PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – In his previous start Tristan Jarry pulled after the first period due to an injury. Once again Jarry made it only one period, this time due to giving up 4 goals as the Rangers buried the Pens 8-4.
“We just haven’t played with the same sense of purpose,” Sullivan said of the last two games. “As a result the types of chances we are giving up are extremely high. It’s hard to win games consistently when you give up the quality chances we’ve given up in the last few games.”
After giving up 6 against the Bruins on Saturday, Casey DeSmith gave up 4 Tuesday.
“It’s very difficult to assess the goalies when the play in front of them hasn’t been where it needs to be to have success,” Sullivan said.
“We have to get better as a group so we avoid this circumstance going forward. These are hard ones because they sting. Because we have a proud group. This team has had a lot of success. We got to find a way to get back to some of the details that are necessary to give ourselves the best chance to win.”
Several players had reaction to the team’s recent defensive issues. They’ve given up as many goals, 15, in the last two games as they did in the previous 9.
Bryan Rust
“I think we’ve just been sloppy. We haven’t been working as a unit out there. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that quick. I think the more you work as a unit. The more you are defending as a group of five, even six with the goalie out there. It makes the team that much stronger.”
“We’ve had a couple of games we’d like to learn from, put in the past and move forward. I think those things happen in a season.”
Marcus Pettersson
“The amount of chances we gave up. I mean we created today, but we also gave up huge chances for them and they capitalized. We need to do a better job defending the net fronts and high scoring areas. I think teams are getting way too many chances in those spots. I think we need to get together as a group and get more pressure on the puck.”
“We’ve been playing some good hockey. We can’t let it slip away from us right now.”
Jared McCann
“It looks like we are kind of lost. We are giving up chances we are not used to normally giving up. We are kind of letting our goalies down and giving teams back door tap-ins and shots from high grade areas. We need to tighten it up. We are not going to sit here and whine about it. Let’s learn from it and move forward.”
Pens are four points behind the Islanders and Capitals in the division and play at the Rangers again Thursday night.