The Penguins were hoping to carry over some of the momentum from their strong finish to last season. Instead, Pittsburgh stumbled out of the gate with a 6-0 loss against the New York Rangers in their 2024-25 opener on Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
They traveled to Detroit immediately following the game, as Pittsburgh plays the Red Wings Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena.
“We wait, long offseason and long break, and we think we are ready to play, but we need to play better,” Evgeni Malkin said. “I mean, that was a real game, not exhibition. It’s a tough loss and I hope tomorrow we play better. Long season. Stay together, it is the only way. We played against a good team, the Rangers. But stick together, get ready tomorrow and go to Detroit and change everything.”
With Alex Nedeljkovic week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Tristan Jarry started between the pipes for Pittsburgh. He rebounded after a tough ending to the first period, where the Rangers scored twice in the final two-plus minutes, and stopped 35 out of 41 shots.
“I think if I make a save on that second one I think it at least helps guys stay in it,” Jarry said. “it is disappointing, we had a long offseason. It wasn’t really the offseason we wanted, we were so close to making it last year, and it’s a new year. I think just being able to start on the right foot would have really helped us. But we have to work a little harder, I have to work a little harder myself, and I think that we’ll be better for it.”
Rutger McGroarty, 20, made his National Hockey League debut and took part in the ceremonial “rookie lap” to lead the Penguins out for warmups. The Nebraska native became the ninth-youngest player in the Sidney Crosby era to make his debut.
The Penguins ended up going 0-for-3 on the power play, giving up a shorthanded goal, but killed off both penalties they received. Head Coach Mike Sullivan shared his thoughts before heading to the airport.
Is the result in the way you guys played the kind of game that provokes thought for change already or is it too early for that? “I think it's probably premature. Obviously, we didn't have the start of the season that we would have liked. It's a hard one to evaluate. I thought the start of the game, we played pretty well the first 13 minutes or so. I feel like there was a two or three-minute span there in the first period where we gave up a couple of goals. We just didn't seem to grab a hold of it from there. I think it's probably premature at this point to overreact, but certainly, we're disappointed with the result tonight.”
Jarry is hardly the reason why you guys lost tonight when you don’t score a goal, but he gave up two goals on the first three shots. He’s under the microscope this season. Even though it's only one night, are you worried about how this could impact his confidence at all? “I don't think so. I thought he responded really well after the first. I thought he made some big saves in the second and third period. The reality is that's the world we all live in, you know? And so, we've got to find a way to focus on the game and focus on the details of your own respective game, and I'm confident Jars will do that.”
What’s your assessment of how the power play performed? “I think it was an extension of our overall game. As I said, I think the power play’s done a lot of really good things throughout training camp. I don't think it was representative of how they've done to this point tonight. You know, some of the power plays late in the game were just, for me, symptomatic of our overall game at that point, I think it just unraveled on us.
What did you think of McGroarty’s game tonight? “I thought Rutger played well. He made some wall plays. You can see his hockey sense; he sees it pretty well. I think he has poise with the puck; he doesn't just throw it away. I thought he handled the handled the pace of play really well. We’re excited about Rutger’s game, and we think he's only going to get better.”
What is it about being symptomatic of some of the overall issues tonight? Did you find those things to be a problem,primarily in your setup, getting to the structure that you want to get to this year? Or was it more about decisions with the puck once the flow was happening in the offensive end? “I think it was a little bit of both, but we just didn't execute. We struggled making tape-to-tape passes. The passes that were tape to tape seemed to blow up on our stick. We had a couple of looks with some opportunities in that bumper position where guys had lots of time and space, and we didn't execute on it. So, I think the answer to your question was it's probably a little bit of everything. We’ve got to do a better job with some of our decision-making. We've got to execute better just as far as passing, receiving, moving the puck, things of that nature. When they're going, those things seem to fall into place. And I just think it was symptomatic of our game.”
Do you think that the team reacted poorly to not being able to finish on grade-A chances, and could you have fed off of it? “Well, I think hockey's such a game of momentum, and you have to try to maximize the opportunities when you have it. When you don't, you get on your heels. You got to find a way to simplify the game to get momentum back and not get hurt in those circumstances. It's such a game of momentum, and there are such critical moments in games that potentially can change outcomes. So, I thought from a process standpoint, for much of the first period, we really liked what we saw. We gave up a couple of goals, and then whatever it was – that two, three minute span – and we just didn't seem to bounce back from that. That's maybe that's the lesson in it, is we've got to find some resilience, and we’ve got to try to grab ahold of it and climb back into it. But, it seemed to unravel from there.”
You put Sid and Geno out there five-on-five tonight. Especially with a guy like Bryan Rust out the lineup right now, is that something you're kind of going to default to a little bit if you need an offensive spark out there? “Well, that was the thought process. Geno is a pretty dynamic offensive player. Given the circumstance with Rusty out of the lineup, we thought in some opportune times we might throw that pair together and see if we can get a spark. I thought early in the game they had a couple of good shifts. They almost scored. I think as the game went on, once again, it just became more symptomatic of our overall team game, but that was some of the logic of why we did it. We'll see where it goes moving forward, but it's certainly something that we've done in the past. We may try to do again, it's all going to depend on what the group looks like.”
