The Penguins had planned to have a chance to clinch their first-round series against the Islanders Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Instead, of course, it's down to a best-of-three series after Saturday's 4-1 loss.
So what went wrong?
Self-inflicted Wounds/Bad Luck
Of New York's first three goals, the Pens had a hand in all of them — and also a skate and a stick.
On Josh Bailey's goal midway through the second period that gave the Isles a 1-0 lead, Tristan Jarry was interfered with by Anthony Beauvillier.
The problem was that Kris Letang pushed Beauvillier into his own goalie, so there was no challenge.
The Islanders' second goal was simply tough luck.
Ryan Pulock threw the puck toward the net and appeared to be headed wide — until it hit Cody Ceci's skate and went in.
The goal that made it 3-0 was accidentally knocked into the goal by Teddy Blueger as the Penguins were killing a 4-on-3 power play.
Seconds later, New York scored another power-play goal — the more familiar high glove-side shot by Jordan Eberle, and the game was over.
Penalties
How the Pens got into that situation was avoidable.
After Sidney Crosby had drawn a holding call for their only man advantage of the game, Jason Zucker was called for tripping 30 seconds later.
Shortly after that, Letang was called for interference, the team's 5th penalty of the game.
To that point, Evgeni Malkin had already committed three penalties of his own.
"Every game this guy (referee) gives me penalties, so I'm not surprised," Malkin said.
The Penguins avoided any damage from those calls, but they had to play six minutes without one of their key players.
Malkin also did acknowledge his sins and vowed to be more disciplined Monday night.
Mike Sullivan says that goes for everybody.
"We took too many penalties. We can't take that many penalties. That's my takeaway," said Sullivan, who was clearly irked but later pointed out that his team was on the power play for 30 seconds, while the Islanders had over 7 minutes with the man-advantage.
Keep It Simple
Nonetheless, there is no excuse for Malkin not even attempting a shot, much less putting one on goal.
"We need to use our speed, play simple," Malkin said.
"It's playoff hockey. We need to play (more in the) offensive zone and control the puck."
But not by forcing it through neutral ice.
"We didn't get pucks as deep as often," Sullivan observed, "And when you don't, it's hard to establish the zone time and territory that puts our team at its advantage.
"We're very much aware of the type of game we need to play," Sullivan continued, "and it boils down to making good decisions and execution in those situations," Of course, this is a message he often delivers to his players, perhaps daily.
Quit Allowing 4 Goals
The Islanders have scored four goals in 3 games this series which is obviously too many goals in too many games.
This is not all on Jarry, as we pointed out above.
I counted at least five big saves that Jarry made, a couple that bailed out teammates before New York scored in Game 4.
There was another on Matthew Barzal at the end of the second period that kept it 2-0.
For the most part, Jarry was aggressive at the top of the crease, but too many Islanders are being left uncovered, which is obviously a problem that must be fixed.
