DENVER - For about 15 minutes, the Penguins looked like they had something figured out. The puck moved cleanly, the rush game was alive and there was real structure to what they were doing.
Then Colorado turned up the heat and the whole thing started to unravel.
The Avalanche scored five straight goals on the way to a 5-2 win at Ball Arena, and once again the Penguins were left sorting through the same mix of promising stretches and crushing mistakes. The game swung from coordinated hockey to puck chasing, blown coverages and empty-looking defensive zones in a hurry.
That pattern has become hard to ignore. The Penguins have now gone 1-4-1 since opening the season 2-0-0, and their issues on defense showed up again in glaring fashion.
Declan Carlile had a rough night from the start, ending up on the ice for three of Colorado’s first four goals. He was beaten directly on one and failed to cover his man on two others.
“We’re working through things and still working hard,” said Carlile. “I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just a couple bad bounces here and there, and happens.”
Erik Karlsson had his own defensive lapse on a goal after Nate MacKinnon sliced past Carlile, and Kaedan Korczak turned the puck over behind the Penguins’ net, which led directly to Artturi Lehkonen’s second goal and tied the game early in the second period.
The Penguins had enough good moments to keep this from being a total wipeout in terms of process, but the mistakes kept undoing the positive work. They created 30 scoring chances and 18 high-danger chances, and their top line with Sidney Crosby was strong.
Ville Koivunen was also one of the bright spots. Arturs Silovs gave them a chance too, even with five pucks behind him.
Still, Colorado’s pressure exposed the same fault lines over and over. On a night when the Avalanche clearly had another gear, the Penguins’ errors were basic, repeated and costly.
The game itself felt like three separate versions of Pittsburgh. In the first period, they were connected and dangerous on the rush.
In the second, they were sloppy, overrun and defensively vulnerable. In the third, they settled into something much closer to the kind of play that could actually work for them - simple puck movement, strong off-puck movement and long stretches of control in the offensive zone.
Tommy Novak said the Penguins had enough going on in flashes to make it frustrating.
“I feel like everyone had pretty good jump, and we were skating well. Yeah, I have to go back and look at everything that happened, but a few breakdowns they capitalized,” said Tommy Novak.
“They’re obviously a super skilled team. I don’t know how many power players they had (4), but yeah, I mean they capitalize.
We had a lot of good moments throughout each period, but we’ve got to capitalize more and avoid those breakdowns.”
The Penguins also left momentum on the table with their own power play. They went 0-for-3 and never really threatened, which blunted whatever rhythm they had built in the first and third periods.
At even strength, they were at their best when they controlled possession and entered the zone with purpose. But they often leaned into the rush instead of chipping it deep and establishing a forecheck, even when the game was tilting against them. That choice hurt them more in the second period, when a slower, more physical approach might have helped settle things down.
Nathan MacKinnon was a problem all night, attacking the Penguins’ defensemen aggressively and beating them too often. Carlile and Karlsson took the brunt of that pressure.
There were good performances buried inside the loss. Rakell, Crosby and Rust drove play hard, and Rust finished one of the better chances when Crosby fed him a slick saucer pass to complete a two-on-one. The line finished with 16 scoring chances at 5-on-5, and Rakell had five shots on goal, including a second-period breakaway.
Silovs also made some huge stops, including a save on MacKinnon on a penalty shot and a couple of breakaways. The stat line is ugly at a glance, but the saves he made mattered.
This was a tough one for Carlile, though. He was on the ice for three goals against and directly responsible for two, while MacKinnon beat him on Lehkonen’s first goal.
Lehkonen then beat Karlsson to the net, turning the sequence into what was basically a two-on-none. For a defenseman expected to be the steady one on that pair, it was a hard night.
Koivunen, by contrast, had one of his better NHL games. He had energy, moved the puck well and made an impact. If he keeps playing like that, he can force his way into the lineup on a regular basis.
Nick Robertson had some strong moments early, especially in the first period, but faded later. The chances are there for him, but the chemistry with the centers still hasn’t clicked.
Sam Girard stood out as well. In his first game back against Colorado, where he won the 2022 Stanley Cup, he was excellent.
He moved the puck well, distributed cleanly and was around the play constantly. He missed last season’s game in Colorado because of injury, and he made up for lost time here.
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