Pregame

The illness around the Penguins takes out even their play-by-play guy tonight as Josh Getzoff joins Blake Lizotte in the sick bay. Bryan Rust is back from injury and Alex Nedeljkovic is back in the cage.

First period

Hot start for the Pens, but they can’t score. They hit two posts in the first period, including one by Kevin Hayes where Drew O’Connor got dumped going to the net. That earned a power play but Pittsburgh couldn’t score.

San Jose stabilizes for the rest of the period, get Hayes to go to the box for a power play of their own but don’t get a goal.

Shots are 10-9 Pens, Natural Stat Trick has 5v5 scoring chances at 12-5 Pittsburgh which feels more indicative of the play on the ice. None of those chances are in the net though.

Second period

Pittsburgh starts the period with some carryover power play time and fumble it away.

The Sharks play well and carry most of the proceedings through the middle part of the period. Nedeljkovic makes a few saves during a scramble and keeps the puck out of the net.

You could feel the first goal of the game coming for the Sharks and they get it. Hayes wins a faceoff cleanly to Ryan Shea, who stumbles, panics without being pressured and weakly throws the puck directly to a San Jose player. One quick pass later and it’s former Penguin Mikael Granlund sniping his 15th goal of the season with a great shot that beats Nedeljkovic. 1-0 SJ.

The Pens get another power play but the most notable thing that happens is Pittsburgh giving up a 2-on-1 rush against.

Rest of the period is a snore, and not just because of the late night. Shots are 13-6 SJ in the second, Pens showing negative energy.

Third period

First shift of the period, Sidney Crosby steps up. Old friend Cody Ceci did well to knock the puck away from an on-rushing Bryan Rust, but Crosby was right there to smack at the puck from a bad angle on his backhand and it slipped in. 1-1 game.

Being the Penguins, they give up a response goal soon after. Marcus Pettersson coughs it up this time from behind the net and the puck ends up on the stick of Macklin Celebrini. He buries it. 2-1.

Rust takes a penalty for goalie interference, only thing that happens of note is Drew O’Connor earns a penalty shot while shorthanded. O’Connor comes down slow, Askarov catches with the right hand and O’Connor leaned that way the whole time, goalie made the save. Good chance to tie it goes by the wayside.

The Pens try not to go quietly into the night, Michael Bunting wheels around the offensive zone, throws a puck to the net. It hits off Granlund and bounces into the net. San Jose challenges immediately. Anthony Beauvillier drove into the crease and his leg hooked into Askarov. A quick replay reverses the goal with 5:14 to play. Remains 2-1 SJ.

Cody Glass barely touches a guy with 2:37 to go and takes a penalty. That won’t help the comeback charge. The Pens get a makeup call 32 seconds later when they push the issue. 4v4 hockey but Pittsburgh has pulled Nedeljkovic for a 5v4 edge in skaters.

The Sharks ice the puck with 52 seconds to go, Pittsburgh burns their timeout to give the top players a rest and regroup.

Glass’s penalty ends and the Pens have a 6v4 edge, but they can’t find a goal before the final buzzer.

Some thoughts

Naturally the two worst teams in goal suppression see one combined goal in 40 minutes, three goals total. Gotta love the unpredictability of NHL hockey.
Don’t have to love the Penguins in that second period. A season contains 82 games and 246 total periods and this one might not have been the absolute worst one, but it’s sad enough that it belongs in the conversation somewhere as one of the most brutal to witness. Pittsburgh was only out-scored 1-0 in it but managed 5 total shots (4 coming at 5v5) against a team that averages 32.5 shots against per game? The building (which was half full at best on an announced crowd of 11,625) had the energy levels appropriate for funeral parlor. Woof. If you went to sleep early, you made a good choice.
Is it time to fire Ryan Shea into the sun yet? He brings nothing positive. Yeah, yeah, the alternative of getting P.O. Joseph in the lineup isn’t thrilling either but Shea might be the embodiment of this era of the Penguins in a bad way. He’s played 53 games now in the last two years! He’s shown next to nothing at any point! I’m raging like an old man trying to send back soup at the deli, as the quote from Seinfeld goes.
Obligatory Bob Grove nugget of the night: Askarov is the ninth different goalie to start for Sharks in their last nine GP against Pens. Others were Vanecek, Chrona, Blackwood, Dell, Kahkonen, Hill, Reimer, Jones.
Penguins slide to 2-23-2 when losing after two periods this season. Trailing after two in over 50% of the games of the season (52) remains problematic. Down only one goal, this would have been a golden chance to pad that stat a little, but it didn’t work that way.
Minor observation but there was some funny Swede-on-Swede violence tonight. Rickard Rakell unnecessarily tripped up Alex Wennberg behind the play for unknown reasons in the second…Later in the game Fabian Zetterlund returned the favor and put the body into Marcus Pettersson heavily. It’s the little things at this point.
Well, at least Crosby got a point.

Had the Pens won this game, they would at least have been 3-3-0 on their long road trip, which isn’t going to catch them up but is respectable enough. Instead they fall to 2-4-0 with losses to two of the worst teams on the circuit in SJ and Anaheim in recent games. Tough times. One more stop on the trip on Wednesday night in Utah.