History has shown that NHL clubs in the hole currently occupied by the Pittsburgh Penguins rarely manage to dig themselves out.
The Penguins, by virtue of Monday’s 3-0 shutout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff showdown, now trail 2-0 in the series, which heads to Xfinity Mobile Arena for Games 3 and 4.
NHL record keeping lists clubs facing a 2-0 postseason deficit as having come back to win the series only 13.9% of the time (58-360). Similarly, teams like the Flyers who go up 2-0 on the road have gone on to win their series 80.4% (90-22) of the time.
“I think we’ve been in some tough spots all year,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said postgame Monday at PPG Paints Arena. “We’ve always responded really well to adversity. It seems like it’s brought out the best in all of us. I think that getting on the road and having a situation like this hopefully brings out the best in us again here.”
For the Penguins, silver linings following Monday’s defeat would be visible through only the rosiest of glasses.
Offensively, they saw significantly more zone time than in Game 1 and upped their total shots on goal from 18 to 27. But none found the back of the net.
The Penguins, who finished the regular season third in the league in goals per game (3.54), second in goals scored five-on-five (201) and third in total goals (290), have netted all of two through two games.
Furthermore, Philadelphia continued to frustrate a potent power play, as the Penguins went 0 for 5 over eight minutes on the man-advantage.
In fact, the only goal managed on a Penguins power play Monday was by the Flyers, with Garnet Hathaway scoring shorthanded late in the second period.
Garnet Hathaway had one goal in 66 games this season.
He now has one goal in two playoff games this season!
(via: @NHL)pic.twitter.com/ej39nNNAkw
— BarDown (@BarDown) April 21, 2026
So what has to change before puck drop Wednesday evening in Philadelphia?
“Good question,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “It’s obviously something that we’re going to have to figure out. I don’t think that we’ve played, collectively, the game that we have throughout the year. It doesn’t feel like we’re as comfortable as we want to be, and it’s frustrating.
“(The Flyers) are doing a good job. There’s nothing else to it. They’ve outplayed us, like I said, for six periods now. And we’re down two-nothing because of it.”
As a group, the Penguins have a wealth of combined postseason experience to lean on in trying to right the ship ahead of Game 3.
Including Monday, the 18 skaters Pittsburgh dressed, plus goalie Stuart Skinner, have appeared in 1,024 total playoff games.
That group, plus coach Dan Muse and his staff, will now try to put their heads together to identify and enact solutions.
“Obviously, we’re not going to be happy about this,” said Skinner, who took another loss Monday but stopped 20 of 22 shots. “Tomorrow is a new day. I think we can give ourselves a chance to be upset, be frustrated with this loss and when the sun comes up tomorrow, it’s a new day, a new opportunity for us to get better and become tighter as a group, especially when it comes to playoff time. I mean, you’re playing every other day, so you can’t dwell on losses.”
The Penguins’ ability — or failure — to do so on a quick turnaround will move the odds needle one way or another.
Clubs facing a 2-1 series deficit have come back to win 31% (178-396) of the time, while those who go down 3-0 have overwhelmingly (4-209, 1.9% win rate) bitten the dust.
“We should be frustrated,” Muse said. “We just lost two games at home, and so I think with frustration comes, how are you going to respond? How are we going to respond? I would hope every single guy in that room, entire staff — nobody’s happy right now. Nobody should be.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to have to make a decision in terms of, are we going to stay with this? Stay with what we want to do? Get to our game, which we haven’t gotten to in two games? Or are we going to let frustration continue to boil over into the next one? That’s going to be a choice that we, together, and all of us, including myself, are going to make here, hopefully in the next 24 hours.”