Our Penguins tried to atone for Friday night’s ghastly giveaway loss to the Islanders. Sort of. They played a reasonably strong first period against a fast, young New Jersey squad yesterday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. Even took the early lead just 3:33 in thanks to a power-play marker off the rush by Evgeni Malkin.
Although they gave up the game-tying goal just 80 seconds later…endemic of the team’s myriad issues…they continued to give a pretty fair account of themselves through the remainder of the opening frame. At least by present black-and-gold standards.
Whether due to tired legs from playing the night before or the fact that they were facing a superior opponent (or a combination thereof), the Pens simply faded like a sick daisy over the final 40 minutes, resulting in a 5-2 loss.