Penguins' Staggered by Hurricanes in 4-3 Loss

Story by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

Now that we’re over the halfway hump of the NHL season, the matchups start getting interesting. The Penguins will be playing every team in the Metropolitan Division numerous times in the next couple of months, and playoff scenarios abound around every corner.

We can only hope that the Pens’ 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at PPG Paints Arena is not indicative of what’s to come in the postseason.

This game wasn’t going to be a rollover for either team, who were fighting for first place in the Metro. Add in that they hadn’t played each other in nearly two years due to COVID protocols, and expectations were high. The first period did not disappoint--lots of speed, lots of hits, lots of excellent saves by both Tristan Jarry and Antti Raanta, who was making only his second start in net since the end of January. However, during the live tweet, I noted that the Pens seemed to have forgotten that you still need to play defense during a power play. The Canes had not one but two short-handed breakaways on the Pens’ lone first-period PP that didn’t become goals only by the grace of Jarry. Jesperi Kotkaniemi had his own grace, slapping a nice feed from Jordan Martinook over Jarry’s glove hand to start the scoring at 15:18.

The Canes came out firing in the second period--literally. Jordan Staal, once an integral part of the Pens’ 2009 Stanley Cup season, now Carolina’s captain, scored unassisted off a Kris Letang bobble nine seconds in. Yes, nine seconds. Keep that in mind. The traitor goal appeared to light a fire under the Pens, for the speed increased and the hits kept on coming until Tanger redeemed himself (somewhat) with a tasty rebound off an Evgeni Malkin pass that Bryan Rust caught and got past Raanta at 14:43 to make it 2-1 Canes. Still basking in the glow of his five-hundredth goal on Tuesday, Sidney Crosby decided it was a good time to make it 501 at 17:59 and buried a no-doubter to tie the game at two. Good job, Sid.

I told you to remember Staal’s goal. Why? Because in the third period it happened again. The only differences were that Jesper Fast scored it, with Nino Niederreiter and Brady Skjei assisting. This is the first time in NHL history that a team scored twice in the first ten seconds of two periods. Work on your faceoffs, Pens, seriously. I also told you that Tanger redeemed himself somewhat with the second-period rebound that led to Rusty’s goal. I said “somewhat” because he got a dumb slashing call, which led to a Carolina power play, which led to Sebastian Aho’s goal at 14:18 to make it 4-2. I may have called Chad Ruhwedel the Lord of Stupid Penalties, but Tanger sometimes seems to have a positive gift for getting penalties at an absolutely horrid time. 

The Pens pulled Jarry (of course, I complained about it because you guys expect that of me by now), and it paid off. Evan Rodrigues, who’s been a scoring icicle since early January, suddenly remembered that he could indeed get goals and scored on a power play with 1:12 left in the game, with Tanger again semi-redeeming himself with Geno’s help. That really seemed to wake the Pens up, with Sid trying to stuff one past Raanta up until the very last second, but to no avail.

The Penguins have allowed four goals in each of their past four games. Mike Sullivan may have “loved the fight” of the Pens in this game, but fight doesn’t do much if you’re allowing that many goals, even in wins. Jarry has improved immensely this season, but he’s only one guy, and too often during this game, I saw him alone with no defenders anywhere near him. With the playoffs looming, this needs to be addressed--now.