For most of two periods, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres did their best impersonation of grandpa in the recliner after a full plate and second helpings of turkey.

The snoozer included a 4-3 Penguins shot advantage after 20 minutes, and a blistering 9-4 advantage after 30.

Eventually, the teams broke the seal, and the Penguins quickly responded to Buffalo’s tying goal with Bryan Rust’s tally 31 seconds later, and then Kevin Hayes added the game-winner in the middle of the final period for a 3-2 Penguins win at PPG Paints Arena.

Tristan Jarry was the Penguins’ best player. It could have gone the other way a few times, if not for some game-saving saves.

“I think just over the last couple of games, when they’ve scored, we’ve kind of got on our heels a little bit. So to be able to go out there and get one back right away, that’s huge, I think it does a lot for everyone on the bench. It’s a little bit of relief, and I think we were able to go back to playing the game that we want.”

The more important storyline was the Penguins’ response not only to Buffalo’s renewed attack later in the game, but to their own foibles from last weekend when they faceplanted with only one of four possible points, slipping out of a playoff spot.

Coach Dan Muse challenged his squad after the dominating but futile effort against Seattle Saturday. He repeated, “It’s not good enough,” a few times in those postgame comments.

While he demurred Wednesday when given the chance to assess his team’s overall response, he did pull back the curtain a little bit.

“And by challenging, it’s not just me. After the game, I’m talking about all of us, myself included. I’m never going to come in here and just put it on them. It’s all of us,” said Muse. “I do believe in this. We’re all in this together. And so we did. We had a couple of good days of practice. We knew we needed to find a way to get points. And so I think that’s what you saw.”

The Penguins relatively dominated the second period with near exclusive zone possession for 15 minutes, but far too few scoring chances for their zone time. Buffalo finally countered late in the second period, ripping off eight shots in a compact time, but missed the net badly on several Grade A scoring chances.

“I thought we were actually playing well, and I think for us–I think we passed up a lot of opportunities to shoot,” Bryan Rust said. “I think maybe we held onto pucks a little bit too long trying to make plays, and then we would shoot, and there’d be guys in shooting lanes, or we’d miss the net. Sometimes simple is better.”

Jarry stopped a few great chances at the end of the second, beginning of the third, and late in the third period, too. Jarry stopped 29 of 31 in the sterling performance.

Penguins Analysis

The Penguins are now 3-4-3 in November with games against Columbus and Toronto on deck.

The game was a combination of trepidatious offensive push, as the Penguins especially retreated to the comfort of the perimeter or higher slot too often.

However, the anemic, if not embarrassing, offensive output by Buffalo was in good part due to the Penguins’ fastidious layering in the neutral zone and superior work in the defensive zone.

Until later in the second period, there were scant open Sabres forwards. The Penguins replaced offensive zeal with defensive desire. Buffalo returned the favor, packing the zone so that any intrusion between the dots was met with visions of white sweaters in front of goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen.

Yet don’t entirely credit defensive awareness for the slumbering output. There were a lot of bad passes and spaced, loose play, instead of tight puck support.

Oh, and Buffalo couldn’t hit the net if they were soccer-sized. Don’t worry, Buffalo, Liverpool couldn’t hit the big nets Wednesday, either.

Defensively, a lot of the Penguins did yeoman’s work, but then they were chasing in the latter part of the second period and for big swaths of the third period, always buoyed by Jarry.

“You get caught, you’re tired, but you don’t want it to be two shifts in a row. And so it’s on the next one. Sometimes we just need to get the puck in the offensive zone. You don’t have to go out there and do anything unbelievable, you just need a good shift,” said Muse. “You need to control the play. And then we’re looking at stacking the next shift, and then we want to stack the next shift. And then that happens, momentum starts to swing your way.

“Sometimes it’s a big blocked shot. Sometimes it’s a big save. There are different ways to swing the momentum. You know it’s something we saw there the the first part of the (second) period. You saw it at other points in the game. It went back and forth a little bit.”

Penguins rookie Tristan Broz, who made his NHL debut, got a little lesson seven minutes into the third period when he couldn’t clear the defensive zone or find an outlet from behind the net. He pushed it forward, but Buffalo quickly took possession on the mid-wall, and shortly thereafter, tied the game, 1-1.

“(My game) was alright. I thought in the second period, our line played really well. You know, I would have liked to play a little better in the third,” Broz said. “Obviously, you don’t want to get scored on to tie the game in a third, but I was pretty happy (that) Rusty scored on the next shift and then Hazy scored a couple of shifts later, and the boys found a way to get the win. So that made it a lot easier.”

Penguins Report Card

Team: C?

It was not an ambivalent performance, but it wasn’t a connected, precise effort, either. For the first time, some mild criticism must come toward Penguins coach Dan Muse. The Penguins responded to the challenge, but they’re hampered by their lineup, too.

Fourth line sparkplug Connor Dewar on the top line with Sidney Crosby remains something closer to a hindrance than a benefit. It’s not a coincidence that Crosby has only three points in his last five games and is pointless in three of them.

The third line construction also leaves a bit to be desired, as Tommy Novak and Ville Koivunen have not produced much offense with any center, Ben Kindel, Kevin Hayes, or Tristan Broz.

Tristan Jarry: A+

The crowd was oddly indifferent to a pair of Jarry sparklers early in the third period. The Penguins’ defense suffered a couple of sleepy breakdowns, yielded direct and full-speed access to Jarry, who stopped Alex Tuch and Josh Doan on short breakaways in the first three minutes of the third period.

Jarry also made a few nifty saves late in the second period to preserve the Penguins’ perilous lead, but his best were later in the third, when he stuffed a backdoor tap-in that would have tied the game when Buffalo had the extra attacker.

It was actually a level of maturity to be as sharp as he was after facing maybe five shots in the first 30 or 35 minutes.

“Just following the play (is how I stay focused). I don’t think there’s much more you can do than that, just following it, making sure you’re prepared and ready,” said Jarry. “And I think that’s been a big thing over the years, is that during those quiet times, being prepared for anything, and I think it’s just come.”

Better Performances

Erik Karlsson: He wasn’t on his game for the entirety of 60 minutes, but he made a few Karlsson-type plays just to remind everyone how good he can be. He also made some nice defensive plays.

Kris Letang: Letang showed some real smarts at key moments, protecting the puck on the blue line, launching a rush from the defensive zone, and knowing when to jump forward.

Blake Lizotte: It seemed Lizotte had a good amount of puck possession, both sprinting from the defensive zone and in the dirty areas of the offensive zone. He was one of the better Penguins forwards.

Ryan Shea: He’s so far under the radar that he’s buzzing the tower. He broke up a two-on-one in the second period by cross-checking Jack Quinn. He was feisty in front of the net, too.

Evgeni Malkin: The line was underwater, yielding seven scoring chances to getting just three, but with Broz in the lineup, Muse used Malkin as a defensive weapon.

Go ahead and read that line again. It’s not a misprint. Malkin took three defensive zone draws, three neutral zone draws, and only one offensive draw. Malkin was 3-3 on the dot. Kevin Hayes was 2-0. All things factored, Malkin delivered.

Up and Down

Ryan Graves-Dumba: They were beaten a couple of times, and their net-front battle waned, giving up a goal. They could have been better, but they also made some strong plays, including Dumba’s goal.

Novak-Broz-Koivunen: They had some real zone time and pressure in the second period. They were scrambled in the third.

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