PITTSBURGH — Penguins winger Drew O’Connor found the puck on his stick and nothing but an open net staring back on Thursday … or so it seemed.
As the 23-year-old old whacked at the bouncing biscuit, Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom sprawled out to, somehow, get his paddle on the puck. It’s a good thing ESPN now has the NHL’s media rights deal, because it was a SportsCenter Top 10 play if there ever was one.
It was also emblematic of the Penguins' 4-0 loss to the Flames.
Though Calgary has been a structured defensive team this season, the Penguins racked up 45 shots and plenty of high-quality scoring chances. However, they were unable to crack Markstrom.
Meanwhile, Johnny Gaudreau provided the early offense for the Flames with a first-period breakaway and Calgary cracked the game open with three third-period goals.
The Penguins (3-2-2, eight points) had not lost in regulation until this week. They’ve now dropped back-to-back games in regulation.
Coming into this season, the Penguins were missing considerable firepower from their star-studded arsenal. Sidney Crosby (left wrist) and Evegni Malkin (right knee) were still working back from offseason surgeries. By the time Thursday rolled around, Kris Letang (COVID-19), Jeff Carter (COVID-19) and Bryan Rust (lower body) were also sidelined.
Those five could form a pretty potent power play. Instead, they were all absent.
Somehow, despite all these notable injuries and illnesses, the Penguins entered Thursday as the NHL’s sixth-highest scoring team, netting 4.0 goals per game. To this point, they had relied mostly on their depth players, especially in a bottom-six that features young, unproven players like O’Connor, veteran castoffs like Brian Boyle and Dominik Simon and bargain-bin offseason additions.
While these role players performed admirably, the recent losses are a good reminder that the Penguins' ceiling is directly tied to its core and its ability to create game-breaking players.
Before the game, coach Mike Sullivan highlighted the Calgary top line as a “dangerous” offensive force.
As they often do, the Penguins deployed Teddy Blueger and his wingers against the opponent’s top line, which in this case featured Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk. While the Penguins’ shut-down line mostly did its job, a defenseman’s gamble undid it.
With 12:36 left in the first period, John Marino made a split-second gamble to jump off the blue line to play a loose puck. Instead, Gaudreau beat the Penguins’ third-year defenseman to the puck, chipped it past him with a quick stick and then raced ahead in transition. The speedy 5-9, 165-pound Gaudreau beat Marino down the ice and then ripped a shot over Casey DeSmith’s glove hand.
The Penguins were presented with a prime opportunity later in the first period. With Calgary’s Blake Coleman already in the box, former Penguin defenseman Erik Gudbranson whacked Jason Zucker with a high stick, drawing blood and a four-minute double minor.
The Penguins were subsequently gifted 1:41 of 5-on-3 time, followed by 2:19 of the more-conventional 5-on-4. O’Connor set up Jason Zucker for a Grade-A chance from the slot. Later, Jake Guentzel had a prime chance of his own.
But Markstrom was on his game.
The Flames extended their lead to 2-0 just 1:04 into the second period. Calgary won a faceoff and slid the puck over to offseason addition Blake Coleman. He ripped a shot through traffic that beat DeSmith.
That 2-0 deficit would have been a tough mountain to climb, given how well Markstrom had played and how much star power was missing from the Penguins' roster. Then, Dillon Dube and Milan Lucic scored to extend the lead to 4-0 midway through the third and effectively put the game away for good.
DeSmith, the Penguins' backup goalie, started in net Thursday, marking just his second outing of the season and first since Oct. 14. He was solid through the first two periods, allowing just one goal on 22 shots. However, he wasn’t nearly as sharp in the final 20, especially on the fourth goal of the game when Lucic’s shot hit the netminder’s paddle and squirted into the net.
The Penguins will be back in action again on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena as an extended homestand rolls on. Puck drops against the New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m.
