CHICAGO – If the Penguins are ever looking to bust out of a slump, this is not the building to visit. They’d have better odds of leaving a root canal happy.
Entering Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center, the Penguins had lost seven straight games in Chicago. Their last victory here came all the way back in 2009, just five weeks after President Barack Obama began his first term. A few months later, they would claim their third Stanley Cup.
The Penguins in that Feb. 27, 2009 win at United Center got goals from Chris Kunitz, Miroslav Satan, Jordan Staal and Max Talbot. Evgeni Malkin scored the winner in overtime. And Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 41 shots in that 5-4 victory.
Since then, the Penguins have found myriad ways to lose in this building.
This time around, they gave up two goals in a sloppy second period. Even without Sidney Crosby and Malkin in their lineup, they had enough firepower in Jeff Carter and Jake Guentzel to blast their way back into the game during the third. The game would go into a shootout, which the Blackhawks won by a 2-0 margin.
The Penguins have now dropped five of their last six, earning just four of a possible 12 standings points. They remain in the Metropolitan Division basement.
If this game had been played at a neutral site and not United Center, you probably would have liked Pittsburgh’s chances, even with their depleted lineup.
Since these teams met three weeks ago, the Blackhawks were punished for their 2010 sexual abuse scandal, general manager Stan Bowman resigned in disgrace, the current club saw its season-opening losing streak stretch to nine games before snapping it and head coach Jeremy Colliton was fired this weekend.
Fleury had been getting shelled. Entering Tuesday, his 4.11 goals-against average and .881 save percentage were both last among the 34 goalie who had played in at least six games. He recently admitted, “It’s been tough to keep smiling.”
The Blackhawks went back to Fleury on Tuesday even though the Penguins chased him from the first period of a Pittsburgh win Oct. 16 at PPG Paints Arena.
Fleury made 11 saves, most of them relatively easy, during the first period to keep the game scoreless. The Blackhawks grabbed a 2-0 lead during the second.
Jonathan Toews sent a back-door pass through Penguins blue-liner Mark Friedman to set up Jujhar Khaira for the game’s first goal, 2:14 into second period.
The Blackhawks continued to get the better of the chances in that period, especially with the Penguins making a few suboptimal decisions at the blue lines. Then Seth Jones walked in from the right point to fire a perfect shot into the upper left corner. Tristan Jarry appeared to be screened on the goal that made it 2-0.
The Penguins got back into it in the third period when Carter buried his first goal since Oct. 14. Guentzel set up his center with a genius cross-ice pass.
Carter got the tying goal with 4:17 left in regulation. After Tristan Jarry stuffed Mike Hardman on a breakaway at one end, the Penguins went the other way in a hurry. Guentzel got it to Carter, who slid the puck under Fleury’s stacked pads.
Bryan Rust had a glorious chance just before the end of the third. But his would-be buzzer-beater fluttered over the crossbar with less than a second left.
In overtime, Patrick Kane drilled the left post on a 2-on-0 rush after Kris Letang got caught up the ice. And then he just missed the net at the end of overtime.
Toews and Alex DeBrincat scored for the Blackhawks in the shootout.
Given their scoring woes, with the Penguins getting two goals or fewer in regulation in six of their last eight games, Tuesday would have been an excellent time for their power play to come through. That unit went 0-for-3. Their nearest miss came in the third period when Kasperi Kapanen cranked his shot off the post.
And so they sulked out of United Center with their eighth straight loss there.
The last time the Penguins had played in Chicago was back on Dec. 12, 2018. In that loss, Rust emerged from a long scoring slump with a hat trick but they still got doubled up, 6-3, by a Blackhawks team that had the NHL’s worst record.
They were scheduled to visit late in 2019-20 but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NHL to cancel the regular season. Last season was intradivision play only.
Fortunately, the Penguins won’t have to return to Chicago until next season.
The Penguins return home to host the Florida Panthers on Thursday. After that are back-to-back games in Ottawa and Washington this upcoming weekend.
