After a tough loss to Washington on Saturday, the Penguins’ first game out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, they responded with a much better effort on Sunday versus New York. But they still ended up on the wrong side of the score, as the Rangers earned a 5-3 win.
“I thought our team played extremely hard. I thought we carried play the majority of the night,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “Give the Rangers credit. They were opportunistic on some of the chances that they got. I just think we got to continue to dig in.
“I said to them after the game, ‘If we put that game on the ice on most nights, we're going to win some games,’ and I believe that. I thought we carried territory, zone time, chances, opportunities. You can't always control whether the puck is in the net or not. What you can control is a process to give yourself opportunities to create chances, and I thought our group did that. Our intentions were in the right place.”
The first period was relatively even, with Evgeni Malkin opening the scoring before New York tied it up. He had missed the last six games going into the time off, and has been flying after nearly a month with no game action. The play was started by Danton Heinen, moved onto Malkin’s left wing in place of Michael Bunting, who slotted next to Kevin Hayes.
In the second period, the Penguins did everything but score. They recorded the first 17 (!) shots and ended up with a 19-4 edge, but Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Igor Shesterkin held down the fort. At the other end, New York was opportunistic. Rangers forward and local product J.T. Miller, recently acquired by Vancouver, scored with exactly three minutes left in the frame to put his team up 2-1.
Coming out of the intermission, Ryan Shea stepped up – scoring twice, his first two tallies of the season, for the first multi-goal game of his career. His only other goal came last season, on April 4 against Washington.
“The first one (started with) just the patience of (Erik Karlsson),” Shea said. “Geno just tossed it back to me, kid got in my shot lane and lucky enough, I got it up in time. I don't think he saw it at all, but definitely felt good to get that one.
“The second one was, I didn't see it until about two minutes later. So, that one, I had pressure coming in my face. I tried to just whack it back down, and I guess it hit the D man's pants and went in. That's a good bounce that I'm not familiar with, so it was definitely a good feeling there.”
The Penguins defenseman, who’s spent much of the season as the extra in that group, slotted in for Vincent Desharnais (who came from the Canucks with Heinen in exchange for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor). It marked Shea’s third appearance since the calendar turned.
“It’s unreal,” Hayes said. “Sheazo’s a great player, he’s a great teammate. He obviously wants to be in the lineup every single night. But he hasn’t been, and he hasn’t really been pouty. He’s been working hard, he stays on the ice after practice. He goes on early, he works on his game. He got called on tonight and I think he played his best game of the year.”
Pittsburgh played with five blueliners for 40-plus minutes, as Matt Grzelcyk went to the locker room in the first period after a hit from Matt Rempe and did not return. Sullivan said Grzelcyk is being evaluated for an upper-body injury.
“When you go down to five that early in the game, that's not easy,” Sullivan said. “Those guys are playing bigger minutes and different spots than we prefer to play them in, but I thought they all stepped up.”
As Hayes said, losing two in a row coming off the break wasn’t the plan. The Penguins need every point they can get if they want to remain in contention for a playoff spot.
“Listen, we understand where we're at,” Sullivan said. “We know that every game is important. Every two points are important. We're just going to stay in the moment and keep fighting, and we're going to fight till the very end. We're going to do everything we can to stay in the race here.
“I thought we fought hard tonight. We didn't get the result. We got to figure out where we go from here. But it's not doom and gloom. I think this group understands that that type of an attitude doesn't get us anywhere. So, we're going to have to dig in here. We'll keep fighting. We'll keep battling. We'll try to get the result the next game.”
