Crosby shut down, offensive woes and more: 3 reasons why Pittsburgh Penguins lost 4-1 to Winnipeg Jets

By Nestor Quixtan

Modified Nov 23, 2024 03:05 GMT

The Pittsburgh Penguins suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The Jets got goals from Nino Niederreiter, Vladislav Namestnikov, Gabriel Vilardi, and an empty-netter from Kyle Connor. Meanwhile, Michael Bunting got the Pittsburgh Penguins on the board with a powerplay marker in the third period.

Here's a closer look at three reasons why Pittsburgh lost to Winnipeg on Friday.

3 reasons why Pittsburgh Penguins lost to Winnipeg Jets

#3. Penguins' defensive struggles continued

The Winnipeg Jets, the league’s best team thus far this season, took advantage of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ defensive struggles to grab the win.

In particular, Namestnikov’s goal results from an odd-man rush that the Penguins couldn’t control. The play started with the Penguins getting a rush chance. After gaining the Jets’ zone a shot from Sidney Crosby went wide, leading to the Jets coming back the other way.

At that point, the Pens were caught deep in the Jets’ zone. The Jets, with speed, broke away with Nikolaj Ehlers taking the puck into the Pens’ zone. Ehlers dropped the puck back to Namestnikov, who took a shot and had plenty of time to bury his own rebound.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Penguins’ players were late getting back into the play. The lack of defensive effort essentially made the game easy for the Jets to dominate.

#2. Penguins struggled to get the offense going

Pittsburgh managed just 18 shots on goal. It had 13 shots through 40 minutes. In the third, Bunting’s powerplay goal spoiled the shutout for Connor Hellebuyck who otherwise had an easy night.

The Pens had trouble getting all their lines going, despite consistently rolling out all four lines. The Jets' high-flying, puck-possession style was too much for the Pens to handle on Friday night.

#1. Sidney Crosby shut down

The Jets shut down Sidney Crosby, keeping him off the scoresheet the entire night. Crosby finished the game with two shots in 18:36 of ice time.

Crosby’s frustration boiled over in the third period as an exchange of words with Kyle Connor led to Crosby dropping the gloves. While the fight didn’t set off many fireworks, it seemed more like a desperate attempt to spark his team.

In a way, it did work, as the Pens got on the board a few minutes later. However, the Jets put the game away with an empty-netter.

The loss further sinks the Penguins into the Metro Division cellar. The Penguins will have a chance to get back on track on Saturday night as they take on the Utah Hockey Club.