The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 loss against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena was a fitting conclusion to a dreadful five-game homestand that saw them go 1-3-1.

This sequence of games on their own rink commanded considerable gravity.

Especially since they are about to embark on what could be a black hole of a seven-game road trip throughout several portions of North America.

They claimed only three out of a possible 10 points during the homestand and needed far more in order to keep their postseason hopes buoyant.

“Understanding where we’re at and the situation and the schedule, we need to have urgency really for the rest of the way in here,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said in Cranberry on Jan. 7, the first day of the homestand. “It’s going to be a battle. This is an important, important time for us.”

“These points now are just as important come March, April.”

Given how the team has played since the calendar flipped over to 2025, they may not be too preoccupied with contests in the latter half of April or beyond — i.e. playoff games.

“It’s frustrating,” Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “It’s really frustrating. We’re giving away points. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

To the naked eye, the defensive effort — including forwards — was once again to blame for this latest setback. For the third consecutive contest, the Penguins outshot the opposition — 33-17 this time — but the quality of shots they allowed in the third period outweighed the quantity.

A similar dynamic unfolded in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning where the visitors were outshot but scored the final three goals of the contest late in regulation.

“We simply have to do a better job defending in our end zone,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan fumed. “That falls on me. I’ve got to do a better job coaching these guys on our play in our own end, defending away from the puck and making sure that we’re on the same page there.”

No one in a black jersey appeared to be even in the same section of the library on the opening goal of the contest, a short-handed score by Kraken forward Chandler Stephenson only 132 seconds into regulation.

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From the neutral zone, Crosby tried to feed a pass to Penguins forward Michael Bunting, but the two failed to connect and the puck hit off the boards at the visiting bench and slid in on net. Goaltender Joey Daccord settled the puck and alertly played it to the opposite side of the ice near the visiting penalty box for former Penguins forward Jared McCann. Turning to his left, McCann slid a centering pass to Stephenson, who hustled into the Penguins zone on the right wing. With Penguins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk applying minimal resistance, Stephenson fired a wrister to the far side that glanced off of goaltender Tristan Jarry’s blocker and trickled into the cage for Stephenson’s sixth goal this season. McCann and Daccord had assists.

It marked the second time in three games the Penguins have surrendered a short-handed goal.

Penguins forward Philip Tomasino tied the game with his fifth goal at 9:19 of the first period.

Off of Seattle’s end boards, Penguins forward Kevin Hayes banked a pass off the right half-wall to the near point where defenseman Kris Letang golfed a one-timer. Daccord appeared to make the initial save but allowed a rebound to leak into the blue paint. From the left of the crease, Tomasino fended off Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson and backhand whacked the puck into the vacant cage. Forward Drew O’Connor, who supplied a screen on the sequence, and Letang logged assists.

The Penguins took their first lead of the contest 4:42 into the second period when forward Bryan Rust scored his 17th goal during a delayed penalty.

With Jarry pulled for an extra attacker, Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Erik Karlsson played hot potato with the puck near the home bench before Karlsson fed a clever cross-ice pass from the top of the right circle to the lower left circle where Rust fired a wrister past the stick of a sprawling Daccord. Karlsson and Malkin collected assists.

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Former Penguins defenseman Jamie Oleksiak tied the game 2-2 with his third goal at 8:04 of the third period.

Settling the puck at the right point of the offensive zone, Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand offloaded it to Oleksiak, who was barging in past the blue line. Veering past a sluggish Malkin in the high slot, Oleksiak made his way to the left circle, avoided a kneeling Pettersson and elevated a wrister by Jarry’s blocker on the near side. Bjorkstrand and Larsson had assists.

The visitors reclaimed a lead only 40 seconds later via forward Eeli Tolvanen’s 11th goal.

Picking up a loose puck on the Penguins’ right half-wall, Kraken forward Shane Wright darted past Crosby in the right circle then slipped a pass by sliding Penguin defenseman P.O Joseph to the crease where Tolvanen had a step on forward Rickard Rakell and tapped a forehand shot by Jarry’s blocker. Assists went to Wright and defenseman Joshua Mahura.

Kraken forward Kaapo Kakko capped the scoring with his eighth goal on an empty net at 18:57 of the third. Larsson had the lone assist.

“We gave up way too much easy offense,” Pettersson said. “We’ve got to be way better in our (defensive) zone. We’re not nearly as close as we want to be to our checks. We spin away. We gave up the slot to them way too many times. We’ve got to look at ourselves in mirror here and ask ourselves if we want it enough.”

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Jarry stopped 14 of 17 shots as his record fell to 8-8-4.

“Losing this many in a row is tough for any team,” said Jarry, who has lost the last four games he has started (0-2-2). “We just have to pick ourselves up. We have to do the little things well, and I think that’s what we’ll get rewarded with.”

The Penguins look like they’re far from any kind of prize as they approach their daunting seven-game escapade.

“A big trip coming up here,” Pettersson said. “A big trip for us. There’s no way around it. The answer is in this room. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves how you win and do it consistently. We dominate them for two periods then we get in our (defensive) zone and we just want to spend time in the (offensive) zone. We don’t pay attention to details and give them looks.

“It’s really frustrating right now. And there is nobody else but us to fix it.”

Notes:

• Malkin was activated from injured reserve prior to the contest and returned to the lineup after missing four games due to an undisclosed injury.

• In a corresponding transaction, forward Jesse Puljujarvi was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. He became eligible for an assignment to a minor league affiliate after clearing waivers on Dec. 31.

• Bunting rejoined the lineup after being scratched for Sunday’s 5-2 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning as a result of an automobile accident he was involved in prior to the contest.

• Penguins defensemen Ryan Graves and Ryan Shea as well as forward Matt Nieto were healthy scratches.

• Stephenson’s goal was his 300th career point

• Daccord’s assist was his first career point.

• Daccord is the first goaltender to record a point against the Penguins this season.

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