Penguins fall to Devils in overtime at home

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in dire need of two things.

Rest and goals.

They’ll get the former as they enjoy a rare two-day respite Monday and Tuesday after they forged through an industrial metal shredder of a week in which they played five games in seven days.

As for the latter, that’s anyone’s guess, particularly as the Penguins struggled to maintain any consistent offensive pressure Sunday during a 2-1 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils at PPG Paints Arena.

The realities of the pandemic-condensed schedule appear to have caught up with the Penguins, at least with regards to their forward ranks.

Over the past week, they have lost their “other” franchise center, Evgeni Malkin, third-line center, Teddy Blueger, and his left winger, Brandon Tanev, to maladies. The lone counterbalance to that has been the return of versatile forward Jared McCann on Saturday after a five-game absence because of injury.

Regardless, they have dropped three of their past four games and have averaged a meek 1.75 goals during that span and allowing an average of two.

In short, the Penguins look exactly like a team that could use an off day Monday and a light practice Tuesday.

“It (a two-day break) has come at an opportune time,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “We just went through a stretch where we’ve played an awful lot of games. They’re going to get almost a day and a half here of just getting away from it. (We’ll) try to give them an opportunity to recover physically but also just mentally. To get away from it sometimes … and re-energize and recharge the batteries, I think it’s a critical aspect of the recovery process. We’ll get away from it here for a day and a half or so.

“This next day is important just from a recovery standpoint.”

If there’s any reason for optimism, it’s that they haven’t been shy in putting the puck on net. They’ve averaged a potent 35.5 shots over the past four contests.

But it’s one thing when an all-time great such as Malkin is shooting. It’s another when reserve forward Sam Lafferty is.

“I just think it comes down to finishing,” forward Sidney Crosby said. “We generated some good chances. … We had some pretty good looks. The habits and everything we work on throughout the year, they’ve always got to be there. But I think it just comes down to execution and finishing. The good thing is the looks are there, we’ve just got to bury them.”

Crosby buried the Penguins’ lone goal Sunday, albeit through slightly unconventional means, 3 minutes, 37 seconds into regulation.

From the high slot of the offensive zone, Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin dished a forehand pass to forward Bryan Rust in the left circle. From there, Rust fed it along to forward Jake Guentzel on the near wall. Guentzel was able to sneak a cross-ice pass to Crosby low on the right wing. Leaning on his left knee, Crosby shuffled a shot into the crease that got past goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood’s left skate then banked off his right skate and into the cage for Crosby’s 12th goal of the season.

The Devils tied the score 4:48 into the second period. After Devils forward Travis Zajac won a puck battle on the end boards of the offensive zone against Penguins defenseman John Marino and Crosby, he backhanded a pass to the right circle for forward Janne Kuokkanen. Surveying the zone for a moment, Kuokkanen fed a soft pass to the center point for defenseman Sami Vatanen, who teed up a one-timer that sailed past an inadvertent screen by Rust and over goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove for his second goal.

In overtime, during a three-on-three sequence, Devils forward Jesper Bratt swooped behind the Penguins net, emerged to the right of the cage and tucked a forehand wraparound shot past Jarry’s left skate for his second goal at the 2:50 mark.

The Penguins offered an admirable effort Sunday. But the blunt realities of their limited lineup were very apparent.

“Obviously, we have a couple of great players out of the lineup,” said Jarry, who made 33 saves on 35 shots. “It’s just getting guys to step up. I think they’ve done a great job. I think the goals will come. We’ve got to keep going.”

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