It looked like the Penguins were going to skate away with a stress-free victory leading the San Jose Sharks 5-1 in the middle of the third period. But as the theme has been this year, they went and blew it yet again and only got 1 point as defenseman John Klingberg danced Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang and beat Arturs Silovs for the game winner.
It is getting embarrassing how many leads the Penguins are blowing and how many points they just keep leaving on the table. They would be in a safe playoff spot at this point if they just figured out how to close games and win in regulation.
There seems to be a common denominator of Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang being on the ice late in games trying to protect leads and it never works. They are always out there trying to do everything they can to defend and the puck always ends up in the back of the net.
Not to mention that the Penguins were up 5-3 late in the game and Bryan Rust went for the empty net at center ice and hit the right post. Rust needs to be able to hit that empty net and ice the game. There are no excuses for why the Penguins lost this game.
It is getting very inexcusable all these mistakes and all these points the Penguins are leaving on the table every time they lose in overtime or a shootout. It is getting to be very tough to watch night in and night out. It is very frustrating to watch the team dominate an opponent and then sit back and stop trying.
Whenever they get a decent lead, they just play not to lose and let the silly mistakes take over and it is very aggravating. Dan Muse knows that him and his team are way better than this. Some kind of changes need to be made because this is ridiculous right now.
Some veterans need to sit or someone needs to be traded or something needs to change on the coaching staff. There are no easy answers, but something needs to change and fast. They need to do what they can to figure this out and make some kind of change to make a spark.
A trade or a waiving of a veteran or a players only meeting. They have lost too many overtime or shootout games because they blew leads. They take on Utah on Sunday afternoon and need to salvage a regulation win going into next week. It is imperative.