The Penguins weren't able to secure two important points in their last game before the bye week/All-Star break. They fell to San Jose, 6-4, on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
Evgeni Malkin scored twice, while Sidney Crosby and Ryan Poehling also got on the board. Casey DeSmith gave up five goals on 31 shots, with Sharks captain Logan Couture getting his second of the night (and fifth point of the game) into an empty net.
Sully Says: "We've Got To Be Harder To Play Against"
"It's a tough loss before break," Malkin said. "Not a great game… we play at home, we should play better, for sure."
The Penguins had a tough start to the first period, giving up a goal 1:25 in, and a tough finish, giving up a goal with 6.5 seconds left. But in between, their power play stayed red hot, tallying twice.
Malkin converted Pittsburgh's first power play just eight seconds in to give him four goals on the man-advantage in his last nine games. Crosby needed nine seconds to score on Pittsburgh's second power play, re-directing a shot from Malkin with his usual incredible hand-eye coordination.
After the Sharks went up early in the second, Poehling - who returned to the lineup on Sunday after missing a good chunk of time with an upper-body injury - finished off a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush to even the score.
But while the Penguins dominated at special teams, the Sharks took advantage of their lapses during even strength, getting another late-period goal. Malkin did tie it up at 4-4 just over midway through the third after the Penguins came out and pressed hard, but with less than five minutes remaining, the Sharks capitalized on a bad line change by Pittsburgh to get the go-ahead goal.
"Poehls' goal, Geno's goal - you want to build off those," Crosby said. "We've been giving up goals late in periods consistently, and that's something that's not conducive to winning either. It's the goals. It's also the timing of them. We get big goals like that, we've got to grab momentum back."
Here's what head coach Mike Sullivan had to say following the frustrating loss.
On how a lot of the mistakes tonight are mistakes we've seen a lot of this season, and what his frustration level is when they keep happening: "Well, it's frustrating when we beat ourselves because we don't manage the puck appropriately in the critical areas of the rink. Youlook at some of the goals they scored tonight, it was a direct result of that."
On if he is getting the right balance that he needs from his forward combos - particularly some grit and physicality from the third and fourth lines: "Well, we're certainly not getting it consistently enough, and it reflects in our results. That's all I can say, is we need to be better. The expectations are higher. We've got to do a better job, in my mind, at being harder to play against. We generate offense consistently. We score goals consistently. We've got to do a better job of keeping it out of our net. We've got to be harder to play against, and I think it starts with managing the puck. That goes through all four lines, and our defense as well. We've got to do a better job of taking care of the puck, and I didn't think we did a good job tonight. That was, I think, a direct result of some of the goals that were scored."
On what he makes of the inconsistency from the Penguins: "I think there's been volatility in our game. We've got to bring a consistent game every night. We got to put a game on the ice that gives us the best chance to win. That's what we talk about with our guys a lot. We try to show them examples of what that looks like, when we're at our best. We just got to bring it more consistently. When we do that, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win on most nights. We're not going to win every night, but we're going to give ourselves a chance to win on most nights. I think the volatility in our game (is because) we just haven't brought that to the level of consistency that we're capable. That's where we got to get to, and that's our challenge moving forward."
On if there is anything more that coaches can do regarding that inconsistency, or if it's on the players:"No, it's on all of us. It's on all of us. It always is. It starts with me. I've got to do a better job coaching these guys, and making sure that the message is being heard. And so, we've got to learn through the experiences. We've got to go to work and practice. We've got to watch film. We got to get better. It starts with the coaches."
