PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Here we are again, after the Pens dug themselves out of an early hole, here they go digging it right back. Now losses in seven of the last eight, this one to the seventh-place team in the Pacific Division that had lost six of seven. Seattle scored three in the third to win 4-2.
The comments tell it about this team. The Penguins have 18 wins and 28 losses.
“We see standings,” said Pens Evgeni Malkin as the team slipped to sixth in the Metropolitan Division, three points from the basement. “I think we understand we miss playoffs. It’s a half-season gone, we understand everything. If we want to play in the playoffs we need to play so much better, every zone, every moment, every detail.
“It’s frustrating,” said Pens defenseman Marcus Pettersson. “It’s really frustrating. We are giving away points. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.”
What is happening is simple according to the head coach and he put it on himself to fix the problem.
“What needs to change is a commitment to play defense,” Sullivan said. “We weren’t willing to play defense. We weren’t committed to play the right way. We weren’t willing to do it tonight.”
“Three goals in the third period is not good enough,” Malkin said. “I can’t say we played bad, but the last 15 minutes we weren’t disciplined.”
“We stopped playing in their end,” said goalie Tristan Jarry who finished with 14 saves. “They took it to us for a little bit, we got stuck on our heels and they were just able to get around us and get to pucks quicker.”
And it gets back to an old problem that has resurfaced too many times over the last three seasons. Guys want to play offense, but not do the things needed to win games on the defensive end.
“If we play defense, we will win games,” Sullivan said. “We got to get a comfort level to playing in our own end.”
“We gave them way too much easy offense,” Pettersson said. “We need to be way better in our D-zone. We got to look ourselves in the mirror here and ask ourselves if we want it or not.”
Jarry said they need to get back to what they were doing around Thanksgiving. It’s when the team stopped giving up the odd-man rushes and made the simple plays. They weren’t careless with the puck and they protected their own end. The two contested goals in the third really weren’t contested, it wasn’t like there was a lot of pressure, rather an easy entry and in the span of 50 seconds went from leading to trailing.
“We need to close out games,” said captain Sidney Crosby. “However we need to do it. However it looks, we need to find a way to get two points.”
The Pens have played the most games in the Eastern Conference, yet are 13th overall. 13th. And start a span of seven straight on the road beginning with back-to-backs Friday at Buffalo and Saturday at Washington before heading west for five games.
“I think everybody understands what is going on,” Malkin said. “We have nice organization. We have great history. The last two years we missed playoffs. I don't like to miss again. It's not good enough.”
“I hope we look in the mirror tonight and tomorrow and start to play better."