No miracles left in bag
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Kris Letang argues a non-call Tuesday that left him bloodied in the Penguins' streak-ending, 1-0 loss in Toronto. -
Evgeni Malkin is run into the boards by Toronto's Luke Schenn Wednesday night in the Penguins' 1-0 loss to the Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. -
Torrid Evgeni Malkin was a marked man, particularly when he got anywhere close to Toronto goalie James Reimer.
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TORONTO -- The Penguins have been living on the edge lately.
A lot.
Just about every time they reported for work, really.
And when a team spends enough time on the edge -- as the Penguins had done by going to overtime or a shootout in five of their previous six games -- it eventually falls off.
Like the Penguins did in a 1-0 loss to Toronto Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre.
While there were a few obvious shortcomings in their performance -- it is pretty tough to win unless you score at least once -- there were no glaring flaws.
You know, the kind that had been so plentiful 24 hours earlier in the 5-4 shootout victory against the Maple Leafs at Consol Energy Center.
"The ironic thing is, we played a lot better than we did [Tuesday] night," Penguins forward Craig Adams said.
True enough, but that did not prevent the Penguins from absorbing a defeat that ended their eight-game winning streak, the second-longest in the NHL this season, and dropped their record to 29-18-4.
- Game: Penguins at Boston Bruins, TD Garden, Boston.
- When: 1:08 p.m. Saturday.
- TV: Root Sports.
- The skinny: The Penguins' eight-game winning streak that ended Wednesday was the second longest in the NHL this season. Only a 10-game streak by Boston from Nov. 1-23 was longer.
They remain in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind fourth-place Philadelphia.
The Penguins squandered a solid performance by backup goalie Brent Johnson, who had not made it through an entire game nearly in two months.
Indeed, Johnson had started only two of the previous 23, and finished both of them at the far end of the bench.
This time, he was nearly perfect, turning aside 23 of the 24 shots Toronto threw at him.
Unfortunately for the Penguins, the Maple Leafs No. 2 goalie, James Reimer, was even better, stopping all 25 pucks that came his way. Not counting the three or so that eluded him, only to slam off various parts of the goal frame.
"We hit a couple of posts, and their guy played well," Adams said.
The Penguins managed to get one puck behind Reimer, but it did not end up being registered on the scoreboard.
They appeared to take a 1-0 lead 77 seconds into the second period, when Chris Kunitz put the puck into the Toronto net while being knocked into Reimer by Toronto defenseman Cody Franson.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:00 am
