Penguins Lose Heartbreaker To Jackets In Shootout, 4-3

The Pittsburgh Penguins surrendered yet another multi-goal lead on Tuesday in a key Metropolitan Division matchup.

The Penguins dropped a shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3, after taking a 3-1 lead with seven minutes remaining in the third period. They now fall to 3-6-3 against the Metro this season, they are riding a four-game losing streak, and they are 1-2-3 in their six games since the holiday break.

“It’s discouraging, because the irony of it is that we give up two goals in the third period, and the third period was our best period that we played all night,” head coach Mike Sullivan said.

Columbus’s Dmitri Voronkov opened the scoring on the power play early in the first period, and Pittsburgh responded with a power play goal of their own in the second by – who else – Michael Bunting, who tied a career-high in power play goals in a single season with his eighth and his 12th goal overall.

Rickard Rakell added a quick goal just 24 seconds into the third period with a snipe from the left circle, and he earned his second goal of the night – and 20th on the season – midway through the period after some excellent work down low by Sidney Crosby, who – during the second period on Tuesday – officially surpassed Patrice Bergeron for the most faceoff wins in NHL history since the stat has been tracked in 1997.

However, Voronkov got his second of the game with seven minutes and 55 seconds remaining in the third, and Adam Fantilli added another power play goal within the final three minutes to tie the score headed into overtime and the shootout, where Columbus took their first game in Pittsburgh since Nov. 16, 2015.

Pittsburgh has lost three straight games that have gone past regulation, with two of those losses coming in shootouts.

“We didn’t play good enough in the first two periods,” Rakell said. “I thought we played our game in the third and gave ourselves a chance. It stinks, you know? We fight back in this game, and then we lose another in the shootout or overtime. It’s been a lot of tight games. We’ve got to find a way to get the two points.”

The Penguins also played this one without Evgeni Malkin, who was scratched late and labeled as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Sullivan had no further update on Malkin following the loss.

Here are some other notes and observations from Tuesday’s loss:

– Malkin’s absence from the lineup was certainly noticeable in this one.

His playmaking was missed on the second line. I’ve generally liked Glass’s 200-foot game this season, but he simply has not produced enough to be in that second-line center position.

The truth is, the Penguins do not have a center on their roster – or in their organization – who can fill in for the big guys if they go down. As such, they may need to call on someone from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to, at least, help fill some scoring gaps on the wings.

– While the power play continues a torrid stretch for the Penguins – they were ranked fifth in the league heading into this one – the penalty kill has certainly hit a rough patch.

They have now given up six power play goals in their six games since the holiday break including two games with two goals surrendered each against Florida and Columbus.

Sullivan said that it boils down to the details.

“A lot of it just boils down to details,” Sullivan said. “It’s anticipation, playing on our toes… I don’t think we’re pressuring collectively as well as we were. So, we’re giving them time and space to operate. That’s part of it. We’ve had some opportunities to get clears, and we don’t get them. That’s part of it. At the end of the day, a lot of it boils down to details that we’ve let slip here on our kill.”

He also didn’t particularly like the slashing call on Blake Lizotte that led to Columbus’s power play and Fantilli’s goal.

“It was a stick lift,” he said.

I would agree.

– Erik Karlsson was very, very good on Tuesday.

Something I would like to see more from him is using his skating ability to create scoring chances for himself in the offensive zone. He did that quite a lot against Columbus, including two different instances in the first period when he used his footwork and stickhandling to elude defenders and give himself a shot at the net. One of those opportunities came from the slot.

Karlsson is at his best when he’s drawing attention toward himself in the offensive zone. He was forcing Columbus to break coverage and defend him one-on-one, opening up space for others like Crosby to make something happen.

He took an early penalty, but he was engaged throughout. He tied Rakell for the most shots on goal with four and attempted a team-high 10 shots. He continues to sacrifice in the defensive zone, as he registered three more blocked shots on Tuesday.

And he registered two assists to give him 11 points in the last 10 games, including this beauty of a pass on Rakell’s first goal:

Just a great performance from him.

– On the flip side, Marcus Pettersson had another rough outing.

I’ll dig more into some advanced stats in a later piece. But, for Tuesday, he was on the ice for both goals on the penalty kill, and he didn’t look particularly great on either kill. He missed a few opportunities to clear the puck, and he missed some reads in the defensive zone as a whole.

He needs to pick up his game down the stretch for the Penguins for a variety of reasons.

– The third line of Kevin Hayes, Drew O’Connor, and Jesse Puljujarvi was clicking as well.

Hayes continues to earn himself a more permanent spot in the lineup, as his third consecutive game back from being a healthy scratch was another great effort in a lot of areas. O’Connor has looked much better since snapping his 32-game goal drought against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 31.

But Puljujarvi – dressing in his first game since Dec. 7 – really stood out in this game. He made a gorgeous bank pass to Owen Pickering – resulting in a scoring chance – midway through the first period. He also made another nice pass late in the first period through traffic that nearly resulted in a chance.

And as far as his defensive zone play? Late in the second period, Puljujarvi forced a turnover when he pickpocketed Columbus in the defensive zone with a stick lift, turning it back the other for another scoring opportunity.

This guy deserves a lineup spot against his former team, the Edmonton Oilers, on Thursday, regardless of circumstance. He was noticeable in a very good way.

– Team Sweden is braindead for leaving Rakell off of its 4 Nations roster.

Rakell’s 13 goals since Nov. 27 are tied for the most in the NHL with only Edmonton Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl. He is also only the second Swedish-born player – Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe is the other – to reach the 20-goal plateau this season.

He’s having a remarkable year for the Penguins. Sweden missed the mark badly on this one, and there’s really no excuse for it.

Oh, and an interesting little tidbit… Rakell is now on pace for 39 goals this season, which would outpace Jake Guentzel’s 82-game pace of 37 goals from last season.

Just food for thought.

– Aside from giving up the first goal on the first shot for the sixth time this season – and sixth out of eight total times this season for the Penguins, according to Penguins historian Bob Grove – Tristan Jarry was really solid on Tuesday.

The Penguins have displayed another problematic trend in recent games where they accrue less than five shots in a period – they had three in the first period – and Jarry kept them in the game.

After enduring a tiny bit of a rough patch in his prior five starts, he came back strong in this one. Goaltending will be crucial if the Penguins expect to beat out other teams of similar caliber for one of those final wild card spots in the East.

– This was a bad loss for the Penguins.

They were just one point ahead of Columbus going into Tuesday’s game, so this one ended up being a four-point swing. They led, 3-1, with seven minutes remaining in the game following Rakell’s second goal. And they dropped yet another game in the shootout, something that’s been giving them fits this season.

The Penguins are now tied with Columbus and just one point ahead of Ottawa for the second wild card spot. Yes, these “loser points” are big. But they’re at a point in the season where they can’t give up one point, let alone two points, to teams around them in the standings.

Columbus has just one game in hand on Pittsburgh, but Ottawa still has three. That will really start to matter more in these coming weeks.

– While I would halfway expect the Penguins to call someone up from Wilkes-Barre if Malkin is out for a few games – they currently have no extra forwards on their roster and are carrying eight defensemen – it could get a little tricky.

Either Malkin would have to go to injured reserve, or the Penguins would have to waive one of their defensemen. But it’s tough to lack an extra forward in the event of another injury.

We’ll see what happens.