PITTSBURGH _ It's probably not time to push the panic button yet.
The hope for a three-peat is still very much alive.
What the Penguins did wrong during a 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues in their home-opener at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday was not attribute in any way to a poor effort.
It involved a lack of execution and attention to detail, the kind of stuff that's easily correctable and tends to show up at this time of the year _ yes, even for teams as deep and talented as the Penguins.
This one involved a Penguins comeback from a 4-2 deficit in the third period, but the rally was killed when St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored his second goal of the game at 1:15 of overtime.
"I think we played hard," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I didn't think we always played smart."
That sort of stuff manifested itself in the Penguins over-backchecking and not properly accounting for players joining the rush; three of the Blues' goals came that way.
Such mistakes, again, are fairly easy to fix with a smart coach and some want-to, neither of which is a problem here.
In fact, Sullivan and his players were already looking forward to Thursday morning's video session to dissect each and every one of those foul-ups.
"We didn't recognize where the threats were," Sullivan said. "As a result, we were in the wrong position. We have to do a better job at those details and making sure that we shoulder check, we have an awareness away from the puck, and we recognize where those threats are."
Brayden Schenn got the Blues first goal. Went off his skate. Held up to review. Ho-hum. It happens.
The next belonged to Colton Parayko, and Sullivan described it as a "grave breakdown." Rugby scrum in the corner. Tage Thompson tapped the puck to Parayko. All alone, boom, goal.
"We gave up a glorious scoring chance," Sullivan said.
But for much of the night, the Penguins' penalty killers _ a new group _ actually looked pretty decent, using their speed and employing a six-deep rotation.
Another positive to come out of this one was the return of Kris Letang from a seventh-month absence. Put simply, he looked incredible, his skating all the way back; it looked like he missed seven days max.
Two defensemen scored for the Penguins _ Justin Schultz and Olli Maatta _ which was another nice luxury to have, and the power play jumped to life when the Penguins needed it the most: chasing a 4-2 deficit.
Sidney Crosby got that goal, and Conor Sheary added one less than a minute later, the rally in full force.
The last positive to pluck was the play of Greg McKegg, the surprise opening-night third-line center. McKegg hardly looked intimidated by the big stage. He recorded an assist and nearly had another on a neat dish to Phil Kessel.
Take all of those things, figure the Penguins got a point out of this, and there's really not a huge reason to get upset.
As long as these mistakes get corrected.
"It wasn't perfect, for sure," Letang said. "It was the first one of the year. I think the effort was there. I thought we showed if we can play the right way we can come back in games. We had a good start, a good third. I think the attention to detail could be better, but that's it."
Some of that lack of detail came on Pietrangelo's first goal of the game, when he cut into the slot, around Brian Dumoulin and took advantage of the Penguins' poor pursuit.
"We have to tighten up a little bit defensively, with a few plays through the neutral zone and at the blue lines," Bryan Rust said.
The best example of what ailed the Penguins might've been evident on Paul Stastny's goal at 3:38 of the third period, giving the Blues a 4-2 lead.
Stastny was the late man, the thing that killed the Penguins the most.
Vladimir Sobotka showed an incredible amount of patience before finding Stastny. The Penguins never properly accounted for Stastny in their coverage.
Are they capable of doing that? Absolutely.
Will they? Probably.
But they didn't Wednesday.
"Yeah, they were finding that late man all night," Matt Murray said. "It gave us a lot of trouble, so that's something we have to look at."
The Penguins will look at the video and find plenty to correct. Not getting a shot on the first four power plays would be one. Also allowing Pietrangelo to shoot through yet another screen on the game-winner.
But this is Game 1, and mistakes are going to happen. Nothing to get too worked up over.
"I do think the effort was there," Sullivan said. "I thought our guys had energy. We had a great start. We had good momentum. There was tons of energy in the building. It was an exciting atmosphere. I just thought we have to get a lot better at the details of the game."
