The Pittsburgh Penguins did a lot right, but not enough things well. They sprang to life in the second period, but mistakes, more mistakes, and some bad luck created an extraordinary ending with wild twists and turns befitting a John Carpenter project.

The Penguins’ 2-1 third-period deficit became a 3-2 lead in the final minute, before Logan Cooley completed his show-stealing hat trick with one second remaining to force overtime. In OT, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev finished a sequence in which Utah peppered Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs for the 4-3 OT win.

Until the middle of the third period, the Penguins had a clear advantage on the stat sheet, but not the score sheet. The Penguins had puck possession and shots, and even more scoring chances, but visibly did not have the same glorious chances they gifted the Utah Mammoth. By the third period, Utah attacked, and the Penguins’ advantage evaporated; their chance to win was held only by Silovs.

“I feel good. You know, I try every single night to do my best and give an opportunity to our team to win,” Silovs said in an understatement. “And I think like if I can do that consistently, then it’s gonna like you’re going to see (more good performances) in the season.”

Once again, the healthy, regular Penguins lineup struggled with puck management, just as they did in their cratering four-game road (losing) streak before the makeshift lineup cleaned up and won the last couple of games at PPG Paints Arena.

The game film Thursday will not be kind to the Penguins’ best players, including and perhaps especially to Sidney Crosby, but also some thematic goats were short in big moments, too. Overall, the Penguins again gave a superior opponent more chances than they themselves could create.

“Some of it was the puck management, the puck play. (All of the chances) are different. I thought there were some times that we were just not executing. There were some times there where we could have gotten the puck behind them, through the neutral zone, established a forecheck,” coach Dan Muse said. “(Utah) back pressure hard, and they come back hard, and they pressure quickly. We just played them (last week). We shouldn’t be surprised by it. But I thought that as the game went on, it got a little bit better.”

Distilling the drama, mistakes, and strong performances, the Penguins were fortunate to get a point, even if they were one second from winning. Even if Silovs referred to it as a “bitter taste,” the Penguins should feel as fortunate as seeing a full-sized Snickers bar in their Halloween bag. Their mistakes and their breakdowns were far too great and far too many to win.

The hockey gods and Silovs dropped some candy via a loser point in their bag, and they should say thank you.

Xs and Os

The analysis section is longer Thursday because it encapsulates so many of the problems the team has consistently struggled with this season. Utah very much laid them bare for everyone to see and to understand the struggles this season, the tactical report card led by comments from the participants are a good starting point.

The Penguins continue to make mistakes and not do the simple things that brought them success last season. They continue to make defensive mistakes that expose them to brilliant scoring chances against.

“I think it was our brain. I think we kept it a little bit more simple after that start to the game. I mean, they’re a very aggressive team, so you don’t have a lot of time to make plays,” Hendrix Lapierre said. “I thought once we started putting pucks deep and keeping it simple and chipping it to our teammates and stuff like that, we got a little bit more success.”

The complete Penguins lineup submitted another dichotomous performance, with extreme swings between crisp and sloppy play, with more sloppy than crisp. In their moments of falter, the defensemen choked away the puck in dangerous spots, and the team’s best players, Erik Karlsson and Crosby, made glaring mistakes in the first period that washed away an energetic start and put the Penguins in a 2-0 hole.

“It started off not great. Obviously, we were still in it, trailing 2-1. We probably did some good things, but I also think we’ve got a little bit better … It’s just kind of the circumstances, you know, everything that happened,” Lapierre said. “(Kindel) scoring that big goal, and then you’re kind of really high on emotions, and then obviously after that it kind of sucks.

“It just was an okay game by us. I think we got better, but we got stuck with it and got one point.”

In fact, the Penguins’ best players continued to make mistakes and not account for Cooley, who channeled his Pittsburgh childhood and looked like a 20-year-old Crosby slicing through defenders.

