After the Penguins’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken Thursday night, head coach Mike Sullivan said everything that needed to be said about the third-period sequence that led to the game-tying goal.

Well, almost everything.

There were roughly four minutes left when Evgeni Malkin tried a drop pass to Kris Letang in the Kraken offensive end (5:24 mark of this NHL.com video). It didn’t connect and a breakaway ensued for noted Penguin-killer Jordan Eberle.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry came up big with an excellent save. But on the ensuing faceoff, Jeff Carter was beaten. Then he lost Jared McCann who ended up scoring the equalizer.

revenge goal courtesy of canner! pic.twitter.com/BUNbPCPhbV

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 28, 2022

Malkin was on the ice again in the 3-on-3 overtime when Adam Larsson scored the game-winner.

OH HOW SWEDE IT IS! ???????? pic.twitter.com/sZ6M3LteXQ

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 28, 2022

The Penguins were outshot 18-4 in the third period. But the puck management that led to many of those chances is was what seemed to irk Sullivan the most after the game. I asked him specifically about the turnover that led to the Eberle breakaway.

“We’ve got to manage the puck better. We can’t feed our opponents’ transition game,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to take care of the puck. It’s an important aspect of winning. This is a conversation that we’ve had with our team for a little while now. We are very capable. We have had our moments when we do manage the puck and we are very difficult to play against.”

And for two periods, the Penguins were difficult to play against, but after Malkin gave the Penguins the lead in the third period with the team’s lone goal of the game, he gave the Kraken an easy chance to score. And, eventually, they did capitalize on the possession gained via the breakaway.

“For me, it is the easiest way to beat yourself when you don’t manage the puck and give your opponents easy opportunities where they don’t have to work for them,” Sullivan said. “That’s a lesson we have to learn.”

But Malkin didn’t learn it. That turnover was the second of two such puck management mistakes in the third period. Another was a cross-ice feed he was trying to make with 13 minutes left that was intercepted and resulted in another glorious chance for Seattle (at the 4:12 mark of the same link).

“We’ve got to find the sweet spot of playmaking because we want to be a team that makes plays. But sometimes plays aren’t there to be made,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to find different ways to create offense. In the third period, we didn’t do a good enough job as a team. We have to be better.”

In general, yes. All true. And that was all an accurate summation of why the Penguins’ win streak was halted at six games. By a last-place expansion team. With just 32 points.

The one thing that wasn’t said — directly — is that Malkin can’t make that play. Not in that situation. Not with a 1-0 lead late in the third. That’s not a pass you make unless you have more space on the ice and you are 100% sure it is going to connect.

“That was one instance. But there were a number of them,” Sullivan said of Malkin’s mistake.

Sure. There were. But that was the most costly one. And if Sullivan doesn’t want to air out a veteran of Malkin’s standing in the media, and just speak in broad strokes, that’s his prerogative.

He didn’t rip Carter by name for losing the faceoff — and eventually McCann — either.

But behind closed doors, it needs to be communicated to Malkin that such play can’t happen. This might just be one lost point in January to Seattle. But what if it’s a 2-1 loss in the playoffs? Because Malkin and the rest of this team aren’t immune from such mistakes in the postseason.

It’s part of the reason why the club hasn’t had a playoff-round victory since 2018.

Sullivan knows it, too. He didn’t say it to us. Let’s hope he said to Malkin.

And let’s hope Malkin takes it to heart. Eventually.

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