Pittsburgh’s point streak ended at 10 games (7-0-3) with their 6-4 loss to Boston on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
The Penguins moved out of the second Wild Card playoff spot as the Flyers, Red Wings, and Capitals all won. The standings now look like this after the night’s slate of games:
Washington (87 points, 2 games left)
Detroit (87 points, 2 games left)
Philadelphia (87 points, 1 game left)
Pittsburgh (86 points, 2 games left)
“We’ve been playing this type of hockey for a while now and we’ve had to put games behind us pretty quickly, so we have to do the same with this one,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “We got to learn from it. We can’t give up the quality of chances we’re giving up and expect to produce and get points. We just gotta be a little more detailed.”
Michael Bunting scored twice, while Bryan Rust and Drew O’Connor also tallied for Pittsburgh. Alex Nedeljkovic, who had been in net for every game of the team’s run, allowed three goals on 16 shots before getting replaced by Tristan Jarry in the second period. It marked his first game action since March 24 in Colorado.
After a good first period for the Penguins, the Bruins broke the game open in the middle frame with a pair of goals 14 seconds apart. Rust got it back on a beautiful setup from O’Connor, burying his 28th of the year in just his 60th appearance, establishing a new career high in goals.
But when Boston made it 3-1 shortly after, that ended Nedeljkovic’s night. “I actually felt fine today. I felt better than I did Thursday night (vs. Detroit),” he said. “Thought it was a pretty good first period, played pretty well. We didn’t give them much. I don’t really know how to explain that one.”
After Brad Marchand got a shorthanded goal to make it 4-1, Bunting got it back on that same power play. With the Penguins on the penalty kill early in the third, O’Connor scored a shorthanded goal on a fantastic individual effort to swing the momentum back on Pittsburgh’s side and bring them within one. But with less than five minutes to play, Morgan Geekie buried a pass with a quick release to make it 5-3 Boston.
“OC got us a big one there, gave us a lot of momentum. I think the fifth one was tough,” Crosby said. “They got a lot of momentum when they got that fifth one. But I felt like we were in it all night.”
Former Penguin Danton Heinen found the empty net with less than three minutes to play before Bunting got his second of the night. Here’s what Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the contest.
Thoughts on the goaltending, and how does that affect your plans in net for the next couple games? “Well, I thought we gave them some pretty high-quality looks. It’s not an easy game to assess goaltending when you give them the type of looks that we did. Ned's given us some great hockey here. He's battling hard for us. The decision I made was based on just trying to change momentum for our group, see if it could give us a jolt. It was more about that than anything.”
I know a lot of people are going to speculate that maybe fatigue was an issue because he's played so much. How much have you had to weigh that the last couple of weeks, given that he has played a lot more in the last couple of weeks than he has all season? “Yeah, I mean, it's a discussion that we've had, and we certainly communicate with Ned. It's not something that we're oblivious to, if that's what you're asking. He's reassuring us that he feels good, and he has energy. As I said the other day, he's a guy that is in incredible shape, because he works as hard as he does. We feel as though he's been giving us the opportunity to win games, and is deserving of the net. That’s why we made those decisions.”
A lot of the guys in the room were just talking about how all they can focus on is the next game, that's obviously true. A year ago, a lot of guys in that room were in a situation where they had a playoff spot with a couple of games left and couldn't close it out. Is there anything to learn from that situation being on the other side, when you're not as much in control of your destiny? “I just think that the important thing that we have to be aware of and be focused on is the game right in front of us, because that's really the only thing that we can control. We knew this was a tough stretch. We knew this was gonna be a tough one tonight against one of the best teams in the league. Regardless of where this goes, we still have two more games to play, and that's how we look at it. So, we've got to get some rest here and we’ve got to re-energize for the game on Monday and we've got to put our very best game on the ice. Hopefully, we get a favorable result, and then we'll see where that takes us. But I think that at the end of the day, that's really the mindset that we have to have. That's where our focus needs to be.”
The shorthanded goal against, there’s been a number of those this season. Is there any one common theme or thread there as far as why that's been a common problem? “I think it's happened a million different ways. But at the end of the day, it boils down to just diligence and being committed to defend.”
I know OC’s goal was in a losing cause and everything, but that's pretty special stuff, isn't it? “Incredible goal. I thought OC had a real inspiring effort tonight. He played really hard. That goal was an example of it. It was a great goal, it was a nice play. You see his strength, his skating ability, and his scoring touch. It was a terrific goal. It gave the whole building energy, and the team as well. We talked in between periods about just getting the next goal to get it in striking distance. If we could get up within one goal, we're right there, and that goal did it for us. We had a lot of momentum after that, so it's just a terrific goal b
After a really good first period, what maybe changed in the second period that allowed them to get a few: “They're a good team, and so there's going to be momentum swings in those types of games when you're playing good teams. It's hard to tilt the ice for 60 minutes. You know they're going to push back. I thought in a couple of instances, we didn't really make them work hard enough for the goals that they got. One of them was a non-threatening shot from the perimeter. The rebound goes to the scoring area and they get a free look. We gotta get in to people there. We've got numbers back, we have to have more of an awareness of the people and circumstances of defending the scoring area. I just didn't think we made them work as hard as we needed for some of their offense. That's an area where we have to get better.”
