The Penguins left Montreal with the same nagging problem that keeps showing up in different forms: stretches of sharp play, then sudden breakdowns that flip the game on its head. On Saturday at the Bell Centre, that pattern cost them in a 5-4 loss to the Canadiens.
Dan Muse didn’t try to dress it up afterward.
"I know I sound like a broken record, but we didn’t play consistently,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse said.
That inconsistency showed up almost immediately. Pittsburgh’s top line of Tommy Novak, Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell came out flying and drove the offense all night, combining for three goals and seven points.
Erik Karlsson matched that early pace, scoring 2:08 into the game and finishing with a three-point night of his own. Crosby set him up for the goal that moved Karlsson past Ray Bourque for sole possession of most assists with one franchise in NHL history with 1,112.
“It's incredible to talk about it. It's an NHL record,” Muse said.
“With the history of this league, how long it's been around, and how many great players have been there, to be the guy who now is moving into the top of a leaderboards category like that - I've said it before, it’s nothing short of incredible. I think for everybody that's around it, that's a part of it, and that's watching it, I hope you appreciate it.”
The problem for Pittsburgh was what happened after that. Montreal answered Karlsson’s opener with two goals in 23 seconds, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in a flash.
“Hockey is a game of mistakes, so mistakes are going to happen. But in terms of them being able to get two quick ones, or even sometimes just shifts with multiple chances back-to-back, we need to be better at just kind of controlling that,” Muse said.
Novak tied it at 7:28 of the first period, and the Penguins went to the intermission even after a successful coach’s challenge on Sergei Murashov’s first start in about two weeks. The challenge wiped out a Montreal goal for goalie interference and kept the game level.
The second period brought more of the same. Montreal struck twice again in a 2:21 span to jump ahead 4-2, with Alexandre Texier and Chris Kreider finding room and time to make their plays.
"Guys are getting clean looks there at the net, and second opportunities around the net. Those things are preventable,” Muse said.
“So again, breakdowns, mistakes are going to happen, breakdowns are going to happen. It's just happening too much.
Got to correct it.”
Rakell pulled Pittsburgh back within one at 3:45, scoring his fourth goal in the last five games. But a difficult bounce pushed Montreal back in front by two, with Lane Hutson’s shot appearing to deflect at least once before going off Kris Letang’s skate as he tried to clear it near the side of the net.
Pittsburgh kept pressing late and had a chance to make a real push when the power play came back out in the latter part of the third period, but it couldn’t cash in. The Penguins did get one more from Crosby with the extra attacker, giving the captain a resurgent night after a slow start to his season.
Still, the final push came up short. Pittsburgh outshot Montreal 15-4 while chasing the tying goal, but the Canadiens held firm and closed it out.
“We didn’t play well enough for 40-ish minutes,” Karlsson said. “I think that's that's pretty much the bottom line.
We're still in the game for the most part of it, score-wise, which is a good thing. But then again, I don't really think that we played well enough to sustain it for long enough to come away with the W.”
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