The Penguins generated a fair amount of offense but were unable to beat Carolina's netminder until the game was out of reach

It was yet another night that ended in disappointment for the Penguins, but this one was particularly ugly.

The Penguins dropped their second straight, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1. Blake Lizotte scored the lone goal for the Penguins, but the score did not tell the entire story, as the Penguins were the better team for most of the game. 

But, just like in many games before, untimely mistakes and an inability to finish cost them. And head coach Mike Sullivan didn't shy away from addressing that.

"I thought we had a lot of guys that played really hard and didn't get rewarded for their efforts," Sullivan said. "I think there were a few guys that didn't live up to the expectation. And it's hard. We need everybody to bring it every night to give ourselves the best chance to win."

Forward Cody Glass left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return. There is no update on his status at this point.

Here are some thoughts and observations from tonight's loss:

- Erik Karlsson had three stellar games in a row heading into this one.

He had an absolutely putrid game on Thursday.

On the Hurricanes' first goal just 52 seconds into the game, Karlsson made a terrible read and, essentially, handed Carolina an odd-man break, leaving Jordan Martinook all alone for a wide open look. Jordan Staal made a really nice pass on the play, but Martinook should never have beat Karlsson in the first place.

He made another bad read on the Canes' second goal as well, completely losing track of Sebastian Aho in the neutral zone and allowing him to walk in on another odd man break to assist on Jack Roslovic's first goal of the game. 

Karlsson, again, seemed to be figuring something out over the last three games. But these two mistakes were just inexcusable, and given his deployment the rest of the game - which I'll get to in a second - I don't think his coach was very happy, either.

Even though he is never going to be a defensive stalwart, the Penguins need Karlsson to be the version of himself that he was prior to this game. And they need him to, simply, make better decisions in tandem with Pettersson.

He didn't shy away from assessing his game afterwards.

"It's tough sometimes when, your first shift, they score on the play, and it starts snowballing the other way," Karlsson said. "And it's just one of those days where you've got to keep your head down and try and be in the right position at all times. And, even if you're just a little off, sometimes it doesn't go your way, and it's just one of those nights. I've had many of them, and I'm sure I've had some more... and I've just got to figure out a way to control it."

- Michael Bunting was promoted to the first power play unit in place of Karlsson at the end of the second period. As a result, Matt Grzelcyk was quarterbacking the power play. 

It was the best the power play had looked in a few weeks.

Everything was simplified. There was no hesitation. Passes were crisp, clean, and well-executed. Shots were getting through to the net. The Penguins got several grade-A scoring chances.

Then, inexpicably, Grzelcyk was pulled in favor of Kris Letang on the very next power play at a critical time during the third period. 

Look, I get that Letang and Karlsson are your go-to guys for offense on the blue line. But, at that point in the game, the Penguins were down 5-1 with a little less than 15 minutes remaining in the third, and a goal during that power play could have put the game back within reach, even if chances were slim. 

Beyond that, there's no reason to change something that appeared to click. Grzelcyk, for as much as he's struggled at times during five-on-five, looked right at home quarterbacking the first unit. He didn't overthink things, hesitate, and make ill-advised passes, and these are all things the other two do with too much regularity. In fact, they both did that with regularity in this game alone.

When not much is going right for your team, don't change something that's working.

- As was the story in the Islanders game, the Penguins were the better team for most of this game. They outshot the Canes, 36-18, and they generated a ton of scoring chances. 

However, Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov was that good.

He wasn't allowing too many second-chance opportunities, and when he did, the Hurricanes' league-best defense was there to pick up the loose change. He kept the Penguins from getting anywhere close to even with Carolina, and he deserves a lot of credit for the way he played tonight.

But the Penguins simply need to find a way to put the puck in the net when they're controlling play. They don't do it nearly often enough, and it allows teams to beat them to it.

- Carolina is just a really bad matchup for the Penguins in general. 

This team is stupid good defensively. They did surrender some good scoring opportunities early on, but in a general sense, they don't give you a whole lot. They clog up passing and shooting lanes. Pucks don't often make it to the goaltender, and if they do, it's oftentimes forced from lower-danger areas of the ice. 

And they are opportunistic, capitalizing on nearly every glaring mistake the Penguins made. 

This is a very, very good team. I wasn't all that high on them coming into the season, but I've changed my tune a little bit. Even though they were outplayed for most of the game, they found a way to win convincingly.

- Alex Nedeljkovic did not turn in his best effort tonight. 

It's hard to assess Penguins' goaltenders sometimes because their defensive zone coverage is so poor. However, anytime a team has four goals on 12 shots, and, later, five goals on 14 shots, it's a pretty good indicator that your goaltender is not having a great night. Nedeljkovic would probably want at least on or two of those goals back.

"That was the difference in the game," Nedeljkovic said. "Their guy was that much better than I was."

He added: "Tough night. Tough night to have when we had that kind of effort from me."

 Joel Blomqvist will almost certainly start in Washington on Friday on the second leg of the back-to-back, and Tristan Jarry will, presumably, be activated to the NHL roster from his AHL conditioning stint ahead of Monday's tilt against Dallas. 

Regardless of who is in net, the Penguins need better goaltending as a whole, as they currently sit 29th in team goaltending.