Penguins Grades: Broken Record, Issues Demand Change

Story by

Story by
Penguins Grades: Broken Record, Issues Demand Change

NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins at Montreal Canadiens — IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Dan Kingerski · Pittsburgh Hockey Now

Sun, November 1, 2026 at 3:41 AM UTC ·

9 min read

About Our Ads

MONTREAL —The Pittsburgh Penguins are not good in the defensive zone. And 14 games into the season, they have shown they're equally inept at puck management. Even coach Dan Muse admitted he sounds like a broken record, but the Penguins again made bewildering mistakes in the defensive zone, and turnovers cost them yet another game.

The Penguins smoked their own meats against the Montreal Canadiens, before a furious third-period comeback fell short. The Penguins deservedly lost to Montreal 5-4 at Bell Center.

However, the comeback wasn't much of a salve for the Penguins. Captain Sidney Crosby , who had a goal and two assists, essentially dismissed it as too little, too late against an opponent who eased up.

"I think just when you're down, obviously you get a little more aggressive, and sometimes it's a little bit of us being aggressive and then maybe (them) sitting back a little bit," said Crosby. "So, within two, there's still a lot of hockey left in the game, and I thought we pushed pretty well, and just couldn't find a way to tie it up."

The Penguins' breakdowns were once again ruinous, and rookie goalie Sergei Murashov battled his game as much as he battled the puck, allowing a couple of soft goals in addition to the team's defensive coverage leaving him fully exposed on a few more.

Montreal twice scored two quick goals, 27 and 24 seconds apart, respectively. And they scored several goals on chances NHL teams don't get but once every few weeks. For the Penguins, they gift can't-miss chances several times per period.

"I know it sounds like a broken record, but we didn't play consistently," Muse said. "I think tonight–hockey is a game of mistakes, so mistakes are going to happen–but you can't let (them) be able to get two quick ones, or even sometimes just shifts where they're getting multiple chances back to back. We need to be better at just controlling momentum. And tonight, I thought that factored in."

Murashov was not sharp Saturday. He put himself and the team in a first-period hole, but the team did little to help. Murashov also rebounded well in the third period, making a few sparkling saves to give them a chance to tie the game.

**Make no mistake, the public consternation over his recent struggles fails to understand that this is indeed what a rebuild looks like. Young players will struggle. Sometimes, they will struggle for a lengthy time. The number of people ready to toss him overboard is as misguided as the team's defensive coverage.

But as the Penguins' defensive corps continues to more closely resemble a Penguins defensive corpse, goalies are going to give up five, and losses will mount. It's time to clean up the personnel on the blue line, and it's probably time to make plans for that long-awaited, albeit dreaded, rebuild.

It is fair to say after 14 games of the same, of more repeats than summer network TV, this is the Penguins. And this isn't good enough.

"We have these areas that a lot of it is very preventable and are things that are within our control … But right now, it's just–you can't play half a game. You can't play two periods," Muse said. "Like we need to build on and play a certain way for a full 60 minutes. So there are going to be mistakes. Can we react better after mistakes happen? We can, but we've got to figure it out quickly."

Sure, the Penguins can keep working on cleaning up issues, but mistake-prone players are going to make mistakes. The core issue probably deserves addressing, too.

The team has just two regulation wins in 14 games this season. The team is routinely abandoning their goalie, missing assignments, and has more passengers than a Greyhound bus.

Things are not going well, and everyone knows it, even if they can't admit it. Note Crosby's dismissive tone about the comeback. Notice Muse's exasperation in the postgame, as well as the tongue lashing he delivered during the second-period timeout, which speaks volumes.

"Yeah, I mean, we've got to clean them up. If we don't, then we're not going to give ourselves much of a chance to win games," said Crosby. "So, whether it's off the rush or end zone, yeah, we've got to do better."

Interestingly, the Penguins were better when they were depleted and had supposedly lesser players in the lineup. Those Penguins were more connected, determined, and played a cleaner game with fewer of their mistake-prone "regulars."

The Penguins now have the second-worst winning percentage in the Eastern Conference, with no signs of improvement.

Xs and Os

This is the time when social media and fans start to pick their scapegoats and harp on that player's mistakes. Unfortunately, the Penguins have far too many nominees who are earning their criticism.

