It wasn’t a hockey night in Pittsburgh.
After all, Saturday’s game started at 3:21 p.m.
(And a bit later for anyone forced to take in the contest on ABC’s delayed telecast, which missed approximately the first two-and-a-half minutes of regulation.)
But the Penguins celebrated Mike Lange, the man who made hockey nights in Pittsburgh so special for decades, following his death at age 76 on Wednesday. Then they played their first game in a fortnight.
With the NHL largely taking a two-week break for the league’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the Penguins got back into the heat of a hot kitchen and were beaten like a rented mule in an 8-3 loss against the rival Washington Capitals at PPG Paints Arena.
The Capitals offered more moves than Mae West and overwhelmed the Penguins, at least in the second half.
The game was played at a fairly even pace for nearly 30 minutes before Capitals unleashed a tsunami of offense.
“I think it was 5:43 in the second period, the shots were 19-9 (in favor of the Penguins),” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We had twice as much offensive zone time as we did in the defensive zone. We felt pretty good about where the game was at even though we were down a goal. Then, we chased offense. And when you chase offense and you don’t have a recognition of risk/reward, you end up giving your opponents easy offense. As a result, that’s what we get.
“We beat ourselves so many different ways.”
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic was beaten in a myriad of ways as he stopped only nine of 14 shots as his record fell to 12-10-5. He was pulled after only 34:25 of ice time and replaced by rookie Joel Blomqvist.
“It’s the first game back off the break,” Sullivan said. “It’s not an easy game for anybody. I just felt like we needed to make a change at that particular point in time.”
The teams exchanged goals in the first period. Capitals forward Ethen Frank opened the scoring with his fourth goal 5:13 into regulation before Penguins defenseman Kris Letang tied it with his sixth on a power-play sequence at the 18:21 mark.
Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary’s second goal came only 70 seconds into the second period. Penguins forward Sidney Crosby responded at 6:36 of the second with his 18th.
After that, it was (almost) all Capitals the rest of the way.
Washington defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored his 15th goal at 10:38 of the second then scored again late in the period at 14:17.
Only 8 seconds later, forward Alexei Protas struck with his 23th goal, prompting Nedeljkovic’s departure.
Any hopes Blomqvist would stymie Washington’s surge were nullified when forward Tom Wilson tipped in a shot for his 25th goal.
The third period saw Capitals forward Dylan Strome (his 17th on a power-play sequence at 13:11), Penguins forward Danton Heinen (his seventh at 14:22) and Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime (his seventh at 17:19) pad their statistics.
Blomqvist stopped 14 of 17 shots he faced in 25:35 of action.
“A lot of times we looked too much to create offense and we gave up too many odd-man rushes, and they scored on pretty much all of them,” Penguins forward Rickard Rakell said. “It was not a great (performance) for us during the game. It just can’t happen.”
Notes: Before the game, Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was activated from injured reserve and rejoined the lineup after missing six games with a left knee injury. … Penguins forward Bryan Rust remained on injured reserve after falling ill on Friday. … To make room for Malkin on the active roster, forward Emil Bemstrom was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. … Penguins forward Boko Imama was scratched because of an undisclosed injury and remains day-to-day.