It should have been a storybook night for Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ben Kindel.
In his most recent game, at Utah, it ended with him being robbed on a last-second shot that would have tied the game and sent it to overtime. Then he had a medical episode that resulted in him spending what were almost certainly a couple of stressful days in a Utah hospital, then missing two games in a row.
He returned on Thursday night, against Utah, and helped jumpstart a sluggish Penguins offense with a goal and an assist.
The goal, with 20 seconds to play in regulation, should have been the game-winner.
It seemed almost impossible to believe that they could give up a tying goal, with a neutral zone face-off, and only 20 seconds to play.
But these are the Penguins, and surrendering baffling, unacceptable goals in the closing seconds is kind of their thing. And then they did. And then they could not control the puck in overtime, taking part in a four-minute comedy of errors that eventually ended with Mikhail Sergachev’s game-winning goal.
It was a point against a contender, but it should have been more.
There are a few things that should be incredibly frustrating about that result for the Penguins.
The obvious is, well, that it happened.
The second is that it was an opportunity for them to do something they have not done anywhere enough of this season and actually won a game in regulation. They have now played 13 games, and even though they have five wins, only two of them have come in regulation. That was a chance to secure a regulation win, against one of the better teams in the league, and they squandered it. There are only four other teams in the league that don’t have at least three regulation wins at this point: San Jose, Columbus, Los Angeles and Vancouver. It’s not the type of company you want to be keeping.
The third is that it is a continuation of their inability to close out games. It is already the third time this season they have allowed a team to tie a game in the final minute, with the other two coming against the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens. They were able to salvage the first two with wins in overtime/shootout, but could not do the same Thursday.
It’s a rough look for everybody involved that it keeps happening this frequently.
But it is an especially rough look for the coaching staff, especially given some of the deployment decisions.
In all three instances it was the fourth line on the ice, but with Sidney Crosby inserted in on the first two occasions (yesterday Lizotte maintained his spot). Declan Carlile has been on the ice for two of them.
What makes Thursday’s so baffling is that they could have, in theory, put any player and defense pairing on the ice that they wanted. Utah argued the go-ahead goal for more than a minute. There was a delay while the play was reviewed. Then Utah called a timeout. Everybody was rested. Everybody was fresh. The entire bench was at your disposal. Muse responded by sending out a defense pairing of Carlile and Kaedan Korczak, a pairing that had only played two minutes together on Thursday. And then Carlile committed about every possible mistake imaginable in trying to secure the lead. When the puck was pinned against the wall, he dug it free. He lost his man. He then let his man have a free whack at the puck in front of the crease.
At that point, just tackle him. Who cares if you commit a penalty. There are three seconds left.
Leave the puck pinned against the wall.
Do anything other than what you did.
A few other quick Penguins thoughts….
1. If we get to game 20 and Crosby still looks like this, you have to start having a discussion about where his season is going to go, and by extension, where the Penguins season is going to go. He has seven points in 13 games. The only other time in his career that he’s had less than 11 points through 13 games was the start of the second Mike Johnston year, and we all know how bad that was (for everybody, not just Crosby). He’s had some slow starts in recent years, but never this slow, and honestly, never this bad. And that’s not an inappropriate word to use. He’s been bad. Something just looks … wrong. His line is consistently one of their worst ones every night, and it has been getting buried defensively more than any other. We are far enough into the season that you should be paying attention to it. Maybe not fully worried. But certainly paying attention. They are getting solid play from every other line at times. Maybe not as consistently as you would like in some cases, but a lot of solid play. They are not getting anything from his line. Certainly not enough. You can make the argument that he would have a few more assists if Rickard Rakell had some better finishing early on, and that’s certainly true, but the lack of chances from him and just how pedestrian he looks are eye-opening.
2. I am trying to be generous with Andrei Kuzmenko given, *gestures hands* what he went through before the season */gesture hands*, but it’s not working right now. If there’s somebody that is going to come out for a healthy Elmer Soderblom, or to get an Avery Hayes or Rutger McGroarty back in the lineup, or Justin Brazeau when he returns, that is pretty obviously the guy at this point.
3. I think you have to sit Carlile for a game or two. I liked the signing and the mindset behind it. I liked the gamble. I am certainly not giving up on it. But right now he is struggling a bit and I don’t love some of the decision-making. The end of Thursday’s game was shocking.
4. I am not overly concerned about the lack of playing time for Sergei Murashov at this point. He needs to play. He will play. I don’t think it’s damaging his development to sit for a bit here while Arturs Silovs played well. Especially given the way his past two starts went. Sometimes a reset and a chance to watch is helpful.
