Returns of Sidney Crosby, Brian Dumoulin, Mike Sullivan can't help Pens in loss to Capitals

Like most people with a rooting interest in the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Sullivan was not entirely pleased with the squad’s play of late.

After all, the Penguins had lost six of their previous eight games before Sunday.

The team’s coach viewed the previous five of those contests as a spectator from the confines of his home as he was in the NHL’s protocol for covid-19 after he tested positive for the virus Nov. 4.

As a result, he was resigned to watching on television, albeit while regularly communicating with assistant coaches via video conference during intermissions.

“There might have been a few expletives,” Sullivan told media in Washington when asked about his viewing habits. “The hardest part of not being (directly) a part of it is you just don’t have a whole lot of control when you’re in your living room. That’s the worst feeling of all.”

Sullivan might have used additional verbiage not found in the King’s English on Sunday as he watched — from the bench, this time — his team get routed by the rival Washington Capitals, 6-1, at Capital One Arena in Washington. It was their largest margin of defeat this season.

This setback occurred despite the return of Sullivan as well forward Sidney Crosby and defenseman Brian Dumoulin following lengthy respites after testing positive for the virus.

Crosby and Dumoulin did not have particularly strong returns. Crosby’s lone contribution to the scoresheet was a cross-checking penalty in the third period, and Dumoulin had two turnovers that led to Capitals goals.

Dumoulin was blunt in auditing his performance.

“No matter what, if I’m in the lineup, I feel like I’ve got to play better,” Dumoulin said. “Just got to be better.”

Sullivan tried to keep things in perspective when asked about Crosby, who missed the first seven games of the season following offseason surgery to his left wrist before being sidelined five contests because of covid-19.

“It’s his second game in five months, six months,” Sullivan said. “We have to understand where he’s at. He’s coming off a difficult 10 days that he just went through. I thought he played hard (Sunday) under real challenging circumstances. There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll get better and better as each day goes by here in each game that he plays.”

Seemingly, the Penguins only can get better after Sunday’s lopsided setback.

Capitals rookie defenseman Martin Fehervary opened things up with his second score of the season 4 minutes, 25 seconds into regulation with a short-handed goal. That was followed by Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway scoring his third goal at the 14:05 of the first period.

Penguins forward Jake Guentzel accounted for his team’s only offense late in the first period, collecting his fourth goal at the 18:40 mark.

Second-period goals by ex-Penguins forwards Daniel Sprong (his third at 16:11) and Conor Sheary (his third at 18:36) put their current employer up 4-1.

In the third, Capitals forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov (his sixth at 4:43) and Tom Wilson (his fourth on a power play at 9:36) capped the scoring.

Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry was under duress most of the game as he allowed six goals on 32 shots and his record fell to 5-3-3.

Sunday’s defeat came roughly 24 hours after another ugly defeat in another capital, a 6-3 road loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

With nine of their next 12 games on the road, the Penguins realize they need to start playing better, regardless of who’s healthy enough to be in their lineup.

“You never want to lose back to back like that, in that fashion,” Guentzel said. “Definitely doesn’t feel good. … Hopefully, we can move on from these two (games). … We’ve got to stop the bleeding here. For us, we’ve just got to get back on track and get ready for the next game.”