PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s gotten to the point where the Pens are not shy from admitting shootouts are getting to their heads, another shootout loss Saturday, 4-3 to Philadelphia. It a game where the Pens led three different times only to have the Flyers tie it up.
Asked the one thing that didn’t happen for this team against the Flyers, Bryan Rust said it clearly.
“Win the shootout.”
That drops the Pens to 1-9 in shootouts this year, 4-14 in overtime. The Pens even had a power play in OT and didn’t really muster a good opportunity from that.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson said it’s not effort, or trying, but probably psychological. He said they had a good opportunity against Philly and didn’t capitalize on it.
“Yeah, I think it might be,” Rakell said if shootouts are becoming an internal issue. “Everybody knows it, everybody really wants to score in a shootout. It might be one of the instances now where you are gripping the stick too tight and not doing what you want to.”
“When a part of your game is not going well consistently and then there are conversations about it and then there is buzz about it and it wears on you,” said head coach Dan Muse. “You get in those situations too, rather than attacking them, rather than getting excited for them, there is some of that (getting in their heads).”
Muse said he is part of the blame and is working to get that fixed.
Goalie Stuart Skinner looks at it as a game where maybe they didn’t deserve anything, but did get one point in the standings.
“We all know where we are at, being able to get a point tonight is massive,” Skinner said. “From my experience, every point you can get, every point you can steal is huge, especially when it gets down the stretch here. Really happy we were able to fight this one off and get into overtime. Points are huge and tomorrow we will get back in the win column.”
“We are trying to figure it out, luckily we don’t have too much time to think about it we play a good team again (Sunday),” Karlsson, who had his second goal in three games Saturday, said. “We know it’s going to be a tight game. It’s a great opportunity for us to come in and hopefully come together better than we have in the previous games here.”
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Pens host Boston Sunday at 4:30 before starting a five-game road trip.