win, and we got to put it on the ice consistently. When we do, I think we're competitive.”
