Penguins can't sustain strong play, fall to Ducks
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Kris Letang makes a save on the puck just before it crosses the goal line against the Ducks late in the third period Wednesday night.
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There are points stolen and points squandered every season, by every team.
Victories that could not be anticipated, defeats that are not easily accepted.
Knowing that does not detract from the satisfaction of grabbing two points that a team did not expect to get or the distress of surrendering a couple that seemed as if they should have been secure.
Like the ones the Penguins let slip away in a 2-1 loss against Anaheim Wednesday night at Consol Energy Center.
It did not matter that they began the evening with a 14-point lead over the Ducks in the overall standings. Or that the Penguins had won their previous six home games. Or that Anaheim had played in Minnesota 24 hours earlier and did not arrive here until most Penguins were deep into a solid night's sleep.
Or even, for that matter, that the Penguins controlled play for a significant chunk of the opening period and grabbed an early lead.
All rather significant stuff, or so it seemed. At least until the Penguins failed to sustain, let alone build on, their strong start, and the Ducks exploited a couple of the scoring opportunities generated by some of their highly skilled forwards.
"We could have gotten two points, but I don't think we deserved them tonight, because we didn't play well enough," Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek said. "They didn't give us much, and we didn't execute well."
The loss cost the Penguins (32-20-5) an opportunity to move past Philadelphia and claim sole possession of fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Anaheim, meanwhile, stretched its current surge to 5-0-1, although the Ducks remain in 13th place in the Western Conference and a long shot to qualify for the postseason, despite a dramatic upgrade in their record since early January.
"The playoffs have started for them already," Michalek said. "That's the way they played."
Anaheim is 17-11-5 since Bruce Boudreau, late of Washington, replaced Randy Carlyle as coach Nov. 29. Not bad numbers, to be sure, but not as impressive as his body of work against the Penguins.
Boudreau's career regular-season record against them is 13-1-3, including a 9-0-1 mark here. Still, he insists that does not mean he would like to see them more than once or twice per season.
First Published February 16, 2012 12:00 am
