Sully Says: "Some Nights, There's a Fine Line Between Winning and Losing"
Pittsburgh's win streak ended at seven with a 3-2 setback to Carolina
"This one obviously stings," forward Rickard Rakell said. "That was a tough battle for the whole game. We definitely had the chances to come out on top in this game, but we knew that it was going to take good defensive play to get the two points. Unfortunately, we didn't do that well enough. But we know that we play them soon again, so we can't get too down on this one. Just try to find a way to get to two points next time we play them."
Rakell and Brock McGinn both scored, while Casey DeSmith made 26 saves. Former Penguin Jordan Staal got the game-winner for Carolina.
"He's a big guy," DeSmith said. "Just at the net front, he obviously makes it tough on everyone."
The Penguins had a strong start to this game, skating out to a 10-2 edge in shots in the first few minutes of play. But they couldn't translate that on the scoreboard, and entered the intermission scoreless.
The Canes came out hard to start the second, and got rewarded with a goal from Derek Stepan just 3:25 in. DeSmith came up with a huge stop shortly after to keep Carolina from going up 2-0, and the penalty kill came up big as well after Chad Ruhwedel was assessed a penalty 3:50 in.
The Penguins settled in around midway through the middle frame, and the power play buried one on their fourth chance of the night (they went 1-for-5 in the game). It took Rakell - making his 600th NHL appearance - all of five seconds to re-direct a shot from Evgeni Malkin, who extended his point streak to eight games.
In the third period, McGinn broke the tie with a big goal against his former team. The forward had spent the first seven years of his career with Carolina before signing with the Penguins in the summer of 2021. He's having a tremendous sophomore season in Pittsburgh, contributing on both ends of the ice with nine goals in 31 games while also being an important member of the penalty kill.
However, the Canes responded just over three minutes later to even the score at 2-2 with defenseman Brady Skjei's one-timer from the blue line. After that, the Penguins had some chances they couldn't convert, and Staal got the go-ahead goal with 6:27 remaining in regulation.
Here's what Mike Sullivan had to say after the game, which wrapped up a two-game road trip. The Penguins will be at home for the remainder of December.
On if they can take some positives out of this loss, especially the start: "Yeah, I think we can take a lot of positives. You know, I thought we competed hard through the whole 60 minutes. This is a good team we're playing against. We feel like we're a good team. It was an evenly-matched game, for the most part."
On if they felt like they might have been able to take advantage a little more of Carolina playing for the third time in four nights, especially later in this game: "Well, we would have liked to. We've all been on that side of the schedule. Those are challenging games, without a doubt. But this team, they're hard to play against. They're committed to playing the game a certain way. They got a good team game. That's just how the game played out."
On the Carter line's play: "They had a few pretty good looks. I thought we could have done a little bit of a better job just with sustaining some offensive-zone time. But I thought Kappy made a real nice play on the goal. They used their speed a little bit more tonight. I thought that was evident. Carts had a pretty good look, Ginner scores. So, they had a fair amount of chances."
On how it seemed like the Hurricanes did a good job of keeping them on the perimeter for stretches, and what they can do to adjust for that: "We've got to get inside. I think one of the best ways to get inside is to shoot the puck a little bit more. I think when you're putting pucks on the net, look at one of the goals they got - they go low to high and just shoot off the pads. They score a goal from a defenseman from against the boards. I just think that's part of the evolution of the modern NHL game. There's a lot of goals that are scored that way. I think we tend to be a little bit more selective on when we shoot and where we shoot. Not that we want to be something that we're not, but I do think that we can take a little bit of that and add it to our game and just simplify a little bit. If we can get the puck inside, it'll give us an opportunity to get people inside as well."
On if he feels like anything dropped off in terms of what you were doing after taking a 2-1 lead, or if it was just more Carolina executing its game plan: "No, I don't think so. I thought it was a competitive period. They get the one goal on the low to high play and a point shot that that has eyes and finds its way in. They score the next one, and just an offensive zone shift where we ddidn't get the job done on that particular shift. But we had our chances as well. We had our looks on the other end. Some nights, there's a fine line between winning and losing."
On there being times where the power play wasn't as menacing as it has been lately despite scoring, and if that was because of something Carolina was doing or if they were just not as efficient: "It's probably a little bit of both, but you know, they find a way to score a goal. They make a real nice play off that one faceoff. Our power play, for quite some time now - probably the last 10 or 12 games - has been humming pretty good. They find a way to score a goal again tonight. So, it's hard to be critical of that group right now. They're getting it done for us."
