The Pittsburgh Penguins played perhaps their most dominant period of season in their Monday evening tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After a solid opening frame and carrying a 2-0 lead into first intermission on goals from Erik Karlsson (1) and rookie Ben Kindel (4), the Penguins absolutely dominated the Leafs in the second period. They outshot the Leafs, 16-3, and Kindel added a third tally on the power play. Everything was humming. The Leafs had just nine shots on goal after 40. The Penguins had complete control.
Then, an old, all-too-familiar version of the Penguins showed up in the third period.
Heading into this game, the Penguins had not surrendered a third-period lead and were outscoring opponents, 20-9. They seemed to be an entirely different third-period team than the ones of the past three non-playoff years – when no lead was safe, and the final frame was always an adventure.
Unfortunately, that’s what happened. The Penguins’ 3-0 lead in the third period was decimated in within the first seven minutes of the final frame – courtesy of an Auston Matthews breakaway goal and two subsequent goals by William Nylander, who returned to the lineup Monday after missing two games to injury – and the Leafs scored the back-breaker with a little more than six minutes to go in regulation when Bobby McCann put home a second-chance opportunity.
For 40 minutes, this was just about as good a response game as the Penguins could have asked for after a tough loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. But they were harshly reminded that they cannot afford to take their foot off the gas and need to play a full 60, especially after outclassing what has been a perennial playoff team for the first two periods.
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“We got away from it,” head coach Dan Muse said after the game. “We felt the first two periods are the way we want to be playing. It has to be a full 60, though. We got away from it there.
“I think it was a number of different factors. I think when they took momentum there, we weren’t able to at least pause the momentum. It kept coming, and then we’re back on our heels, and we can’t play the game that way. I mean, the things that were working there in the first two periods, they’re things that can be sustainable. But we got away from them, and it can’t happen.”
Here are some thoughts and observations from this brutal loss:
– Let’s start with some positives. And, wow, what a player Benjamin Kindel is.
It’s not too early to start saying that this kid is a star. He’s going to be exactly that. You simply don’t see 18-year-old centers come up and dominate the way Kindel has so quickly at the NHL level, and he’s doing it against elite competition in what is often the opposition’s top-six.
He did it again Monday. He fits in seamlessly on a power play with three surefire Hall-of-Famers. He’s crashing the net. He’s generating chances left and right and has consistently been the best player on the ice for the better part of the last three games. According to Moneypuck, his line controlled 95.5 percent of the expected goals share against the Leafs (and, by the way, Ville Koivunen was very good in this game, too).
95.5 percent. Let that sink in.
This guy is 18! I can’t emphasize enough how this just doesn’t happen. Kindel is a very, very special player, and he is now tied for the rookie lead in goals.
Get hyped, Penguins’ fans. This guy is going to be – and already is – a very, very good hockey player.
– Karlsson played another outstanding game. His first goal of the season was a rocket and a beauty, and it was well-earned.
He is now up to 11 points in his first 14 games. He continues to be a huge difference-maker for the Penguins.
– The Penguins’ special teams are really something. The penalty kill has stymied 16 of the last 17 opposing power plays – and is now top-10 – and the power play is second in the league at 32.4 percent.
If they can keep this up with special teams, it will help them win a lot of hockey games.
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– Now, let’s get to the bad.
To be honest, I had nearly written an entire piece that was a glowing endorsement of this team. Let’s just say that I had to scrap all of that and write something completely different.
I don’t know what happened, to be honest. The Penguins had an absolute stranglehold on this game, and they just completely stopped playing for the first seven minutes of the third and let the Leafs walk right back in.
To the Leafs’ credit, they did come out strong in the third. But this simply cannot happen. They lapsed entirely defensively. Matthews never should have gotten behind Ryan Shea and Kris Letang on the first goal. Jarry should not have allowed the second. The Penguins were outskated on the third and hemmed in their own zone. Owen Pickering was burned badly by McCann on the winning goal, and he couldn’t recover or do anything to stop him – and neither could Harrison Brunicke at the net front.
The third period was nothing short of a disaster, and it happened so quickly. It’s something the Penguins can learn from, but we’ve seen this movie many, many times before.
– Speaking of Pickering and Brunicke, that last goal really was a shame because I thought they were pretty solid for most of the evening. Brunicke – playing in his ninth NHL game, which is the final one before his entry-level contract would kick in at the 10th, should he stay – was especially solid in the first 40 minutes, and this was good to see after a rough outing in Winnipeg.
But, unfortunately, Brunicke needed to stand out in a good way in this game, since he is now at that 10-game mark, where the Penguins need to make a decision on him. I do think the fourth goal was mostly on Pickering, and I think it’s hard to single Brunicke or Pickering out when the entire team fell apart in the third – and when it probably wouldn’t have mattered who was on the ice because the Leafs tying it felt inevitable.
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I’m not sure he did enough in this game to sway the coaching staff or management more toward keeping him. He was good for most of it, but he was on the ice for the back-breaking goal, and he had a small hand in it.
If I’m the Penguins, I’m keeping Brunicke regardless. More on that later. But I just think there is far too much risk in sending him back to juniors, especially when his bad habits probably can’t be addressed in any super meaningful way at that level.
Let him take his lumps at the NHL level and learn from two legends on the right side, and let him get direction from this coaching staff. That’s where I’m at.
– Jarry – playing in his 300th NHL game – was not good in this one. I realize that it can be difficult for a goaltender when they are essentially coming into a third period cold because they hadn’t seen any action for 40 minutes.
But he just didn’t have it Monday. That second goal was brutal.
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– Speaking of brutal, this was a brutal game for Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust defensively, and that theme is becoming a bit too common. I’m not really sure what the solution is other than breaking them up for a bit, but I don’t expect that to happen.
– Noel Acciari left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Muse put the Penguins’ lines in a blender for the rest of the game as a result.
Admittedly, I was not a fan of this approach.
I realize it’s not easy to adjust to being down a forward that early in the game. But nothing was consistent the rest of the game, especially in the third period. And I just think they were breaking up some chemistry that was working for them due to the injury of a fourth-line player. It wasn’t the worst decision, but I don’t think the constant switching helped them in the third.
I’m also not sure how I feel about Crosby, Rust, and Malkin together. I’d rather see Kindel or Koivunen take one of their places if they’re going to shake things up.
– The Penguins return home to play the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
The response after this gut-wrenching loss will say a lot about this team. Stay tuned.
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