‘It’s Hard To Digest’: Penguins Give Up Two Goals In 50 Seconds, Lose

After team losses, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan rarely lets his emotions get the best of him.

But following Pittsburgh’s 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday – a loss that saw a 2-1 lead spiral into a 3-2 deficit in just a 50-second span during the third period – he had a hard time holding back.

“What needs to change is a commitment to play defense,” Sullivan said. “That’s what I think. We weren’t willing to play defense. We didn’t spend a lot of time in our end tonight, but the time that we did, we weren’t committed to playing the right way.

“They score two goals in the third period on non-event scenarios. It wasn’t like we were under siege. It wasn’t like they were coming at us in waves — it was none of the above. It was two plays or two scenarios that were in my mind, were non-events. But we didn’t pay attention to details, we didn’t stop, we didn’t protect the good ice, we didn’t get stops in the corners, win puck battles, block shots — it boils down to details. We weren’t willing to do it tonight.”

As was the case against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, the Penguins were the better team for the majority of the game on Tuesday. They outshot the Kraken, 16-2, in the first period, but they had just one goal to show for it – as was the case against the Lightning.

This time, however, the Kraken had a goal of their own on one of their two shots in the first, which came in the form of a shorthanded goal by Chandler Stephenson. Philip Tomasino scored on a no-quit play around the net-front that the Kraken thought was dead – which came near the midway point of the first – and the Penguins took a 1-1 tie into the second.

Bryan Rust tallied his 17th of the season early in the period, which was the result of a beautiful passing play by Erik Karlsson and the rest of the cycle in the offensive zone. They held the 2-1 lead until just over eight minutes into the third, when former Penguin Jamie Oleksiak and Eeli Tolvanen scored 50 seconds apart. Kaapo…