The Pittsburgh Penguins have a short wait for a shot at revenge against the New York Islanders following Saturday’s 6-3 road loss.
The Penguins are aware they must deliver a better performance on Sunday when they host the second half of the home-and-home series with the Islanders.
“The only good thing is that we get to play another game against the same guys in less than 24 hours. I think we all know that we have to be a lot better than we were today,” Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “They were the better team for pretty much 60 minutes. It’s unfortunate, because we really wanted to get off to a good start here with the first game back after the break, and we did the exact opposite.”
The Penguins recently have received much-needed scoring depth with Rickard Rakell coming off a two-point performance that gives him two goals and three assists in a two-game stretch.
Michael Bunting has three goals in the past two outings. However, that doesn’t lessen the sting of the Penguins having lost two of three games after an 8-2-1 run pulled them into the playoff chase.
“I don’t think we played as smart,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We just didn’t play a conscientious game like the game we’ve been playing for the last six weeks. I just think our decisions with the puck weren’t where they needed to be. We didn’t play straight ahead. We talked about playing simple before the game, just the importance of simplicity and playing straight ahead. I just don’t think we did it well enough.”
The Islanders, who matched a season high for goals scored in Saturday’s win, have won two of three games but know they must rattle off many more victories to move into contention. New York is two points behind Pittsburgh and three points off the playoff position pace.
“Those are hard games, hard-fought games,” said Islanders forward Casey Cizikas, who scored twice in Saturday’s victory.
“You know what needs to be done, night in and night out. We didn’t veer away from (our game). We accepted the challenge at hand. And the way our group played in the third period, there’s a lot of good things to take away from that.”
After a disappointing first 33 games of the season, the Islanders are optimistic a corner has been turned and that it’s not too late to make a run to the playoffs.
Having a couple of key forwards back in the lineup has helped, also. Mathew Barzal, who missed 21 games due to injury, collected one assist in the win — his first five-on-five point of the season. Anthony Duclair scored and has points in all three games since returning from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for 28 games.
A deeper lineup has the Islanders playing more to expectations.
“We had a really solid game tonight,” said captain Anders Lee, who scored twice. “From the get-go, it was a pretty good hockey game. I think we got to our game and established that pretty well. We obviously made some great plays to get some goals. I think that was important, and I think we played the right way in the third period.”
–Field Level Media
