Pittsburgh Penguins blow another two-goal lead in second loss of the season.
The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Edmonton Oilers 6-3 on Monday night, collecting their first regulation loss of the 2022-23 season. While it wasn't pretty by the end of the night, there were some positive takeaways for the Penguins from another rough night in Alberta.
Penguins Start on Time
The first period had become somewhat of a conundrum for the Penguins over the past week as they struggled out of the gate the previous few games. However, they made sure to start on time on Monday, out skating and out pressuring the Oilers early on.
Despite falling behind 1-0, the Penguins outshot Edmonton 6-3 in the first five minutes before turning on the after burners and taking the lead. At the end of the first period, the Penguins had a 19-9 lead in shots and had controlled 80.17 percent of the expected goals share, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
Rickard Rakell Came to Play
Jake Guentzel missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury, but Rickard Rakell made sure that Sidney Crosby still had an elite play on one of his wings. Rakell had a noticeable jump to his game early on, creating a few opportunities in the opening minutes of Monday's contest.
He then opened the scoring for the Penguins with a seeing-eye wrist shot on the power play that found the top shelf of the net behind Jack Campbell. A few minutes later, he took a long pass from Tristan Jarry and made a beautiful feed through the crease to Crosby who buried the opportunity and gave the Penguins a lead.
The Penguins are certainly better with Guentzel in the lineup, but Rakell has shown that he and Crosby are capable of magic together as well.
Edmonton Flipped a Familiar Switch
In the past week, the Penguins were the team to flip the switch and score in bunches after a slow start. Unfortunately for them, that designation fell to the Oilers on Monday night. Edmonton was an entirely different team after the first intermission.
The Oilers turned it on following a collision that left Connor McDavid writhing in pain behind the Penguin's net. He returned following one missed shift, but his team was already galvanized. Just as the Penguins flipped a switch against the Kings and Blue Jackets, the Oilers did so against the Penguins.
Edmonton outshot Pittsburgh 26-4 in the second period, a historically bad frame for the Penguins. Their minus-22 shot differential in the second period tied the franchise's worse mark set in 1989 against the Hartford Whalers.
While Jarry held the fort for a while, the Oilers poured it on late, scoring three goals in four minutes and 28 seconds to take a 5-3 lead into the second intermission.
Dumoulin and Letang Get Caved In
It was a rough night in the office for the Penguin's top defense pairing, specifically Brian Dumoulin. According to Natural Stat Trick, the duo combined for a 22.68 Corsi for percentage and 10.65 of the expected goals share at 5v5. They were on the ice for three of the Oilers goals and Dumoulin was the primary problem on two of them.
On the Oilers opening goal, Dumoulin found himself in no man's land in the neutral zone as Zach Hyman skated right past him to enter the zone on a breakaway. Kris Letang tried to get back in time, but Hyman had already made his move and buried the opening goal of the game.
Things got worse for Dumoulin in the final minute of the second period as the Penguins trailed 4-3 with under 30 seconds left. Leon Draisaitl went directly after him on the rush, puck-handling through him with ease en route to a dagger of a goal putting the Oilers up 5-3.
The Penguin's top defense pairing may not be as dominant as they used to be, but thankfully for the Pens, this type of game has been the exception to this point this season.
Pittsburgh has a chance to redeem themselves in Alberta later tonight against the Flames. If they want that to happen, they need to forget their final 40-minutes in Edmonton and start fresh against Calgary.
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