**In the first period, the Penguins' defensemen were discombobulated by Montreal's forecheck. The pressure was average and certainly wasn't suffocating, but the team fumbled and struggled to get out of their own zone. Breakout passes went to no one, or worse, to Montreal.

**The breakouts were a little better in the second period, but still not consistent enough to generate speed and attack out of the zone.

**However, the biggest tactical problem remains the D-zone coverage. In a word, it's awful. Declan Carlile is struggling with the Penguins' system. Twice, he was more than 40 feet from the net on Montreal goals, to the surprise of his teammates, who didn't cover.

Montreal forward Chris Kreider scored the fourth goal when he had three whacks near the crease because Carlile chased the play out to the blue line, and Hendrix Lapierre played a zone coverage in the slot, despite needing to cover for Carlile by playing man-to-man on Kreider near the net.

The Penguins stepped into a similar puddle of whoops on Montreal's third goal, when the Penguins turned a three-on-three rush into a short breakaway. Egor Chinakhov played a soft gap on the puck carrier, and Carlile jumped forward to cover instead of maintaining man coverage on the winger. The duplication meant two Penguins converged on the puck in the high slot, leaving Alexandre Texier all alone.

The goals were far from isolated incidents, but they were a couple of the jaw-dropping gaffes that lit the lamp.

Those two goals were 27 seconds apart.

Is it a matter of too many new faces? Somewhat surprisingly, the defenseman who has been the most stable is lefty Spencer Stastney, who was acquired in the Filip Hallander trade that brought much public and media consternation.

"Yeah, I think (some of the issue is the group is still jelling). I mean, I'm still a little new here and still figuring it out, but I mean, it's a great group of guys," Stastney said. "I think right now we're just trying to get those mistakes out of our game in the D zone and be a little more solid there. So I mean, there will be times like tonight where it doesn't go your way, but hopefully we can bounce back and figure it out."

**Even in the offensive zone, Montreal's tight defensive pressure was one problem. The other was self-inflicted, as the team didn't hang onto pucks. The cycle game was thwarted by lost battles but also by chucking the puck into open space rather than holding onto the puck to draw defensive attention. As a running theme this season, the Penguins wanted to play on the rush, rather than wear down a mobile crew of defensemen with low possession.

These messes prevent the Penguins from gaining momentum. The deficits allow opponents to play a defensive game with confidence, but also attack with gifted chances.

Penguins Report Card

Team: D

Enough is enough. Four goals pale in comparison to the repeated mistakes. The Penguins converted chances, but nine shots in the first 33 minutes and 10 or 11 shots in the first 37? No bueno.

The Good

Sidney Crosby: A

Crosby just needed a couple of hot dogs and the Montreal crowd to jump-start his season. That was Sidney Crosby.

Rickard Rakell: A

He was good on the puck when the Penguins could play with it in the offensive zone.

Spencer Stastney: A?

He had five shots on goal and cleaned up a few messes. Simple and stable. Given the relative chaos on the blueline, his steadiness shines.

The Rest

Declan Carlile: F

His mistakes and struggles with the system are devastating. He wasn't making the mistakes early in the season or training camp, but his game has gone off the rails. He as a direct culprit on two goals.

Egor Chinakhov: AWOL

Chinakhov had two shots on goal but four misses. He has just four points (2-2-4) this season, but his impact is notably absent.

Sergei Murashov: Rookie

So, the deal with Murashov is that he's struggling to slow the game down. He's not playing a confident, quiet game. Inside the mask, the game looks chaotic, and he's playing chaotic. In each of his last two starts, he was quite good in the third period, when he admitted the game slowed down for him. PHN asked him if the game slowed down again for him in the third period Saturday, especially after he made a few brilliant saves. He paused for what seemed like an eternity.

"Good question because (long pause). Yeah I don't have an answer for it right now. Like, it seems like no, it seems like yes," said Murashov. "Like, you can go in between. like a lot. So, I'll just take a moment. I will take a look at it, and yeah, we'll see. But right now, I don't really know."

That sounds like a goalie who is getting a little rattled by the shell shock he's being exposed to by terrible team coverage.

Kuzmenko-Lapierre-Koivunen: F

Kuzmenko remains a non-entity in the Penguins lineup, and it's probably time to consider Rutger McGroarty in his place.

Overall, the line had one shot at 5v5, but allowed seven. They had one scoring chance, but allowed six. They did not pressure in the offensive zone.

And the Penguins' messy struggles continue.

Related Headlines