Sully Says: Penguins Lost Themselves for a Few Minutes in the Second, But Had a Hell of a Third

After Pittsburgh’s game versus Calgary on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, we asked the Penguins what changed after the second period to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 5-2 win.

Unfortunately, the script flipped a bit in their next contest on Wednesday in Detroit, querying the players about what changed after the first period to turn a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 deficit following the middle frame. And while the Penguins battled in the final frame to get back in it, the Red Wings came away with a 6-3 victory.

"We’re a pretty experienced team in here,” said Erik Karlsson, who got his first of the year. “We never gave up and we just tried to battle through it. In the third we started to play a little bit more of a puck possession game, and created some goals because of it."

It had been a promising start for the Penguins, with Evgeni Malkin scoring less than one minute into play for his third goal and seventh point in just the fourth game of the season. The next period, however, was a different story.

“It’s a tough second period for us. We need to play better, for sure,” Malkin said. “They play simple, they play behind the net, pass to the blue line and shoot, try for a rebound tip. We need to play a little bit harder in front of the net. But I like what we’re doing in the third period. We have an amazing team. I like it in the locker room, we talk to each other. We try to jump in the third period and play hard. Everybody supports each other. I like what we’re doing. Just small mistakes, but I think we will fix it."

Karlsson led the way in that regard, with the superstar defenseman burying a feed from Sidney Crosby early in the final frame to cut Pittsburgh’s deficit to 4-2, and the Penguins created a lot from there.

After Tristan Jarry stopped a shorthanded penalty shot, Michigan native Bryan Rust made it a 4-3 game. The Penguins used their coach’s challenge on Detroit’s empty netter that put the Red Wings up 5-3, believing it was offsides, but the call on the ice stood. The Red Wings got another empty netter on the ensuring power play that came from the unsuccessful challenge to put the nail in the coffin.

The Penguins are now 2-2 on the season, with another mini-break between games, as they practice on Thursday and Friday before flying to St. Louis to face the Blues on Saturday. Here’s what Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the contest.

You guys were really good in the first five minutes of this game, had a ton of energy. Felt like it took a long time to get it back after that opening surge. What happened? “I just think Detroit's got a good team, they played with a lot of pace, they pushed back a little bit. I liked our game in the first period, I thought we were playing on our toes, we were trying to play on top of them. We knew it was going to be a high-paced game, they've got a lot of team speed. I thought it was a good first period. I thought we had a hell of a third period, also. We had a lot of chances. We pushed to get back in the hockey game. I thought we just kind of lost ourselves for six or seven minutes in the second period, and they scored a couple of goals on us in that timeframe. But for most of the game, I thought our overall team game was pretty good.”

What do you mean by lost yourselves? What would you have liked to have see your team do a little differently in those moments? “Well, there were a couple of plays that they really don't look like much, and they end up in the back of your net – a wrist shot from the blue line against the boards with a deflection in front, for example. It doesn't feel like a real threatening play. I just think we've got to be locked in those scenarios. We've got to work to get in shot lanes, we got to tie up sticks at the net front – some of the details that we talk about all the time. So, it's just subtle things that we just didn't get locked down for that for that short period of time. They ended up capitalizing on it. But as I said, I loved our push back. I loved our pushback in the third. We get it within a goal. We thought it was offside. They seemed to think it wasn't conclusive, I guess, but that could’ve gave us a chance.”

The third pairing of P.O Joseph and Chad Ruhwedel was on the ice for a couple of goals. What did you see from them tonight? “I don't think it was their best. I thought they allowed some people to get behind them a couple of times. We expect more.”

It felt like Karlsson’s game went to a different place in the third period… was that simply because you guys were chasing the game, and he was taking chances, or did his game just simply go to a different level? “I think he just elevated his game. I think that’s what he’s capable of. You know, him and Kris both have the ability to do that. I think he just elevated his game. I think he’s real good at getting pucks through. He’s good at finding sticks off the back post, like Rusty’s deflection, for example. He shoots into the piles and they’re really heads-up plays. Kris does the same thing. Both of them did it the last game. Just looking for those backside sticks or even just bodies—it goes off bodies at the net-front. It creates a lot; they’re hard to defend, those types of plays. I just think Erik has a real knack for getting pucks through from the blue line.”