Penguins

Game 3 collapse raises stakes for franchise

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Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry (right) celebrates his game-winning goal with Phillip Danault. -- GETTY

The Penguins will be playing to keep their season alive Friday.

That's the obvious, indisputable result of their 4-3 self-immolation against the Canadiens in Game 3 of a qualifying-round series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto Wednesday night.

But the stakes might be considerably higher Friday than simply trying to force a Game 5 the next day. The Penguins just might be playing to convince management that keeping this core intact for another season, or another few, is a good idea.

The front office's thinking, after all, has been that this group, anchored by the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, could be capable of contending for Stanley Cups for several more years. It seemed perfectly reasonable after the Penguins had a strong regular season in 2019-20 despite having their lineup shredded by injuries, but the hard truth at this point is that they have lost eight of their past nine playoff games. A postseason winning percentage like that doesn't produce many championships.

And the Penguins haven't looked good for much of that skid, although rarely as bad as they did during the second half of Game 3.

"It wasn't our best game tonight," Mike Sullivan said. "It needed to be our best."

Actually, it had been reasonably good for a chunk of the first 30 minutes.

At the midpoint of the second period, the Penguins held a two-goal lead on an opponent whose talent and experience is decidedly inferior to their own. Their power play had burst out of a 1-for-12 slump in a big way, scoring twice in a span of 59 seconds. They were functioning effectively all over the ice, executing their game plan efficiently.  They were looking, in short, very much like a team intent on allowing Crosby to celebrate his 33rd birthday Friday by locking up a spot in Round 1 that afternoon.

Instead, the Penguins will spend it trying to avoid the ignominy of being run out of the postseason by a team that needed a global pandemic to even be invited to participate.

Montreal coach Claude Julien acknowledged that the Penguins have been through situations such as this more often than his players but, in the process, offered what could be interpreted as a scalding indictment of the Penguins' commitment.

"We lack experience, compared to the other team," Julien said. "But we're trying to make it up with our compete level. So far, it's given us a 2-1 lead."

That's because it wasn't Julien's club which, despite featuring so many accomplished veterans, lost its focus and urgency, its discipline and attention to detail. In the middle of a playoff game.

"We might have been guilty of getting a little too loose there, with the lead," Crosby said.

Yeah, just a little.

Witness the way Montreal's Jonathan Drouin was allowed to get inside Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz and deflect a shot past Matt Murray at 10:13 of the second to slice the Penguins' lead to 3-2:

How Malkin took a needless tripping minor at 13:45 of the second, and had been out of the penalty box for just five seconds when Paul Byron tucked a shot inside the right post to tie the game:

The way Zach Aston-Reese took a completely unnecessary, retaliatory roughing minor at 3:14 of the third, with the game tied, 3-3.

The score didn't stay that way for long, though. Just 19 seconds after Aston-Reese's penalty was over, so was the game, as things played out, because that's when Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry banked a long shot from along the goal line to the left of the crease off Murray and into the net for the game-winner:

"We gave up two goals right at the end of penalty-kills, where the penalty expires," Sullivan said. "We just have to be diligent there. Those are situations where I think we could have done a better job."

Petry's goal was an abysmal one to give up at any time, let alone in the third period of a tied playoff game. But it also was a pretty fitting microcosm of the Penguins' performance during much of the final 30 minutes.

"At this time of year, those mistakes are magnified," Crosby said. "(The Canadiens are) opportunistic. They're waiting for those mistakes, and they capitalized on them.""

The game had begun rather ominously for the Penguins, and not only because Shea Weber capped a flurry around their net by throwing a shot past Murray from the left side of the crease for a 1-0 lead at 4:57:

The Penguins, who have a pretty good record on coach's challenges, contended that Montreal's Artturi Lehkonen had been guilty of goaltender interference when he hit Murray's left leg before Weber shot, but their challenge was rejected and the Penguins were assessed a delay-of-game minor.

However, just 44 seconds after they returned to full strength, Crosby drew a slashing minor from Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot.

Fifty-nine seconds later, Patric Hornqvist tied the game while there was a delayed penalty pending on Weber for cross-checking.

And, coincidentally enough, 59 seconds after Weber went to the box, Zucker put the Penguins in front by beating Carey Price from just inside the right circle, near the hash.

"Our power play was really good," Sullivan said. "It gave our team a big boost."

Indeed, a power play that had occasionally looked like it was stuck in knee-deep mud, especially during the opener, seemed to be rolling downhill at warp speed after hitting on a productive formula of sweat, skill and smarts.

"We were quick to pucks," Crosby said. "But then, also, we executed really well, with some nice plays."

Although the power play's issues appear to have been resolved, the Penguins have plenty of others.

Consequently, it won't be a surprise if Sullivan shakes up his lineup for Game 4, especially when he made a personnel move in the wake of the Penguins' 3-1 victory in Game 2.

Third-line center Jared McCann, the only Penguins forward who failed to record at least one shot in the first two games, was a healthy scratch Wednesday and was replaced by Sam Lafferty, who made his postseason debut. Lafferty tied for the team lead with four hits, despite playing a team-low seven minutes and 40 seconds.

Although Lafferty isn't a difference-maker, the Penguins have a handful of them, and the onus will be primarily on those guys to help them avoid losing a series to such a pedestrian opponent. Losing to Montreal wouldn't be the first time they were defeated by a lower-seeded opponent, but it surely would be among the most humbling.

Because of the modest caliber of their competition, the Penguins still can realistically hope to claim a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Canadiens, despite having good team speed and commendable grit and Carey Price, remain a pretty ordinary bunch. They are not nearly as capable of winning this series as the Penguins are of losing it.

"I know we're capable of better," Sullivan said. "We just have to make sure we bring it for Game 4."

If they are to have any hope of forcing a Game 5, anyway.

And maybe of getting another chance to convince management that this group shouldn't undergo a major makeover before the 2020-21 season. With the salary-cap stresses the franchise figures to be under this fall, Jim Rutherford and ownership might well be tempted to contemplate whether to close out this chapter of franchise history if the Penguins can't extend their season past this weekend.

"I would expect us to have a lot of urgency," Sullivan said. "Your back's against the wall. You've got to win. It's win or go home."

And then maybe go looking for a new home.

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