Ship Continues To Sink After Penguins' 6-2 Loss To Bruins

The Pittsburgh Penguins are sinking, and they are sinking fast.

In hopes of snapping a three-game losing streak, the Penguins entered Thursday's home tilt against the Boston Bruins hoping to get back in the win column before a three-game California road swing. But they largely beat themselves again, as Boston came away with the 6-2 win. 

The Penguins, who have struggled at the worst times in their own zone and in the neutral zone, were credited with 19 giveaways. Honestly, it could have been more than that. But, even if it wasn't, it seemed like - once again - every turnover or giveaway ended up in the back of their own net. 

"When you're struggling, you've just got to simplify it, whether it's the little things, habits, winning wall battles," captain Sidney Crosby said. "You're not going to fix everything overnight. When it comes to the details of the game, they just haven't been there consistently, and we're playing catch-up because of it.

"So, we can keep talking all we want, [but] it’s up to us to correct it."

The Penguins took an early penalty in the first period but managed to kill it off, yet Boston had most of the momentum early. The Penguins did not have a shot for the first nine minutes of the game, but on their first shot at the 9:03 mark, Justin Brazeau - playing in just his second game this season after starting on injured reserve - sniped one past Bruins' goaltender Michael DiPietro to put Pittsburgh up, 1-0. 

But, as they have many a time in the last several weeks, defensive miscues and missed coverages killed them. A few minutes after Brazeau scored, the Bruins were pressuring in the offensive zone, and Penguins' defenseman Sam Girard attempted to swat a puck out of danger in the lower right circle. Instead, he only got a piece of it, and it went straight to the stick of David Pastrnak, who passed it across the low slot to an uncovered Pavel Zacha for an easy finish. 

Three minutes later, Mark Kastelic deflected a Frederic Brunet shot from the point to put the Bs ahead, 2-1, and it only went down from there. With 1:03 to go in the first period, Erik Karlsson corraled a puck in his own zone, and in an attempt to send a breakout pass, he hit the shins of Elias Lindholm. Lindholm easily got the puck under control, breaking toward Penguins' goaltender Arturs Silovs alone and beating him to make it 3-1 in favor of Boston.

Early in the second period, Pittsburgh seemed to be shifting the momentum. They got some good looks on a power play early in the middle frame, and they built from there. It culminated just before the eight-minute mark of the second, when Kaedan Korczak threw a puck to the net and Nick Robertson deflected it in for his team-leading seventh goal of the season to bring the Penguins to within one. 

They had everything going for them in the minutes to follow until a TV timeout right around the 14-minute mark of the period. After that, Sidney Crosby won an offensive zone faceoff, and the Penguins were at their offensive blue line. Girard attempted a pass to Rickard Rakell, who received the pass in his feet and lost the puck to J.J. Peterka. Peterka and Zacha took off on a two-on-one, and Zacha finished it off for his second of the game to make it a two-goal deficit again for the Penguins.

Everything fell off from there. 

A few minutes later, a botched change by Pittsburgh and a lackluster defensive effort by Spencer Stastney led to an uncontested breakaway for Morgan Geekie, and he buried it. Fraser Minten added another tally on a two-on-one during an uncompetitive third period by the Penguins to finalize the 6-2 result. 

Because of a loss by the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday, the Penguins still are not in the basement of the Metropolitian Division or the Eastern Conference, but they are tied points-wise with the Flyers. As it stands now, they are eight points back of the final playoff spot in the East. 

In other words, they cannot let this spiral any further if they expect to sniff the playoffs this season and build on what they did last year. If they can't get things under control, it's difficult not to expect some massive changes roster-wise. 

"Right now for us, obviously, there's a number of things that crept in tonight and I think we're not going to fix them all overnight, but we have to start making those corrections," head coach Dan Muse said. "I think the big one for me is the stuff that's totally preventable and just making sure that the structure is there, but then also, just the defensive positioning, the box outs, the getting sticks. The number of breakways that we gave up tonight, we can't expect our goalies to come up with those saves. There's nothing sustainable there.

"So, I've said it before, and now we're going to key in on a couple of areas and continue to work on them. We have to chip away. But it's got to come quick. I think the big one for me tonight is in those battles, you know, at the net front. The numbers against. It's got to be corrected."

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