Another loss to the Blackhawks in 2 out of 3 seasons eliminating the Penguins from making the Stanley Cup Playoffs? Yeah, sounds about right and should not be shocking at all. After defeating the Dallas Stars on the road Saturday, the Penguins laid an egg on the road against the Blackhawks Sunday and ended their slim hopes of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Now fans and management can point the finger in several areas if they so choose, but is someone more to blame than others or is it a combination of a bunch of areas? Well, let's go ahead and take a look and see who is really to blame.
The goaltending
It feels like this area has plagued the Penguins ever since they hoisted the Stanley Cup back in 2017 when they defeated the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Penguins just cannot seem to find any consistency in their group of goaltending no matter who they have out there or bring up from Wilkes Barre.
Tristan Jarry: 14-11-6 with a 3.26 GAA and a .888 SV% to go along with one shutout
Alex Nedeljkovic: 13-5-5 with a 3.16 GAA and a .894 SV% to go along with one shutout
Joel Blomqvist: 4-9-1 with a 3.81 GAA and a .885 SV%
These numbers really did not help the Penguins and seriously let them down. Jarry and Nedeljkovic's final stats will change over the course of these final four games, but this is a major area to blame.
Deploying Ryan Graves and Erik Karlsson
Any hockey fan or Penguins fan at that, would agree that having watched Ryan Graves and Erik Karlsson all season long, that they were exhausting and agonizing to watch each and every game.
They both do not know how to play defense to the slightest and were always out of position. Both have awful contracts and will be hard to get out of unless they retain some money on either player or throw in a sweetener to get someone to take them.
They both were also a major area to blame but goaltending still takes the cake on this one.
Watched that goal a few times. Still cannot figure out what Erik Karlsson was doing or looking at.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) April 5, 2025
Nonetheless, that's Evgenii Dadonov tying the score at 1 at 10:43 of the first period. Snaps a 17-game goal drought for him.
The Penalty Kill
While the Penguins powerplay had been really good all season, the same cannot be said for their penalty kill.
Within the last half of the season it seemed that they were allowing a goal or two on the PK every two or three games. It was insanely hard to watch as key saves were not made and key shot blocks were not made.
The Penguins penalty kill currently ranks 19th in the league at 77.7% and that is not a good number and really plagued them this year.
Another key factor for missing the playoffs was the penalty kill but it was still the goaltending that did the most damage.