'Tomorrow is a new day': Penguins aim to move past defensively disastrous loss

The Pittsburgh Penguins wrapped their recent road trip by beating a hot Washington Capitals team on Nov. 8, collecting one of their more impressive victories of the year.

Returning home to PPG Paints Arena Monday against Dallas, the Penguins promptly turned in a performance that ranks among the season’s worst, falling 7-1 to the Stars.

Monday’s contest was for all intents and purposes over early, as the Penguins surrendered six first-period goals.

Following the loss, coach Mike Sullivan pushed back when asked if he was frustrated, yet the Penguins’ failure to showcase the winning strategy that so recently got them out of Washington with two points was doubtless disappointing.

“We need to repeat that over and over again,” Sullivan said of his club’s performance against the Capitals. “As I said to the guys, it wasn’t like we did anything extraordinary. We just managed the puck. We stayed on the right side 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 offensive zone that allows teams to transition and gives them easy offense.

“Essentially, at the end of the day, we didn’t beat ourselves. Because what I discussed is how you beat yourself and tonight, we certainly didn’t replicate that.”

Dallas largely ran circles around the Penguins.

It was a particularly brutal evening for the top defensive pairing of Kris Letang and Matt Grzelcyk.

Letang was on the ice for four of the six first-period goals, while Grzelcyk was minus-3 on the night.

“That’s unfortunate the way it went tonight,” said defenseman Ryan Graves. “I think we had the right intention, just a couple bounces early and a couple misplays by us and we really let the game get away from us early, and it was tough to play after that. You’re trying to claw back into it, but it’s tough.”

To Graves’ point, the first two goals allowed by the Penguins were more so shortcomings on the part of starting netminder Joel Blomqvist than how the team played in front of him.

Blomqvist let Dallas’ first shot of the game, a wrister from Matt Duchene, get through him just 2 minutes, 33 seconds into the game.

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— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 12, 2024

The Stars’ next goal came on a Logan Stankoven snap shot at the edge of the left faceoff circle, resulting in a goal under Blomqvist’s right arm from a low-percentage area of the ice.

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— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 12, 2024

When Blomqvist allowed a third goal on Dallas’ eighth shot at 10:16 of the opening period, Sullivan had seen enough, replacing him with Alex Nedeljkovic.

Nedeljkovic allowed a further three goals by the end of the period but went on to make 27 saves on 28 shots in the second and third.

While the Stars’ goal-scoring largely dried up over the final 40 minutes of play, their high-danger chances against did not, as Nedeljkovic was forced to fight off several prime scoring opportunities as a result of sloppy play.

“We’re trying to play (with) structure and sometimes, we just get away from it,” Graves said. “It’s been a work in progress, and when we are above pucks and we’re responsible with our decisions and make plays in the right areas, we’re a good team. We’re hard to play against. Especially as we get away from that, that brings us trouble.”

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— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 12, 2024

Part of being a professional athlete is managing emotions and shaking off bad losses.

With how their season has gone to date, the Penguins are becoming increasingly experienced with having to do both.

Following Monday’s beatdown, the only option is wait for the sun to rise Tuesday and do whatever is necessary to avoid a similar result Wednesday night at home against the Detroit Red Wings.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Nedeljkovic said. “You wake up, move on from it. We’ll watch video. It ain’t going to be fun for anybody. … A loss is a loss. It doesn’t matter if you lose 1-0 or 10-1. It (stinks) obviously. It’s very humbling. It’s a very (cruddy) feeling, but at the end of the day, it’s just one loss. So, it doesn’t mean much more than that.”