Rookie defenseman injured, Devils eliminated Penguins, 3-0

The Pittsburgh Penguins played one of their best first stretches of the season against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

Unfortunately, they did everything but put the puck in the net.

The Devils then defeated the Penguins 3-0 in a game that was closely contested until midway through the second period. From there, the Devils took over with their speed, forecheck and aggressive defensive attack.

Stefan Noesen scored his 15th of the season with less than three minutes to go after a nice feed from Nico Hischier and following a defensive breakdown by Ryan Shea and Rickard Rakell for Tristan Jarry.

Hischier added his own score in the first half of the third period – at which point the Devils had all but completely taken control of the game – and Timo Meier potted the empty-netter inside the final two minutes to seal the defeat for the team. Penguins.

In their last ten games against the Devils, the Penguins are 2-8 and have been outscored 40-21. But it’s not like they played poorly for most of the game, especially against one of the top three teams in the league.

“Seven of the last eight games they’ve given up less than 20 shots,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “So now they’ve given up less than 20 shots in eight of the last nine games. They defend hard, they’re fast, they had the puck… For two and a half periods I thought we competed hard and we were there.”

Sullivan also gave credit to Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom, who stopped the only 12 Penguins shots he faced but made two key stops in the second period to keep Pittsburgh from opening the scoring — one of which was a ridiculous stop on Sidney Crosby.

Here are a few other notes and observations from Saturday’s loss to the Devils:

– Rookie defenseman Owen Pickering – who has played top-pairing minutes alongside Kris Letang in recent weeks – did not return for the third period due to what was later ruled an upper-body injury.

As such, the Penguins were forced to play the third period with five defensemen, and actually four for part of it, as Matt Grzelcyk left for a few minutes but returned.

I think it was clear in the second half of the period that the Penguins defensemen were a bit gassed as there were only two pairs. Unfortunately there wasn’t much they could do about that.

It would be a real shame for Pickering if this is something that keeps him out, so it’s probably a good thing that the holidays are coming up. He played a very strong game for the Penguins until he left them.

However, if he’s out long-term, the Penguins may have to make even more moves to increase defensive depth with Marcus Pettersson already out of the mix for two to three weeks.

– On that note, it’s a good thing that Kyle Dubas has traded for another left guard in PO Joseph, who played his first game for the Penguins this season.

After Pickering did not return to the ice in the third period, he played alongside Kris Letang in the top pairing. And his coach was impressed with the game he played.

“I thought he played really well,” Sullivan said. “He’s mobile. That’s one of the faster teams in the league, but he’s mobile, he gets back to the pucks, he’s ready with the puck, I thought he defended well with his stick… I thought he had a good match.”

– Another Penguin who had a strong game was Evgeni Malkin. He had an early breakaway where he lost traction – the ice was very bad all night, as the same thing happened later to Jack Hughes – and he had his trademark “gallop” for most of the evening.

Unfortunately, the Penguins couldn’t muster anything offensively. But he was very good for Pittsburgh tonight.

– Related to this, Sullivan put his lines in a blender in the third period, apart from the top line of Crosby, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell – which was dominant – and the fourth line of Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte and Matt Nieto.

Cody Glass and Michael Bunting started the game with Malkin, but closed it out on the third line with Philip Tomasino, while Drew O’Connor and Anthony Beauvillier played the third period with Malkin.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the Penguins’ bottom six have been much worse since Lizotte was moved from the center position to the third line.

I simply don’t understand why this hasn’t been tried again since the loss to the New York Rangers. It worked. The line of Bunting, Lizotte and Beauvillier was absolutely buzzing and acted as an energy line for Pittsburgh. They really had something there.

If Bunting isn’t going to play Malkin, that should be the Penguins’ third line, and I don’t think that really needs to be a question. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Tomasino and Glass watch a few games with Malkin, or even bringing in Jesse Puljujarvi for that.

– That’s now 29 games without a goal for O’Connor.

This is becoming a serious problem. Sullivan has said he took the focus away from scoring for him. So let him center the fourth line. Let him concentrate on defense.

Other than this option and the press box, I’m not sure there’s much more they can do at this point.

– Tristan Jarry was very good in this match and made several important saves at key moments.

He stopped 26 of New Jersey’s 28 shots and made consistent saves to keep the Penguins in the game. The Devils really turned it on in the second half of the night, and he barely flinched.

They need to continue to get this level of goaltending from him.

– While it would have been nice to win this one, this is probably the game the Penguins would be most likely to drop out of the five to end the calendar year. They are now 8-3-1 in their past twelve games.

However, it is worth noting that they are 1-6-1 against the Metropolitan Division this season. And – you’ll never guess – three of their next four games are against the Metro.

They play a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on December 23 – their last game before the holidays – before playing a home-and-home matchup against the New York Islanders on December 28 and 29.

Even if they end up losing some games, the next games are very important for the Penguins. Philadelphia currently trails Pittsburgh by just one point, while the Isles are two points behind.

This is the point in the season where looking at the scoreboard takes over. The trade deadline – as well as the second half – will come soon.

So the Penguins need to rack up as many points as possible against the teams they chase and the teams chasing them.