After snapping their three-game losing streak on Thursday versus Colorado, the Penguins hosted a Senators team on Saturday that was also looking to end a three-game skid. Ottawa did just that, earning a 5-2 win over Pittsburgh.
While it’s frustrating that the Penguins didn’t get the right result after an excellent performance against the Avalanche, they weren’t discouraged by their play, despite what the scoreboard said. The Penguins generated 41 shots, with Jake Guentzel recording 10, which tied his career high that was set last season. He found a goal in the final minute, but as for why Pittsburgh couldn’t convert more sooner, it was hard to say.
“I thought we had a lot of chances, controlled a lot of the play,” Guentzel said. “Sometimes when that happens, you kind of get a little impatient and get on the wrong side of the puck. They’re pretty offensive, so they capitalized on their chances. We just got to capitalize on our chances and bear down, me personally. Just gotta learn from this one.”
The Senators got some momentum from special teams in the first period, building a 2-0 lead on a power-play goal and one that came right after a successful penalty kill. Apart from that, the Penguins liked their effort in the opening 20 minutes. "I feel like in our first period, I don’t think anything changed from the previous game," Kris Letang said. "I thought we came out hard on our toes. I thought we dominated the play, so we had the puck most of the game. It’s just unfortunate some mistakes here and there."
After recording his second shutout in five appearances the other night, Tristan Jarry was pulled after the Senators built a 3-0 lead early in the second period. With Alex Nedeljkovic out longer-term with a lower-body injury, veteran goaltender Magnus Hellberg made his season debut between the pipes.
The 6-foot-6 Swede, who signed a one-year deal in the offseason, gave his team a chance to get back in it during that middle frame. Sidney Crosby got on the board late to cut Pittsburgh’s deficit to 3-1. But a pair of quick goals by the Senators with under seven minutes remaining in the third period sealed the victory for Ottawa.
“Obviously, it was fun to see some action. Not happy with the result,” Hellberg said. “Obviously, I let in two as well there at the end. So, it was tough. Obviously for me it was fun to see some action, but at the same time, I was hoping we would get the win tonight.”
Here’s what Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the game. The Penguins have a day off on Sunday before finishing their four-game homestand on Monday versus Anaheim.
What are your thoughts on the goaltending, both Jarry and then Hellberg in relief? “I thought Ottawa was very opportunistic. The chances that they got, they finished on. They're a team that can score goals. They have some dynamic forwards. So, I thought they were opportunistic. It’s not an easy one right after the game to digest the goaltending performance, per se. For me, it's more about a collective effort. But what I will say is I thought Ottawa, to their credit, were very opportunistic.”
It's now 16 power plays without a goal, and it seemed like Ottawa got a little bit of life off the two failed power plays in the first period. With the unit at this point, what do you need to do to reset? “Well, I just think we've got to try to keep our swagger, we got to simplify the game. When you look at the underlying numbers, they’re one of the top groups in the league, if you believe advanced analytics. They're generating opportunities. The puck hasn't gone in the net for them. I think certainly, that's an important aspect of it, without a doubt. So, we'll take a look at it, I think part of the process needs to be we need to simplify it. We've got to shoot the puck more. I think we've got to make it hard at the net front, and I think if we do that, pucks will go in the net. But we just got to stay with it. They're creating opportunities. If they weren't, that would be a different conversation. But they are, and all of the numbers that we track suggest that.”
Kris Letang suggested you guys were happy with the first period. Was that your perspective as well? Why do you think that maybe didn’t translate to an early lead? “Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a terrific first period. I thought we had the puck an awful lot, I thought it was one of our better periods. It was just one of those periods where we did all the right things, and we come out of the period down 2-nothing. We give up a penalty kill goal against, and they end up with one off of a 2-on-2. But I thought the amount of chances that we generated, the amount of zone time that we had, we had the puck most of the period. So, from a process standpoint, I thought the first period was really encouraging.”
In terms of how the game unfolded, was it simply a matter of hitting a hot goaltender and then maybe pressing, or was there more to it? “Oh, you gotta give their goalie credit, he made a lot of big saves for them tonight. That's part of it. We've got to find a way to get behind them, I think. In the third period, we pressed as the period went on, because we're down a couple of goals. So, we're trying to get back in it. Give Ottawa credit, I thought they thought they defended really well in the third period, they had numbers back. I don't think we helped ourselves, I thought we slowed the game down a little bit in the third. I thought we could have played a little bit quicker through the neutral zone. That would have given us an opportunity to establish the game that we had established in the first period, for example. I just thought we played into their hands a little bit by slowing the game down coming through the neutral zone. That's an area I think we can get better at, just with a heightened awareness. But give them credit. I thought they defended hard.”
