Penguins/Bruins Recap: Pens get one game closer to end in loss

It wasn’t pretty for the Penguins on Sunday against Boston, but at least it’s almost over

Pregame

The Penguins get Philip Tomasino back in the lineup after he had missed a few games with a concussion, otherwise they’re about the same as they have been recently with Tristan Jarry in the net.

Here’s what is left of the once-proud Bruins team that has had almost all recognizable faces and pieces besides David Pastrnak stripped away due to recent trades or injuries.

First period

Pittsburgh set a tone they would mostly follow throughout the game in the first period, and that’s not a compliment. Sleepy, unimpressive, barely there, you pick the term.

But for all that decidedly meh play, the Pens almost escape the period at a 0-0 score. Almost being the operative word. With time running down in the period, Pastrnak throws the puck on net. Elias Lindholm is there to jam it in. Not the prettiest or smoothest goal but there’s still 1.6 seconds to play which makes it good enough for a 1-0 Boston lead at the break.

Shots are 13-6 BOS in the first.

Second period

The second periods of games have been a disaster zone for the Pens and today was no different. 22-year old Fabian Lysell gets his first career goal in his 11th game thanks to three Pittsburgh players all heading towards the corner…While they’re on the PK. That math doesn’t add up for the defenders, leaving Lysell wide open directly in front of the goal. Bad things tend to happen with that. 2-0.

Matt Grzelcyk’s gap on Pastranak, if you can even call it that, was about the size of the Grand Canyon and allowed the Bruins to make another play. They actually score twice on the sequence after it was tough to tell Morgan Geekie’s initial shot went bar down and bounced in behind the goal-line. Fortunately for Pittsburgh, only one goal counts on the play. 3-0.

The Pens finally get on the board late in the second period on a power play. Tomasino basically scores the goal off the legs of Rickard Rakell who is posted in front of the net. 3-1 game, on Rakell’s career-high 35th goal of the season. He owes Tomasino a cold one for that.

Third period

The Pens start the third on the power play and have the opportunity to crawl back into the game but they aren’t able to do that on this day.

The third period drags along and Lysell turns back into a shove from Kris Letang. The refs call it boarding, which it wasn’t. If anything it could have been a rough on Letang for putting his hand on the guy but a rookie turning into a vet like that usually doesn’t draw a call. As such, Letang goes nuts on the refs. The zebras had previously given Nikita Zadorov and extra two minute minor for the rare “abuse of officials” call and would have been within their rights to ring Letang up for extras too but they take mercy on him, perhaps as a measure of realizing he had a decent gripe. Then when Letang got out of the box he Mack truck ran over a Boston player on a clean hit but obviously a play he made to take out his frustration and anger on the refs. Overall a nothing play but the sequence was amusing on a day where not that much was going on.

Boston scores on an empty netter to salt the game away.

As the game reaches it’s final whistle, Lysell plays a little too hard to the final whistle and draws the ire of Grzelcyk who bashes into him after the final whistle to send a message. The teams pretty much let it slide at that point, because what’s the use? 4-1, Boston wins.

Some thoughts

• Not a lot to take from this one, just two teams playing out the stretch in an afternoon game.
• If this time of year is a tryout or at least an information gathering purpose for what’s ahead (which it is), what to make of someone like Connor Dewar? He only played 13:24 and was credited with a te am-high six hits and added two blocked shots. But to the eye he hasn’t stood out in a while, in this game or recently. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes for players like him in a contract year that may or may not be back next year. Has he done enough to merit bringing back?
• On that note, it was a nice return for Tomasino. It always seems like as a general rule that players coming back from concussions understandably aren’t that noticeable upon returning but his play with the puck was there. The assist today matched Tomasino’s offensive output over his previous eight games. If Rutger McGroarty didn’t suffer an injury, it’s debatable whether or not Tomasino would have even been on the power play today. Lots of angles to consider there for his situation too. In the ideal world the Pens probably try to “re-home” vets like Danton Heinen, Noel Acciari and even Kevin Hayes this off-season to open up space for the Dewar’s and Tomasino’s of the roster. That objective could be easier said than done, however.
• The good news from this game is that the loss sends the Pens on a clearer path to the 7th spot for the lottery draft. If that happens there’s still a 42.1% chance Pittsburgh would pick 8th or 9th in the first round should they get jumped by someone behind them winning the lottery but gives them a 6.5% chance at the first pick and 6.7% shot at the second pick, with a 44.4% probability of retaining the 7th spot. Pittsburgh still needs Buffalo to do a little something in their final three games and the Sabres do have a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 so there’s reason to believe they will come through.
• Since the Rangers pick is important too, their recent bad play has them on track to likely end up in the 10th-12th range. NYR has the option to flip a top-13 pick to Pittsburgh if they choose but it would be difficult to see any team voluntarily walking away if it ends up being 10th overall. We won’t know until and when they make the call but NYR’s late-season slide is trending towards where it would become difficult to not elect to send Pittsburgh their 2026 first rounder.
• Today’s loss officially clinches a losing season for Pittsburgh in the sense, they now are assured more regulation losses than wins and can’t get to 82 out of the possible 164 points available and will finish under .500 in points percentage. Of course, they’ve only won 33 out of 81 games so in some regards it’s been a losing season for quite a while, but in terms of NHL math a losing year is now official. It’s the first time the Pens will have more games played than points in the standings since way back in Crosby’s rookie year of 2005-06.

It would be nice if the Pens could play again tomorrow or Tuesday and put this long season behind them, but the schedule isn’t so accommodating. Pittsburgh has to wait a few more days yet until Thursday to play the Capitals and see the curtain come down on the 2024-25 season.