Tactically, the Penguins were soft. They had the puck, but they didn’t do enough with it. Utah played responsibly with a high F3 that maintained numbers on the blue line, but the Penguins missed an awful lot of chances to put the puck deep and to work Utah.

The Penguins centers–including Crosby–needed to be better. Muse gave a good tactical breakdown postgame:

“I think they hit a lot of speed underneath, and they’re quick in transition. So I think on those (scoring chances), it was a combination. We’re just putting ourselves out of position or sometimes we get duplication on the puck, and then there’s something open,” Muse said. “And a lot of times for them, the way they play, something opens, and that ends up being a lot of speed coming through the middle of the ice, which, you know, got us.”

Indeed, there were moments of good forechecking and pressure, but when the Penguins are not attacking, their team defense leaves Silovs as defenseless as a sleep-deprived teenager on Elm Street.

Crosby’s play was particularly surprising. Cooley burned him a few times at center ice, creating chances that Crosby seemed slow to recognize or react, as Cooley swung through the defensive zone to generate speed and then flashed through center ice–past Crosby.

While Silovs did not call out his team for forcing him to make a handful of breakaway saves, a handful more on point-blank chances from within 15 feet, and still more on good rips within 20 feet. Once again, Silvos’s statistics and his performance did not match, to his detriment.

Even on the final goal, the defenseman (Declan Carlile) left Cooley wide open.

“I mean, I don’t know if it was a shot that hit my blocker or hit my helmet, and the guy (Cooley) was basically in a goal crease. I couldn’t do too much,” Silovs said. “He (Vincent Trocheck) shot it, (Cooley) got it from the air, so just like, we need to take it away. Yeah, it’s hard to give up, with less than a second, they tying goal.”

Those brutal mistakes cast a pall upon the Penguins’ room. The last-second goals were merely the machete to the protagonists who relaxed too soon. Defenseman Declan Carlile didn’t see Cooley behind him at the net, and Cooley swatted the puck out of the air, just like Crosby would have.

Penguins Grades

Some stretches are worthy of an A grade, and some merited a solid F. A team simply cannot continue to give up the ghastly, horrific, shocking scoring chances they do and expect a goalie to bail them out. These Penguins were masquerading as the early 1990s Penguins in the defensive zone, without the ability to score six to win.

Silovs stared down far too many glorious scoring chances and made a few saves look so easy that the PPG Paints Arena crowd didn’t really react to the game-saving stops. Of course, the crowd also reacted to several more obviously big saves, especially in the third period.

That was not a Crosby-type performance. He had three shots on goal but was statistically outchanced 8-7 (a good second period elevated their numbers) and outscored 1-0. Cooley had a few breakaway chances against this line, and he was specifically Crsoby’s responsibility twice, including the later first-period goal.

Traditionally, Crosby is not good after layoffs. He is better with a grueling schedule.

Great moments and not-so-great moments. His turnover in the first period was the kind that would get a rookie benched for a week. But his goal was that of a special defenseman. Overall, his good outweighed the bad, but for the sake of the defense, which again played like matadors, he has to be cleaner.

Wow, that was fun to watch. His third-period slice through all five Penguins defenders was spectacular. If he played any better, they would build a statue to him in West Mifflin. Or at least reopen the Pizza Hut near Kennywood.

He was at the net. He was distributing. He had an adventurous shift in the second period, but was otherwise stout in his return.

Chinakhov is not generating speed, puck pressure, or the scoring chances of a year ago. He did not have a shot on goal Thursday, but plunked a few attempts harmlessly into opposing shin pads. Chinakhov has another gear he has yet to show this season.

It’s unfair to call them a “fourth line” as they played nearly the same amount as the other three lines at 5v5, and they certainly provided the best forecheck. Muse deploys them immediately after the top line to generate gritty pressure.

Lizotte had a quietly good game. Robertson didn’t hang onto enough pucks. He led the team with five shots, but too many of them were harmless from the perimeter. He’s better, and the line is better when he pushes those pucks low instead of giving up possession with a shot.

Still, they were on top of the puck.