All was not lost for the Penguins, who were defeated by the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday night for the second time in four days.
There was a bright spot after their 6-4 defeat at PPG Paints Arena:
The Penguins don't have to play the Avalanche again this season until the Stanley Cup final.
You would love to see that, right? Even if that matchup might be a little one-sided? OK, brutally one-sided?
I actually felt a little better about the Penguins after these two losses than I did after their two recent losses to the New York Rangers, their most-likely first-round opponent in the playoffs. The Avalanche, clearly, are the NHL's best team and clinched a playoff spot Tuesday night by increasing their point total to 106. They were much better than the Penguins despite playing without injured Nazem Kadri, their top point producer, and captain Gabriel Landeskog, their second-leading goal scorer. They won these two games without a combined 56 goals and 142 points from those two stars.
It's not that the Penguins didn't challenge the Avalanche at times. They were especially good in Colorado Saturday, losing a tough one, 3-2. They were in the game Tuesday night before it got away from them in the third period.
Tristan Jarry wasn't bad — especially Saturday — but he wasn't nearly as good as Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper. For the Penguins to have any chance against that caliber of opponent, Jarry has to be terrific.
Jarry was beaten Tuesday night on a long wrist shot by center Nathan MacKinnon — one of the top handful of players in the NHL — that gave Colorado a 3-1 lead in the second period. He then gave up a long slap shot by defenseman Josh Manson early in the third period that pushed the lead to 4-2. There was no way the Penguins were climbing out of that hole. Colorado is 34-1-2 when leading after two periods.
Kuemper stopped 38 of 40 shots Saturday and was good when he had to be Tuesday night, turning away 18 of 19 shots in the first period. He finished with 41 saves despite giving up late, cosmetic goals by Jake Guentzel and Mike Matheson. If he plays that way in the playoffs, it's hard to imagine the Avalanche not hoisting the Cup. They should be a heavy favorite going in, especially if Kadri and Landeskog get healthy.
At least the Penguins challenged Kuemper. In their two losses to the Rangers — 5-1 on the road March 25 and 3-2 at home on March 29 — they managed just a total of 45 shots on goaltender Igor Shesterkin. They couldn't handle the Rangers' relentless forecheck, often failing to even get out of their end. They scored just four goals in three games against the Rangers, winning the first game when Jarry was strong in a 1-0 shutout on Feb. 26.
Now, the Penguins and Rangers will meet for the final time in the regular season Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt for the Penguins to score a few goals if only to create a little doubt for Shesterkin. They certainly could use a win after going 2-4-1 in their past seven games and 10-9-2 in their past 21. They trail the Rangers by four points in the race for second place in the Metropolitan Division and home ice in that potential first-round series. Each team has 11 games left.
"Very big," Marcus Pettersson described the Thursday night affair.
"Huge game," Bryan Rust called it.
"Huge," Pettersson said, coming around.
"We've got to come out and establish ourselves," Rust said. "We've got to kind of show them who we are."
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
There's only one word to describe the game.
Huge.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter @RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Cook and Joe" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
