Takeaways: Penguins Blow Two Goal Lead, Lose To Rangers In Shootout

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a dream start against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.

They took a 1-0 lead just 2:08 into the first period thanks to Anthony Mantha's 21st goal of the season. Mantha redirected an Erik Karlsson slap shot from the point on the power play. 

It looked like the Penguins were going to be up 2-0 just three minutes into the game thanks to Bryan Rust, but the goal was called back due to goaltender interference. The Penguins held on to that 1-0 lead for the rest of the period and limited the Rangers to only two shots. 

The Rangers' lifeless play continued into the second period when Ryan Shea made it 2-0 at the 1:59 mark. He made a nice play along the blue line and fired the puck past Igor Shesterkin to double the lead. The puck bounced off Rangers defenseman Scott Morrow, who was tangled up with Penguins forward Noel Acciari in front of the net. 

However, after that goal, the Penguins' play really dipped, and they allowed the Rangers to control the game for the last 30+ minutes. Mika Zibanejad cut the lead in half at the 10-minute mark of the second period before Taylor Raddysh tied the game for the Rangers early in the third period.

The Penguins were able to hang on for dear life during the rest of the third period to secure a point before falling in a shootout. Vincent Trocheck scored the lone shootout goal for the Rangers, while the Penguins' shooters went 0-for-3. 

Here are some of my takeaways from Saturday's setback:

- It looked like the Penguins were going to cruise to a win until they stopped playing. They let the Rangers back into the game and let them do whatever they want for a decent chunk of the second period and the entire third period. It's an unacceptable effort against a team that is at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and has already waved the white flag on the season. 

The Penguins struggled to get out of their own zone in the final two periods and couldn't even string together two consecutive passes. Nobody should panic because the Penguins will still enter March in second place in the Metropolitan Division, but this was still a bad loss.

- Evgeni Malkin was a man on a mission in this game and was the Penguins' best skater. He was galloping each time he was out there, setting up some good scoring chances, and even getting some chances of his own. He was robbed twice by Shesterkin at the end of overtime and had a nice chance during the third period. 

I've really liked his game since NHL play resumed this week, and the Penguins will need this version of Malkin to keep showing up if they want to make the playoffs.

- Rickard Rakell struggled again at center on Saturday, and if I were Dan Muse, I'd seriously consider moving him back to wing. 

He was cleaned out at the faceoff dot again, and as a team, the Penguins won only 23.1% of their draws, which, according to Bob Grove, is the lowest mark since 1996-97, when the NHL began charting the stat.  

I know Malkin has been great on the wing since returning, but if he's closer to 100%, he may need to go back to center. Having Malkin, Novak, Kindel, and Lizotte as centers until Crosby returns is better overall and makes the Penguins stronger down the middle. 

- The shootout problems continued for the Penguins, even with new shooters. All three attempts were laughable and had no chance of beating Shesterkin. They even practiced shootouts multiple times at the end of practices this week, but nothing seems to be working. 

- Ryan Shea played another fantastic game on the blue line and should be promoted to the second pair with Kris Letang. I understand trying Sam Girard with Letang to at least test it out, but it's been too chaotic. They were both hemmed in their own zone quite often again on Saturday, and don't look comfortable together.  

I think the pairings should be Wotherspoon-Karlsson, Shea-Letang, and Girard-Clifton at least for a little bit. 

- The Penguins will have an opportunity to quickly rebound from this performance since the Vegas Golden Knights are coming to town for a Sunday afternoon showdown. 

Puck drop will be at 1 p.m. ET on TNT. 

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