Penguins/Senators Recap: Sens send sluggish Pens to seventh straight setback

Pregame

The Penguins go back to the Mantha-Brazeau partnership that was working well earlier in the season for their small shakeup of the lines from last game. Arturs Silovs is in net.

The home Senators have the following lineup.

First period

It’s an auspicious start for the Penguins, Tim Stutzle uses speed to fly around Kris Letang and cuts to the net. Silovs makes the save but a penalty is called. Kinda looked like in a quick play like that the refs are used to someone hacking the attacking player but there wasn’t much there. Silovs is assessed the minor, guess he’s supposed to just stand there and let Stutzle score!

Ottawa scores soon after on the power play, they out-number the Pens down by the net and a couple nice passes finds Brady Tkachuk in front and the big man tucks it home. 1-0.

Danton Heinen has two really good scoring chances, the first hits the cross-bar on a good but not quite good enough shot. Later, a rebound bounces out to him all the way on the far end of the right circle. The shot had a long way to travel, so too did goalie Linus Ullmark to move to get there. The puck hit underneath Ullmark’s arm and fell into his jersey. Both instances so close.

Brazeau draws Pittsburgh’s first power play when he gets held up on the rush at the tail end of the period. Rickard Rakell gets a couple of shots from a good area in the slot but without a lot of heat or elevation on them. Brazeau then nearly hits on a wraparound but it doesn’t work.

Ottawa carries a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Second period

Briefly, it’s a good start for Pittsburgh. Their first line gets a tone of zone time and controls the puck. Almost immediately when they go off, Ottawa scores. The puck hits off David Perron’s skate and goes in. 2-0.

A fortuitous bounce puts the puck on Claude Giroux’s stick and he quickly swings around and beats Silovs low. 3-0 now, the Pens are dazed and reeling.

Crosby draws a penalty but the power play is no better. Ottawa gets the better scoring chances with a 2-on-1 rush and then a clean breakaway for Stutzle at the end.

Kris Letang puts the puck in the net but the refs immediately waive it off for Rakell’s role in contacting the goalie. The Pens disagree and challenge it, but the officials take another look and don’t change their minds. Pittsburgh penalized as a result. Fortunately they bail their coaches out by killing it.

Shots in the second period are 12-4. TWELVE TO FOUR! It’s not going well in Ottawa for the Penguins.

Third period

Third trots along, Crosby gets the puck all alone in front of the net, he goes to the backhand and can’t elevate the puck very much. Just that kind of night.

Pittsburgh pulls the goalie with over 6 minutes to go, before Silovs can even get to the bench Ottawa has the puck and Tkachuk scores his second of the night to make it 4-0. Probably not a good sign to call the goalie off the ice by then.

That’s the end of that.

Some thoughts

• Ottawa is a team that has given the Pens fits over the years (the Sens are 8-1-1 since the start of 2022-23 season against Pittsburgh, 7-0-1 since the start of 2023-24) averaging almost 4 goals per game. Something about their speed, aggressive forecheck and personnel has long been a tough matchup. It was much the same in the early going, whether it was the Pens’ third pair or Letang or forwards, Pittsburgh was way on their heels and unable to start basic breakouts before the pressure broke them down repeatedly. Ugly stuff.
• That first penalty call still baffles me. Letang gave Stutzle a bump as he zoomed by, nothing to the level of a rule infraction. Silovs makes the save in his crease the whole time and somehow he picks up the penalty when Stutzle spills over from attacking the blue paint.
• Nice to see Heinen come to life and shoot the puck to generate some scoring chances for himself. He scored a pure garbage time goal last game against Edmonton with only a few seconds left for his first goal of the season, but you can’t say that’s meaningless when it helps the confidence and makes him more visible like that. In his case it’s better to see some near misses than his first 10 games where he was invisible.
• The video team should have talked Muse out of yet another failed goalie interference challenge (or he should have listened had they tried). This isn’t the first desperation replay they’ve gone for, the heart is in the right place but the evidence just wasn’t there in the instance where Rakell skated into the blue paint and there was goalie contact. On one hand, never a bad idea to throw up the prayer that maybe the refs will see it your way but the chances of that incident getting reversed given the call on the ice was always going to be very remote.
• The wild and maddening usage of the fourth line continues. They took the second shift of the second period, Acciari got shrugged off by Batherson, Dewar swung around too late, Heinen couldn’t stop the centering shot/pass. Why are those guys out there against scoring line opponents so often? Muse leans on them in ways that don’t always pay off.
• Of course, looking back Acciari took the second shift of the first and third periods too, so it’s more of Muse trying to galaxy brain a poor strategy. It’s called the fourth line for a reason, coach, they’re not supposed to be used that early.
• Add in the decision to call for Silovs to leave the ice when the team didn’t have control of the puck in the zone and it was a tough night behind the bench. Worse than that even to dare say it didn’t look like top-level pro coaching.
• The Pens are just off right now, losing puck battles, slow to the play, disjointed. When’s the last time you saw Crosby start the game 2 for 8 in faceoffs? Add in two shot attempts that missed the net and two giveaways and it was a rocky first half of the game for the team’s captain, in addition to everyone else.
• Letang got zoomed by Stutzle early, that one I’ll even excuse due to Stutzle being the wide and third player in. However, in the second Letang was right there with the also ancient Claude Giroux and he..just couldn’t pivot and turn with power and let Giroux go right on by. The mental mistakes or simple misplays of the puck are one thing, and nothing new for Letang’s high risk style. The outright lack of skating ability is something different and way more worrisome. Especially for this player whose physical skills have been his calling card for two decades in the NHL. Given his age, injury history and miles on the proverbial engine, naturally Letang has been in decline for a while now. He is 38 years old. A play like this was a stark and troubling example of what’s likely to become the norm. Not sure how or if there’s a fix for that either, can’t fight those hands of time forever.
• New holiday hit song of the season: All I want for Christmas is a healthy Evgeni Malkin. Pittsburgh still winless since he left the lineup now at an 0-3-4 stretch.
• Were these guys out drinking 10+ Molson Canadians with their dads last night? Might explain the energy level as a result. Something tells me that’s not the reason though..

The Pens don’t look like they have much in the way of answers now but they have a few more to go before Christmas break. One more chance on the road to salvage the dad’s trip on Saturday in Montreal.

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