Penguins/NHL
A five game homestand was a golden opportunity this week for the Penguins. There is also the chance a bad homestand sinks the Penguins. Despite points in three straight, the Penguins are now riding a four-game losing streak and have lost five of six games since Christmas Break with Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers coming to town Thursday night.
A 3-1 lead with eight minutes remaining saw things come crashing down for the Penguins, where getting a clean two points from the Columbus Blue Jackets was there for the taking.
“We had complete control of the game,” said Mike Sullivan. “We don’t execute on an exchange on our breakout. The puck ends up in the back of our net,” Sullivan added as Dmitri Voronkov scored with 7:55 left to play and Adam Fantilli scored a power play goal with 2:36 remaining in regulation off a Blake Lizotte slashing penalty.
Sullivan was critical of the time and space Pittsburgh gave on both goals against.
“A lot of it just boils down to details,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think we’re pressuring collectively as well as we were. And so we’re giving them time and space to operate….The opportunities to clear we don’t get them.”
The talking point after the game was again Tristan Jarry. Defensive breakdown/Puck luck were bigger factors than Jarry not making a save but this just always seems to be the story with Jarry.
He struggles to close games and early goals against continue to be a maddening trend. It’s about on par with the Steelers first quarter offense this season.
In 19 Appearances, Jarry has allowed a goal 13 times within the first ‘five’ shots of a game | 1st Shot – First Goal | Jarry has now allowed a goal on the first shot an alarming six times this season after Columbus scored on their first shot Tuesday night. Second later the Jackets also hit a right post that almost got past Jarry.
Tristan Jarry gives the Penguins a better chance than Alex Nedeljkovic but that shouldn’t be a pat on the back for Jarry. There just continues to be no signs Jarry is ever going to be the guy to carry a meddling team.
The fan base is in its right to believe the best goaltender in the organization is currently in Wilkes Barre because of blown decisions by the General Manager. The two-year deal for Nedeljkovic has been a major issue for the Penguins to be able to move on from him and Kyle Dubas nightmare 2023 Summer continues to pop up with the commitment he gave Tristan Jarry and a defenseman on the roster signed four more seasons with a cap hit pushing $5 million a season that’s now a regular in the press box.
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— If Pittsburgh eventually falls out of the race, the disappointing part will be that Erik Karlsson has finally looked the part of a game changer on the ice. Shift in and shift out he’s impacting the game at a level management dreamed of with the August 2023 trade. Karlsson’s explosiveness has looked the best it has in years.
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: Rickard Rakell with 20 goals on the season and on pace for close to 40 goals, remains an extremely unlikely To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— : Michael Bunting is a possibly different story. Bunting is very well likely internally by the Penguins but there’s some smoke around him To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— Pittsburgh’s Top Three Lines were all 60% or better in driving possession in the shootout loss to the Blue Jackets 
. Bunting-Glass-Beauvillier were @ 81.3CF%, O’Connor-Hayes-Puljujarvi 64CF%; and the Crosby unit at 60CF%
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