Penguins Mount Comeback, Fall To Red Wings In Overtime, 3-2

The Pittsburgh Penguins faced a familiar situation when they gave up two quick goals to the Detroit Red Wings early in the second period, staring down a 2-0 deficit.

And, despite responding the right way and tying the game, 2-2, they fell just short in the extra frame.

Simon Edvinsson scored the game-winner for Detroit in overtime, as the Penguins fell to the Red Wings, 3-2. Bryan Rust and Anthony Beauvillier scored goals for Pittsburgh, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 28 of 31 Detroit shots.

Even though they couldn’t get the extra point, the team was proud of their response to the disaster of a game that unfolded on Monday.

“The other night was embarrassing,” forward Bryan Rust said. “Tonight, we adapted. We got down two, and we just tried to push back. We were really good in the second half of the game. We didn’t get it in overtime, but we showed a lot more guts tonight.”

Rust added: “Obviously, Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re trying to get this thing going in the right direction as fast as we can. That was a good step.”

Here are some thoughts and observations from Wednesday’s overtime loss:

– I saw a lot of takes on X during the first period that criticzied the Penguins’ “lack of effort” and “lifelessness.”

I’ve gotta say, I highly disagreed with those.

The Penguins played, perhaps, one of their best defensive periods of the season in the first. Detroit had some offensive zone time early, but Pittsburgh didn’t really allow much in terms of high-danger chances. They were clogging lanes, getting stick-on-puck, stick-on-stick, and excelling at retrievals and defensive zone breakouts. Ryan Graves was especially good in the opening frame.

Then, as the period progressed, they got some offensive momentum.

Yes, the building was quiet and there wasn’t much energy inside of it. Remember, they were fresh off a very bad loss. Head coach Mike Sullivan even mentioned that the Penguins could have been playing a little too careful in the early parts of the period.

But, overall, the team came off of that bad loss and responded the right way by playing a fundamentally sound period, even if it was a boring one.

Boring hockey is not always bad hockey. Especially for the Penguins, who have struggled mightily on the defensive side of the puck this season.

– The way I see it, this is, most certainly, the best deployment for the Penguins’ top-six right now.

The top line was the team’s best. Beauvillier scored his fifth goal of the season and is on pace for a career-high 23 goals. Crosby made a beautiful pass to Marcus Pettersson before Pettersson set up Beauvillier’s goal with a picture-perfect pass of his own:

And Rickard Rakell – despite being in a mini production funk with no points in his last four games and no goals in his last seven – was a menace on the forecheck and was very good along the walls and in puck battles. He also had several scoring chances that he simply didn’t put home.

I asked Sullivan what has been working so well for Beauvillier this season when he plays on that top line with Crosby. He mentioned Beauvillier’s ability to score, but emphasized how his speed helps create opportunities for Crosby and Rakell.

“One of the reasons that attracted us to even consider him there right out of training camp – if you guys remember, we put him with Sid a lot – is we liked his speed and his puck pursuit game,” Sullivan said. “We thought it would help Sid’s line, in particular, in order to get the puck back and control puck possession. And I think that’s what Sid thrives in. So, having someone with speed is an important element of setting Sid’s line up for success, and that’s one the reasons we’ve tried Beau there.”

And as for the second line? I really like what I’m starting to see from Michael Bunting, but Rust has been quite a bit better since joining forces with Evgeni Malkin and Bunting. I do think Rust and Bunting have great chemistry, and their playing styles complement Malkin well. Rust hasn’t quite fit with Crosby this season the way he has in the past, so I think the swap with Rakell is going to benefit everyone involved.

All in all, a really strong performance from those two units.

– Blake Lizotte simply cannot catch a break.

While the Penguins were forechecking late in the first period, Drew O’Connor shot a puck toward the net, but, unfortunately, he missed. The puck hit Lizotte, standing near the blue paint, square in the face. He did not return.

That is the second time this season that Lizotte has been the victim of an errant puck coming off of a teammate’s stick. Just so unfortunate for him, and hopefully, pulling him from the game was simply precautionary.

– Sam Poulin, although it was an iffy call, took a costly tripping penalty early in the second period that led to Patrick Kane’s power play goal that put Detroit up, 2-0. He was pretty good in this game otherwise, but not overly noticeable in the ways that, I’m sure, he would want to be, especially in the offensive zone.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Penguins’ forward group, especially if Lizotte misses any time. They currently have no extra healthy forwards on their roster, so it’s pretty safe to assume that at least one forward will be called up to fill that space. If Lizotte goes to injured reserve, they’ll need two.

Poulin needs to prove himself over these next several games. His NHL career with the Penguins is pretty much dependent on it at this point. And he has a real opportunity here.

– Just like I got Crosby’d after writing a numbers-based piece on the Pens’ captain when he was struggling, it seems I got Letang’d tonight.

Letang played one of his best games of the season on Wednesday. He was very good in the defensive zone with his stick work, and he was one of those players who was strong on retrievals and defensive zone breakouts.

He was also everywhere in the offensive zone tonight. He had five shots on goal and 11 shot attempts. He was cycling the puck well and handling the puck with confidence on the offensive blue line.

Really strong performance from him after a stinker of a performance on Monday.

– Even though they did not score, the Penguins’ first power play unit had some great looks tonight.

Erik Karlsson looks a lot more comfortable manning the blue line on his own, and he was a lot more decisive with the puck today. The power play is going to benefit if the unit is free to run through Karlsson, which it did tonight.

I also like the fact that they kept four forwards on the unit, including Rakell. It kind of allows everyone to play to their strengths and for him to be the trigger guy in the slot, while Rust and Crosby can kind of roam down low, where they’re at their best.

I’d still consider using Bunting instead of Rust on that unit, but you certainly can’t complain about the way the first unit looked tonight. If they do this with regularity, they’re going to score a lot of goals.

– Malkin’s 500-goal ceremony was really nicely done by the Penguins. They managed to bring his parents in from Russia, and everyone from Sid to Patric Hornqvist to Alex Ovechkin offered their congratulations.

And it included a melt-your-heart video moment from his son, Nikita:

Just a very special night for a very special player.

– Yes, they surrendered the extra point tonight.

But, no, the Penguins shouldn’t be too hard on themselves for this one.

They could have completely caved after going down 2-0 early in the second. But they did no such thing. They seized momentum back and were the better team for the rest of the game.

Hopefully, they can carry some of this momentum into the back-to-back on Friday and Saturday. It feels like the Penguins really need to get at least three points out of those two games.

And, make no mistake: Those games are crucial for this team, especially given the situation at hand with injuries and trades. These guys know they need to perform, and several of them are probably playing for their Pittsburgh careers right now.

I expect them to come out hard on Friday in Columbus.