The Penguins returned to game action on Saturday in Boston after the trade deadline on Friday.
They were coming off a tough 6-0 loss to Washington on Thursday, where Mike Sullivan felt the Penguins didn’t do a good enough job handling the noise that comes with this time of year.
As Kyle Dubas noted, the group wasn’t happy with the decision to trade Jake Guentzel – both in terms of losing a popular teammate and great player; and what it means being sellers versus buyers, as the Penguins are mired in a tough stretch that has their playoff chances dwindling.
But the Penguins hoped that with the trade deadline over, they could relax and play with more of a free spirit – and the team did have a lot more jump this afternoon. But the Bruins, having another excellent year after a historic regular season in 2022-23, came away with a 5-1 win to hand Pittsburgh its fifth loss in the past six games.
Kris Letang scored for the Penguins, while Alex Nedeljkovic was between the pipes.
“I thought we had better energy. I thought we had more compete in our game,” Sullivan said. “I thought we had a great start. Our first probably seven or eight minutes was really strong. We had a couple of good looks.”
Michael Bunting – acquired from Carolina as part of the Jake Guentzel package – nearly converted a breakaway early in his Penguins debut. “We score there, that probably gives us some juice. They get a good save. That's hockey,” Sullivan said. Bunting said after that missing that chance "is gonna probably haunt me for a little bit,” but the overall consensus was that he played a strong game, slotting in on Sidney Crosby’s left wing.
“I thought he played really well,” the Penguins captain said. “He was strong on pucks and made some plays, had a great chance there on the breakaway early. I think as a line, we gotta find ways to create offense, whether that's off the rush or in the zone. Hopefully with every game, we get better and better. But I thought he played really well tonight.”
The teams entered the first intermission scoreless, and the Bruins killed off the remaining 46 seconds of a penalty to Brad Marchand to start the second period. They had momentum from there, and David Pastrnak ended up with his 40th goal of the season just 2:26 in. Pavel Zacha later scored on the power play before Marchand made it 3-0 going into the second intermission.
Letang tallied less than three minutes into the third period off a faceoff win from the captain, making it a game. The Penguins carried a lot of the play, but the opportunistic Bruins struck again just over midway through to regain the three-goal lead. Zacha got his second of the night to make it 5-1, which stood as the final score.
“I thought there were long stretches of the game that our guys were competing hard, executing, had significant offensive zone time, putting pucks at the net, getting people inside, trying to make the sightlines difficult,” Sullivan said. “We defended hard, a couple of times created some opportunities off the rush.
But on the flip side, Pittsburgh gave up some high-quality chances, and the Bruins took advantage. The Penguins have now given up at least five goals for the third time in the last four games.
“I mean, they’re a good team, and they have good players, so they are going to get some looks. But I thought we did some things that gave them an opportunity to get those types of looks,” Sullivan said.
“We've got to do a better job. We got to take care of the puck. We got to be better late in shifts, and on our line changes. One of their goals against, our forwards change, you give them a 3-on-2. Like, you just simply can't change. If you’re tired, you just simply can't be tired. You've got to stay and compete. That’s what winning hockey is about, and I thought we learned that lesson the hard way tonight.”
The Penguins have to apply what they took away on Sunday when Edmonton comes to town for another matinee, one week after they defeated Pittsburgh 6-1 last week at Rogers Place.
“We've got to find a way to just go a game at a time at this point,” Crosby said when asked about trying to stay positive. “You can't grab all those points at once, and we're playing some good teams. So, we've got to be ready to compete for that challenge and find a way here to get the next one and build off that.”
