My knee-jerk reaction to how bad the Pittsburgh Penguins have gotten in the third period of hockey games is to say that it’s mental. It’s psychological at this point.
I don’t want to do that, though, because it lets them off the hook. It’s giving them an excuse for what’s going wrong — like, they can just snap out of it eventually or something.
I’m starting to believe that isn’t the case now. I’m starting to believe that, despite a stronger-than-expected start to 2025-26, this Penguins team is just morphing into the losing squad we expected them to be.
And it is manifesting in the form of these massive blown third-period leads. I’m talking about seeing a 5-1 lead in the third Saturday against San Jose evaporate, and a 3-0 lead against Utah disappear too.
The Pens went on to lose both games in overtime. They’ve now lost five in a row, four of which ended in overtime or a shootout.
During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, I advanced my theory to Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive.
“It’s in their DNA,” Madden said. “The minute the other team got their push going, you could see that they weren’t going to be stopped. I don’t know if (the Penguins) roll over and die, if they get confused, if they just say, ‘Here we go again.’ But once it starts, it just does not stop.”
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While not the only problem, Madden says goaltending has been an issue — particularly in the last two defeats with Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs between the pipes.
“Murashov made a ton of good saves (Sunday), and Silovs made a couple on Saturday. But if you allow all those goals in the third period and blow a lead, the good saves don’t matter,” Madden said. “You’ve got to win the game, and their performances in the third and in the overtimes were just simply unacceptable — both goaltenders, both days.”
Despite the goaltending woes late in games, Madden insists general manager Kyle Dubas was right to deal Tristan Jarry to Edmonton earlier in the week.
“He did that because the minute you had a chance to dump the next two years of his deal, you had to do it,” Madden said. “He just did that to get rid of Jarry’s remaining two years after this at $5.375 million.”
Madden says these losses are a stark reminder to Dubas that he should stick with the original offseason approach to 2025-26, regardless of how well Sidney Crosby (19 goals) may be playing.
“If this continues — not losing like this, but just losing — you’ve got to look at trading (Rickard) Rakell, (Bryan) Rust, (Erik) Karlsson. Getting rid of aging assets. Because the thought of a playoff run for Sid with this group — one last hurrah — looks like folly right now,” Madden said. “That’s the main takeaway for me, that Dubas needs to get back to his original plan and not screw around thinking that this team could make the playoffs, let alone win a series.”
Also, during the podcast, Madden and I talk about why the veterans may be more to blame for these blown leads than the young players on the team. We also preview “Monday Night Football” between the Steelers and Dolphins. We discuss T.J. Watt’s odd lung injury. And we have a laugh at the Pirates’ alleged interest in big-name free agents.