Penguins’ losing streak reaches 7 with loss to Kraken
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By his own admission, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson has a lousy memory.
“I don’t even remember what I ate yesterday,” Pettersson quipped following his team’s optional morning skate at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.
So, please forgive him if his memories of the Penguins’ most recent six-game losing streak – before the one his team ran to seven with a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night – aren’t crystal clear in his mind.
It was a run of a half-dozen consecutive losses in February of 2020, and it taught Pettersson that prolonged futility is not enjoyable.
“Losing streaks, you know how they feel,” Pettersson said. “They all feel the same. You go through and you start doubting and stuff. That’s the biggest thing about a losing streak is you’ve got to take out the doubt and know what brings you success. We know as a team what brings us success. As soon as we get out of this, I feel like we can come out as a strong team from this.”
The Penguins continued to look like Sisyphus on Saturday as they were beaten by the Kraken, a second-year expansion franchise for the second time during this insidious slump. The last time they endured a sequence of losses this prolific was during captain Sidney Crosby’s rookie season (2005-06) when they lost seven consecutive games between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8, 2006.
“It’s tough,” Crosby said after Saturday’s setback. “It’s difficult. We did a lot of good things. Right now, it’s a tough (situation). You look at the game as a whole, we did a lot of good things. But we’re making a few mistakes. When you’re losing, that’s magnified even more. That’s the situation that we’re in. We’ve just got to build off of it and continue to play good hockey and trust that we will get rewarded.”
By most measures, this was the Penguins’ best game in quite a while.
But considering their two most recent losses before Saturday saw them surrender multi-goal leads in the third period, the bar for improvement was low enough that a groundhog stricken with osteoporosis could have cleared it.
That said, the Penguins did enjoy some rare success on the penalty kill, going 3 for 3 against the Kraken’s power play. And they controlled the puck by a margin of nearly two to one in five-on-five situations. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins had 64 shot attempts while the Kraken had 38.
“You just have to celebrate the little things,” said goaltender Tristan Jarry, who made 25 saves on 28 shots as his record slipped to 4-3-1. That’s something that we talked about, whether it’s a big hit, a penalty kill, a goal, obviously. That’s big for us right now. Just trying to get any momentum we can and just trying to feed off of that.”
After neither team found much to gorge on during a scoreless first period, the Penguins took the first bite of offense at 5:24 of the second period thanks to Crosby’s sixth goal of the season. Off a touch pass in the neutral zone by Crosby, linemate Jake Guentzel gained the offensive zone on the left wing with fury then centered the puck to the slot for Crosby who struck an angry one-timer past the left skate of goaltender Martin Jones. Guentzel and defenseman Kris Letang had assists.
It took the Kraken all of 2:24 to respond with defenseman Vince Dunn’s second goal. After Kraken forward Yanni Gourde beat Penguins forward Sam Poulin on a faceoff in the Penguins’ left circle, Dunn collected the puck above the circle and immediately powered a slapper through traffic and past Jarry’s blocker on the near side. The lone assist went to Gourde.
Gourde scored his second goal of the season just after a power-play opportunity expired to give his team its first lead of the contest at 7:48 of the third period. Driving the puck up the left wing into the offensive zone, Kraken forward Morgan Geekie pitchforked a backhanded pass to the high slot for former Penguins forward Brandon Tanev who booted the puck toward the crease with his right leg. Gourde had the presence of mind to elevate the bouncing puck from above the blue paint past Jarry’s blocker. Tanev and Geekie claimed assists.
Good fortune – from the Penguins’ perspective – tied the game again, 2-2, 2:03 later. Corralling a loose puck near the left corner of the offensive zone, Guentzel forced a centering pass towards the crease for Rust only to have Kraken forward Matty Berniers inadvertently redirect the puck into his own cage with his stick past Jones’ blocker on the near side. Guentzel was credited with his sixth goal off assists from Crosby – the 900th of his career – and Letang.
Tanev, whom the Penguins allowed the Kraken to select during the 2021 expansion draft, scored the game-winning goal at 16:21 of the third period. Chasing down a rebound behind the Penguins’ net, Geekie banked it off the end boards for Gourde who was able to locate Tanev in the crease. Fending off a poke check attempt by Rust, Tanev lifted a wrister that glanced off of Jarry’s right arm and deflected into the cage for his second goal. Gourde and Geekie had assists.
The Penguins had ample opportunities to take a more commanding lead throughout this contest. Three of those opportunities came in the form of power-play opportunities — two in the first period and one in the second period — but all were unsuccessful. With six minutes of power-play time, the Penguins generated only five shots.
“We have looks,” Letang said. “We don’t convert. Passing too much, maybe. We need to simplify things. Just a quick shot to try to get some rebounds. I think we’re trying to … passing to the net instead of just trying to grind it out.”
The grind of being mired in a hideous seven-game losing streak is taking a toll on this team. After starting the season with a 5-0-1 mark, the Penguins are now in seventh place of the Metropolitan Division.
“We’re confident in the group that we have,” Letang said. “We’re not getting the result because there’s some areas that we have to be better. Confidence is there. It just (stinks) not to win right now.”
Notes:
• The Penguins’ last losing streak of seven games was not all that far removed from their last losing streak of more than seven games:
The Penguins' last losing streak of seven games took place between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8, 2006.
A single win against the Capitals on Jan. 25, separated that seven-gamer from a 10-game losing streak (Jan. 6 to Jan. 23).
Michel Therrien's "soff" rant happened after the Jan. 10 loss. pic.twitter.com/BPpTUKAp2F
— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) November 6, 2022
• Penguins forward Teddy Blueger remained designated to long-term injured reserve (LTIR) due to an undisclosed injury. Hobbled since a training camp practice on Sept. 28, Blueger was eligible to be removed from LTIR on Saturday.
• Penguins forward Jeff Carter missed his third consecutive game due to an undisclosed injury.
• Penguins forward Josh Archibald was scratched due to an undisclosed injury.
• Poulin replaced Archibald in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three consecutive games.
• Former Penguins forward Jared McCann was scratched for the second consecutive game due to an undisclosed injury.
• In 14 career games against the Penguins, Jones has an 8-5-0 record, a 2.09 goals against average and .925 save percentage.
• Geekie now has six points (three goals, three assists) in four career games against the Penguins.
• The Kraken remain one of three active NHL franchise the Penguins have never recorded a shutout against. The Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights are the others.