For the second time in five days, there was not much to like about the Penguins’ performance on game day.
And, this time, it came against a team who has been chasing them from the basement of the Metropolitan Division.
The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-2, to secure their third consecutive loss, and they sit just one point ahead of Columbus for last in the Metro. Anthony Beauvillier and Michael Bunting scored the only goals for the Penguins during a second-period comeback that saw them rally from a two-goal deficit for the second time in as many games.
However, Columbus followed that up with four unanswered goals to seal the deal. Goaltender Tristan Jarry – getting his first start since Oct. 16, surrendered two goals on Columbus’ first three shots of the game and made 38 saves on 43 shots. His goals-against average dropped to 5.36 on the season, and his save percentage dipped to .847.
When asked about he would assess his performance, Jarry thought he performed better as the game went on.
“Not bad,” Jarry said. “It’s tough. They scored two early, and they get an off-side tip, and then, they get a goal through the screen. Obviously, it’s tough coming back from 2-0 at that point, but I thought as the game went on, they got a lot of pucks to the net, and I did a better job finding pucks, and they just kept pressing.”
I don’t have much to say tonight that I haven’t already said, so I’ll keep it brief. But, nonetheless, here are some thoughts and observations from tonight’s game.
– The top line was very good again tonight, as was Anthony Beauvillier.
I mentioned this in my last piece, but he just looks very comfortable with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell. He profiles as the exact kind of player that Crosby thrives with, and his forechecking and net-front abilities make him a great asset for Rakell as well.
I’ll write a piece on him over the next couple of days. But he is now on pace to score 26 goals this season, which would best his career-high of 21 with the New York Islanders in 2017.
Right now, he’s making himself into a shiny trade chip.
– After a solid defensive showing against Detroit, the Penguins were a mess defensively yet again.
The bottom defensive pairing of Ryan Graves and Ryan Shea were especially bad, which is a contrast from where Graves has been so far this season. In this game, he looked like the old Graves, which was not a welcome sight.
But it’s not just the defense corps that is playing putrid defense. It’s the forwards as well. In fact, it’s an entire systemic issue resulting from players not being able to execute simple, fundamental plays.
It’s crazy how much this defense has dropped off from even last season. When you look at personnel, it should not have dropped off this badly.
– Kind of piggybacking off of that last point, it astounds me just how poorly this team is playing hockey this season in comparison to last.
If you really take a step back and think about it, yeah, the Penguins did not replace Jake Guentzel. That’s obviously a blow. But they did improve three major areas of weakness from last season, which is their bottom-six, their power play, and their near-NHL-ready prospect pool.
With all of that improving – and much of the rest of the roster remaining pretty much the same – it is simply baffling how they seem to have completely forgotten how to play hockey sometimes.
If you expected the Penguins to be worse this season before it all started, that’s fair. But on paper, this team had better depth going in than last season, so it’s simply amazing to see how hard they’ve fallen off, especially defensively.
– Just like the aftermath of the last bad loss against Dallas, I would expect to see some lineup changes in the second of the back-to-back Saturday against the San Jose Sharks.
I do think Vasily Ponomarev will be in the lineup for that game, perhaps in favor of Valtteri Puustinen. The Penguins were very impressed with Ponomarev’s camp, and he’s the exact type of guy you want in there after a lackluster defensive performance. In two NHL games with Carolina, Ponomarev has registered a goal and an assist, and the center could fill in nicely on the third or fourth line.
However, I’m not as sure what to expect of Owen Pickering, who was recalled Friday morning when Kris Letang went down with an illness. Pickering is a left-side defenseman, so he doesn’t figure to help the Penguins’ ailing right side very much.
Unless Graves or Matt Grzelcyk is scratched, I have a hard time seeing the Penguins play Pickering on his off-side in his NHL debut. Therefore, I still expect Pickering to remain out of the lineup Saturday, but it would be really nice for the Penguins to give him a look anyway.
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