PITTSBURGH — The Penguins had made a game of it against the Colorado Avalanche early in the third period, having erased a three-goal deficit.
Then, their power play took the ice and failed to generate any offense, prompting some in the crowd of 15,632 to shower the Penguins with boos. This didn’t sit very well with captain Sidney Crosby.
The Penguins ultimately fell apart in the third period in a 6-2 setback.
Still, even on a night when they didn’t have their best stuff, they were engaged and making the Avalanche work to fend them off. Crosby was very miffed by the reaction from some in the crowd.
His Penguins have still won five of their past seven games.
“You wouldn’t know it tonight,” Crosby said. “Would you? I mean, getting booed on the power play (in the third period.)”
Penguins home crowds rarely turn on the Penguins but have been noticeably antagonistic at times toward Tristan Jarry, who didn’t enjoy a strong outing on Tuesday. The crowd let the Penguins’ power play hear it in the third period, and Crosby noticed.
He said the reaction from the crowd surprised him.
“It did a little bit,” Crosby said. “I think there’s been some times this season when we deserved it. I don’t think tonight was one of them.”
Crosby acknowledged that it wasn’t a good night for the power play.
Mike Sullivan has decided to split up Crosby and Malkin during the past two games, giving each center his own power play unit. Crosby’s unit struggled significantly against the Avalanche.
“Maybe it’s a tie game in the third if we get one at some point,” Crosby said. “You can’t make the mistakes we made against a team that’s as dangerous as them.”
Crosby’s close friend, Nathan MacKinnon, ripped through the Penguins for a goal and four assists. His superstar winger, Mikko Rantanen, recorded a hat trick and had five points of his own.
The Penguins’ big names, meanwhile, were very much held in check.
Cody Glass scored his first goal as a member of the Penguins and Michael Bunting scored to pull the Penguins within a goal late in the second period.
Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen and Rantanen scored to disrupt any idea of a Penguins comeback.
Jarry allowed five goals on 26 shots, forcing Sullivan to acknowledge that it was a step backward for the goaltender, who had previously won four straight.
Up next for the Penguins is a two-game Canadian swing through Montreal and Ottawa, starting on Thursday in Quebec.
Ten postgame observations
• It’s not characteristic of Crosby to be irked by the crowd. But then again, these are strange times for Crosby and the Penguins, who aren’t used to playing before empty seats — there were 2,500 unsold tickets for his one and probably 2,000 more no-shows — and who aren’t used to struggling to this extent.
Crosby has never really heard boos from Pittsburgh fans and, while they obviously weren’t directed at him — that would never happen — he is sensitive to it and is a believer that positivity is the best kind of support a crowd can display.
He notices everything. The great ones always do.
• Crosby is really struggling right now.
He’s got two goals in his past 16 games and looked off against Colorado, a team he typically torches.
When Rantanen finished off his hat trick into an empty net, Crosby broke his stick in an uncommon display of anger.
Crosby and MacKinnon typically put on a show against one another. MacKinnon was great as always. Crosby didn’t have a point and, more concerning, didn’t look himself, something that has been the case from time to time this season.
The Penguins have far bigger problems than the performance of Crosby, but he needs to elevate his game in a hurry.
“He’ll score,” Mike Sullivan said after the game. “He’s too good of a player not to.”
• On the surface, one might not have a problem with Jarry’s performance on Tuesday. The box score says he was beaten twice by Rantanen and once by MacKinnon.
In fact, MacKinnon’s goal was on a two-on-one. Getting beaten by a Hall of Famer on a two-on-one isn’t exactly a crime, after all.
Look a little closer, though. Jarry’s performance was actually quite subpar in this game. Ryan Graves played the two-on-one very well — Matt Grzelcyk pinched poorly, more on him later — and MacKinnon basically fired a shot directly at Jarry’s glove.
The dogg came to play!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/9WZLamXZiG
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 11, 2024
MacKinnon missed his spot but Jarry let it leak in anyway. It wasn’t a “bad” goal, but it’s one you’ve got to stop in that situation.
