Wanna know how bad the Pittsburgh Penguins were Monday night against the Dallas Stars? They allowed Dallas’ hockey team to outscore Dallas’ football team.
Your final score Sunday: Philadelphia Eagles 34 Dallas Cowboys 6.
Your final score Monday: Dallas Stars 7 Pittsburgh Penguins 1.
The Stars showed good sportsmanship and didn’t go for a two-point conversion late in the third period after Wyatt Johnston scored Dallas’ seventh goal of the game. If there was a fourth period to last night’s hockey game, the Stars might have gotten to 34 as the Eagles did.
Conversely, the Penguins could’ve skated until Super Bowl Sunday, and I don’t think they would’ve put up seven goals.
The game was 6-0 Dallas after the first period.
Since the Penguins have been so disappointing all year, the only surprise was that the Zamboni driver didn’t put up a hat trick during the first intermission.
“There is not much to say when it is 6-0,” captain Sidney Crosby said of any message to the players in the locker room after the first period. “You’ve just got to play through it. You can’t quit. You can’t give up. We put ourselves in that position. We have to keep playing and see what happens.”
The Penguins pulled starting goalie Joel Blomqvist after the first three goals in the first period. Then Alex Nedeljkovic came in and allowed three more before the first period expired.
“A loss is a loss,” Nedeljkovic said. “It doesn’t matter if you lose 1-0 or 10-1. It (stinks). It’s humbling. It’s a crappy feeling. But at the end of the day, it’s one loss.”
Is it? Is it, really?
I mean, I get Nedeljkovic’s greater point. I appreciate his message. It’s just one more “L” in the standings. Pull yourself up. Dust yourself off. Look at yourself in the mirror, and move on.
Understood.
But is losing a game 7-1 at home really the same as losing 1-0 from an emotional standpoint? From a confidence standpoint? From a fan engagement standpoint? From a personnel planning standpoint?
Nah, I don’t think so. I think taking a loss by way of allowing a half dozen in the first 20 minutes is worse than dropping a game 1-0.
“The game in Washington (Friday night), the third period, might have been one of the best periods that we played all year,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We need to repeat that over and over again. It wasn’t like we did anything extraordinary. We managed the puck. We stayed on the right of people. We stayed on the right side of the attack. We had numbers back. We didn’t make high-risk plays in the top half of the zone.”
That’s what seemed to upset Sullivan the most. It’s the fact that the Penguins did so much right during that 4-2 win over Washington on Friday night and then just chose to ignore everything good that they did a few days later and played as poorly as they did against Dallas on Monday.
“I’m not going to say ‘I’m frustrated,’ because I’m not. I’m determined,” Sullivan said. “I’m determined to move this team forward in the right direction more consistently. I know we are a way better hockey team than what we displayed out there today. I know we have a group of guys that care. None of us feel good about this. We’re trying to get better every day.”
Sullivan may not admit to being frustrated, but Crosby is.
“I don’t think this game has been a sign of how we have played lately,” Crosby said. “It’s frustrating. You look at wins and losses (6-9-2); we aren’t where we want to be (seventh place in the Metropolitan Division). I think leading up to this, we were doing a lot of good things.”
If Crosby is frustrated now, imagine what he may be thinking if the Penguins don’t get their act together over the next few games. For as bad as the Penguins are (just 14 points in 17 games), their next four games are against the Red Wings, Blue Jackets, Sharks and Lightning. None of those teams have more than 15 points.
If the Penguins don’t get themselves right during this stretch, let’s circle back and see if Sullivan is still more determined than frustrated.
And let’s see if the Red Wings and Lightning are outscoring the Lions and Buccaneers when they visit Pittsburgh.
