Bryan Rust called it what it was: “too little, too late.”
That was the story for the Penguins on Wednesday at Capital One Arena, where they dug out of a 4-1 hole, pulled within one, and still walked away with a 5-3 loss to Washington in Alex Ovechkin’s final home opener. Rust, back in the lineup after being sidelined in the preseason opener, scored in his season debut.
Tommy Novak and Nick Robertson also found the net. But Pittsburgh’s rally never fully erased the damage from an ugly opening stretch, and Arturs Silovs took his first loss after winning his first two starts against Philadelphia and Montreal.
The Penguins were chasing almost from the jump. Washington struck on the first shift, with former Anthony Beauvillier finishing off a sequence that began with a mistake on the offensive blue line. Pittsburgh never really looked settled after that, and the defensive issues that showed up in Monday’s 3-2 loss to Winnipeg carried over again.
Rust, though, gave them a jolt. Skating on a line with Ben Kindel and Ville Koivunen, he jumped on a play from Kindel at the blue line, cut toward the middle and slipped a shot through. It was the kind of goal Rust has made a habit of delivering over the years, and it briefly steadied a team that badly needed it.
“Got a really nice play from Kindy at the blue line. Had some space on the wall, kind of took it, made a little cut to the net, just tried to throw a shot to the far side, and it squeaked in,” Rust said. “It’s always nice to see one go in when you come back from an injury.”
For a stretch after that, Pittsburgh did something important: it kept the greatest goal scorer of all time off the board, even through a Washington power play that included a 5-on-3. But the Capitals kept cashing in on breakdowns elsewhere.
Tom Wilson finished off a wide-open look from the slot. Silovs then lost track of a puck and couldn’t recover in time. Later, Declan Carlile’s pass intended for Erik Karlsson was intercepted by Alex Tuch, who turned it into a breakaway goal.
Only then did the Penguins start to find their footing.
“To be honest, I'm not sure (why), but we figured it out,” Rust said.
He moved up to skate with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, a familiar combination, but the next answer came from the line that hasn’t changed yet this season. Egor Chinakhov set up Evgeni Malkin on a 2-on-1, Malkin’s shot hit the post, and Novak was right there for the rebound to make it 4-2.
Not long after, Robertson trimmed it to one when he redirected a Kaedan Korczak shot while playing with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte. That gave Pittsburgh life, but Ryan Leonard buried a power-play goal with three seconds left to shut the door.
Afterward, Dan Muse pointed straight at the turnovers and the lack of support around them.
“At least three of their goals were the result of terrible turnovers. We've seen a lot of that in the last couple of games.
How do you fix it? I think it's on the puck carrier, but it's also on the support working to be good options.
I think each one of those has been different. There's times that we're vacating too early, or we're not providing the support that's necessary.
And when you don't have options, that's what's going to happen. Turnovers happen all the time, but when we're too spread out, you're not in a position to recover.
And so, it's both parts. I thought each one was a little bit different, but it's got to be better.”
Muse also said the blue-line giveaways have to be cleaned up with better awareness and smarter decisions when plays get messy.
“Yeah, I think there's other options that are there. I think again, it's the awareness there, where the pressure is coming from.
I think sometimes it's a little bit of just that feel at the line, and then I think sometimes, especially when plays are bobbled, it's a rolling puck, you just got to live to fight another day. So now, it's just going to be about putting it into an area where maybe it is a 50-50 puck, but it’s in an area there where we have a chance to get it back, and it's definitely in an area where they're not going to be coming at us with speed.”
Asked whether the issues were tied to the shortened camp and preseason, Muse pushed back on that idea and said the group has shown structure at times already. The problem, he said, is consistency.
When the conversation turned to goaltending, Muse said the Penguins have not helped either Silovs or Sergei Murashov enough in these last few games, though he felt both have kept games close.
He also addressed the line juggling, saying he’s still searching for the right fit and will keep adjusting as the season goes on and the team heads to Columbus.
And when asked what changed from the win in Philadelphia to what happened Wednesday, Muse said the Capitals simply won more battles and Pittsburgh didn’t manage the game well enough.
“They worked, too. They won battles there that we could have been better in that area.
So, for us, we just got to manage the game better. We got to manage momentum.
I think even in the first period, it was a big goal by Rusty there, get it back to even after getting scored on in the first shift. But at the same time, I didn't like the way we played, the type of chances they were getting.
So, we got to control the momentum of the game. It’s especially important on the road.
It's important all the time, and we just let it get way too loud there today.”
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