Rantanen’s first goal was a display of sloppy defense and a poor play by Kris Letang, but again, Jarry didn’t play it well.
The moves from Mikko 😮💨#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/HnyPf7T64w
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 11, 2024
He basically collapsed into his net, making it much easier on Rantanen.
The second Rantanen goal was a real killer.
Mikko threads the needle for his second 🪡#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/nS1XwdhG7m
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 11, 2024
It was a bad angle, a sneaky shot, but that’s a terrible goal.
Jarry said after the game that he was too aggressive on Nichushkin’s back-breaker.
FULL SPEED AHEAD 🚂#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/Uxj4gZNgJR
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 11, 2024
Plenty of things happened on this goal, namely Marcus Pettersson getting beaten cleanly, Erik Karlsson not looking really interested in helping out and a great player making a great play. But if Jarry had been any more passive on that play, he would have fallen into the net.
Just a bad look all the way around on that goal.
Yes, Colorado is the better team and, yes, the Avs overmatched the Penguins for most of the evening. But it remained a semi-winnable game for the Penguins with good goaltending.
They did not receive good goaltending.
• Having two No. 1 power plays didn’t work in this game.
It’s totally understandable to change things up on occasion and I applaud the coaching staff for trying everything it can to ignite the power play. Crosby skating on a unit with Grzelcyk and Kevin Hayes isn’t the answer, however.
I don’t mean to simplify things, but it’s just not going to work.
• Grzelcyk was supposed to be a healthy scratch a couple of weeks ago, but Owen Pickering’s illness kept him in the lineup. The veteran was starting to play a little better.
Then, he was awful last Friday in New York. And he was the defenseman who was burned on the two-on-one when MacKinnon opened the scoring.
I realize the Penguins have very limited options on the blue line but it’s pretty puzzling to me that Grzelcyk hasn’t been a healthy scratch yet.
• It was a rough night in general for the defensemen. I didn’t like how Pettersson and Karlsson defended the Nichushkin goal, I didn’t like Letang’s giveaway on Rantanen’s first goal, I didn’t like anything about Grzelcyk’s goal, I didn’t like the needless high-sticking penalty that Graves took on his first shift, and I didn’t like Pickering’s delay of game penalty nor his turnover that led to a Logan O’Connor breakaway.
That covers everyone. Rough, rough night for the blue line.
• It really was a tough night for the goaltenders. Alex Nedeljkovic, who was backing up Jarry, was struck just under the right eye by a puck in the first period while sitting on the bench.
He left for the locker room and didn’t return until early in the second period. I spoke with Nedeljkovic following the game and he said he’ll be fine. He had a pretty nice shiner developing at the base of his right eye.
• That’s 24 games without a goal for Drew O’Connor. His confidence appears to be shot.
The Penguins need to do something, anything, to jumpstart him.
• It’s a pleasure watching Colorado play. They remind me a bit of the Penguins of the 1990s. They might be a little top-heavy, but their great players are so, so great. MacKinnon is an all-timer, and so is Cale Makar. Rantanen isn’t too shabby either.
They really need to improve their blue line and bottom six with at least one piece each if they’re going to contend for another championship, but I suspect they will. The NHL is a better place because of teams like the Avalanche. They’re worth the price of admission.
• We’ll see how the Penguins respond to this one. They played a bad game in New York last week and responded nicely with a win against Toronto.
They’ll have a chance to make amends starting on Thursday in Montreal.
Sullivan seemed displeased with his team in general and was noticeably unhappy with Jarry’s performance. The Penguins are in a better place now than they were a few weeks ago, obviously. But if they’re going to stay on the fringe of the playoff race, they can’t endure a bad stretch against struggling teams. Their next three road games are against Montreal, Ottawa Nashville.
The Penguins have to take advantage, and it starts by playing much better than they did on Tuesday.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
