Despite having a win over the weekend, the Penguins did not have much to be thankful for over the past week.
On Wednesday night, the Penguins faced off against their Metropolitan Division rival the New York Rangers.
The only goal in the game came about five minutes into the first period when Rangers forward Alexis Lafrenière scored on the breakaway to beat Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry top shelf. Pittsburgh believed they had tied it on a goal from recent minor league call-up Alex Nylander, but the goal was called back due to it being ruled offsides.
The Penguins were plagued for the remainder of the game with more execution on the power play. Their lack of power play chances and the strong penalty kill from the Rangers is what led to Pittsburgh’s 1-0 downfall in this game.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, the Penguins traveled to Buffalo, New York to play the Sabres. At 3:14 in the first period, forward Jake Guentzel stripped the puck off of Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson to make a pass to Sidney Crosby for the one-timer, giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
The lead was extended at 3:16 in the second period off of a Sabre turnover from defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Pittsburgh’s Matt Nieto caught the puck to Dahlin and passed it to forward Lars Eller, who scored his third goal of the season. Sadly, that was where the Penguins’ fortune ended this game.
About five minutes into the final frame, Sabres forward Jeff Skinner scored on the Power Play to cut the Penguins’ lead in half.
Nearly six minutes later, Sabres Captain Kyle Okposo tied the game on an unfortunate bounce that went off of Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson in front of the net.
With less than three minutes remaining in the game, poor defensive play by the Penguins led to Alex Tuch scoring the Sabres game-winning goal, later securing their win at 3-2.
The Penguins returned home to PPG Paints Arena the next night to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were also coming off of a loss on Friday.
Only four minutes into the game, Toronto took an early lead as Tyler Bertuzzi tapped it into a half-open net.
The Penguins got it right back less than a minute later as Jake Guentzel scored backdoor off of a Drew O’Connor pass off the rush.
Just three minutes later, Toronto once again took the lead when forward Matthew Knies scored off of a rebound on an odd-man rush.
Pittsburgh made it a tied game halfway through the second period as Toronto defenseman TJ Brodie turned the puck over to Penguins forward Noel Accari, who scored top-shelf against goaltender Joseph Woll.
With less than thirty seconds left in the second period, Pittsburgh won an offensive zone faceoff, getting the puck back to defenseman Kris Letang, who passed to Erik Karlsson for the one-timer, beating Joseph Woll and taking the 3-2 lead.
Pittsburgh gave up plenty of chances to Toronto in the third period, but the Leafs’ effort wasn’t enough, and the Penguins took this one 3-2.
Following this game, Pittsburgh sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division with a 10-10 record through their first twenty games.
The Penguins will travel to Nashville and Tampa Bay this week to face the Predators and Lightning respectively, before returning to Pittsburgh on Saturday to face their cross-state rival, the Philadelphia Flyers.
