SALT LAKE CITY — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse emerged from the Penguins locker room with an intense stare following his team’s 5-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center Monday.
Not even the immensely friendly and polite Salt Lake City denizens showed the Penguins hospitality as the Penguins finished their four-game road trip sans a point, and didn’t come close.
The Penguins were competitive early Monday but slid further and further behind, eventually losing 5-4 to the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center.
The Penguins gave up 21 goals on the four-game trip and scored just 11. Only the Vancouver Canucks (45) have given up more goals this season than the Penguins (38). But it’s still a young season … and the Penguins could easily catch Vancouver with a few more games.
Yes, the scoreboard showed a close game, and yes, the Penguins were a puck pounce in the final seconds away from tying the game as Ben Kindel slammed a pouncing puck into Utah goalie Sebastian Cossa; had Kindel not got the puck first, it was headed toward Sidney Crosby on the side of the crease, and Crosby would have had a wide open net.
“Yeah,” lamented Crosby. And that about sums up the last two weeks.
At no point did the Penguins control the game or exert anything resembling overwhelming pressure. A pair of quick power play goals kept them in the game early, and a couple of quick strikes late made the contest competitive.
But the Penguins were bad again. Nay, they were terrible. Again.
Muse returned a few minutes later into the well-lit Delta Center hallway as equipment and medical carts wheeled past as the Penguins prepared to fly home Tuesday. Muse returned to face the media, and pressed against a painted black concrete wall, his exasperation was controlled but audibly present.
The Penguins coach looked every bit like a bench boss who deep down knows the answer, but can’t begin to verbalize that his team is full of talent but is horribly mismatched for the roles they need. The Penguins have a lot of players who are not good defensively, and unfortunately, it appears some of those players are defensemen, such as Declan Carlile, who continues to be a problem.
“I think it’s that we have to be tighter. We have to. I mean, you see bodies in the area. We’ve got to make sure that we’re eliminating options. So, it’s the details on the defensive side. We have to keep looking at it,” said Muse. “If you look at the game, the second half of the game we got a little bit better with it, but the consistency is not there right now. We have to continue to make that a priority within our game. (On) the defensive side, being harder to play against, and again, I’m putting that on all of us, myself included.
“Like that has to be there, and it has to be a priority. We have to make sure that we’re taking steps because right now, if you look at the chances that are given up, like, there’s not a lot that our goalies can do.”
The Penguins coach has every reason to feel befuddled and dazed. His steam stinks right now. Their defensive zone coverage could reasonably be declared a disaster area, and the Penguins’ only consistency is their ability to badly botch D-zone assignments.
It’s every line, every defense pairing, though some bear far more culpability than others.
“You look at the chances that we’re giving up. Are they the exact same? No. But I think it’s just the attention on the defensive side, details, the returns, making sure that we’re all on the same page in regard to the structure,” Muse said. “All those things factor in, and so it’s a number of them, and it’s about being consistent with the way that we play away from the puck and on the defensive side.”
Following his obligatory questions from the media scrum, Muse paced the Delta Center hallway looking like a coach trying to find answers but knowing deep down there are none, or at least none that can be addressed at the coaching level.
Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs was a controlled impulse away from absolutely lambasting his team, which again hung him out to dry. No one summed up the team’s repetitive defensive gaffes with more precision and disgust.
Silovs stopped 24 of 29 shots, which is ordinarily a bad night for the goalie. Indeed, Silovs didn’t have a good night, but it wasn’t due to his own struggles. This season, Silovs has merely an .866 save percentage, but the numbers have no correlation to his game.
“I felt like I played good [sic]. I think they won some net-front battles in front of the net, and they scored some greasy ones,” Silovs said. “You know we (have to) try to keep battling.”
Indeed, Utah swarmed him in the first period, especially.
‘Well, they create a lot of odd-man rushes. I think, especially in the first period, I felt like they would just keep coming, keep coming towards us, and I was just trying to lock it down and play as good for my teammates, as good I can.”
The Penguins had a little shake and bake in the opening minutes. Erik Karlsson scored a power-play goal. He and Spencer Stastney were working well together at 5v5, and the Penguins were pushing the puck.
But their advantage was ever so brief before Utah soaked them for two unanswered goals twice, and a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. Not only did Utah surge ahead, but they largely dominated the game. The shots were 25-13 for Utah by the end of the second, and the Penguins’ offensive zone pressure was faster than a run down the local bobsled track.
The Penguins had a puncher’s chance in the end, but even then they didn’t hem Utah into their zone until the final few minutes.
Penguins Report Card
Team: C-
The Penguins avoided another F with a passable third period in which they buried a couple of chances. Their game lacks details, fundamentals, and sometimes effort.
“We’ve been feeding the other team’s transition too much with the turnovers throughout the whole game,” said Rakell. “It’s mostly in our own zone and the neutral zone.”
Penguins Best Players
Erik Karlsson: B
The Penguins blue liner would be the first to admit he misplayed Nick Schmaltz’s goal, which became the game winner. However, Karlsson also had his legs Monday. He pushed the play and held onto the puck. He led the team with one goal, one assist, eight shot attempts, and was generally visible in the positive.
Arturs Silovs: B+
He was very good and gave the team a chance to win. Perhaps if the Penguins don’t want to see a five or six spot on the scoreboard, they might consider preventing opponents from bearing down on Silovs unabated or uncovered at the net.
Silov momentarily flashed that anger that only goalies understand; goalies who bear the brunt but don’t deserve it.
Rickard Rakell: B+
After a snake-bitten beginning to the season, he finished his chance and connected with Crosby.
Kris Letang: Solid
The Penguins defenseman skated with recalled Ilya Solovyov and was solid Monday. Letang led the team with three shots on goal and played a clean game.
Not the Best
Declan Carlile: It just seems the Penguins defenseman is in the eye of the storm. Mistakes and gaffes, the puck is chasing him. After a nice start in camp and preseason, Carlile has been precarious. Monday he was beaten by Kevin Stenland at the net front and was later shed by a rusher, setting up a bang-bang goal. Muse paired him with Kaedan Korczak Monday instead of Karlsson.
Other players who were too quiet Monday were Nick Robertson, Andrei Kuzmenko, and Ville Koivunen.
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