The Pittsburgh Penguins are now eight points out of a wild card spot, trailing 14 other teams in the Eastern Conference. They are seven points behind the New York Rangers for third place in the Metro Division, and things are only getting worse.

The Penguins were bad again Thursday. They had just one shot in the first 15 minutes of the game. While that lonely shot was a goal by Justin Brazeau, rookie mistakes by veteran players who know better and a refusal to persist with a simple game kept them on their heels for the majority of another game.

No, the Boston Bruins are not a Stanley Cup favorite just yet, but they are formidable, especially for a team that makes mistakes o’ plenty. Except for a good 10-minute push in the second period, the Penguins’ flaws dragged down their game in a 6-2 loss to Boston at PPG Paints Arena.

“I thought we were recovering pucks (in the second period). I actually really liked some of the looks and the O-zone that we were getting, and the types of looks. And then, then we stopped doing it,” said coach Dan Muse. “Maybe it’s because not enough are going in. I don’t know the answer, but we have to have to be …. to be patient. You don’t have to force anything because that’s what they want. And again, when you do that, now we’re hoping that something good will happen, and it’s not how you play the game.”

The Penguins’ game wasn’t flat, nor entirely disengaged, but their level of competition rose and fell in waves. Yet mistakes continue to be the oversized anchor on too long a chain, pulling their ship beneath stormy waters.

In fact, the Penguins kept pace with Boston for much of the first period, though they rarely had a sustained attack. They were on the wrong side of Boston’s transition game and charging headlong into Boston’s defense. But late mistakes, including a wicked turnover by Erik Karlsson late in the period, again squandered potential, putting them in a deep 3-1 hole.

As a matter of pushback, the Penguins had a promising first half of the second period in which they controlled play, but again, turnovers and defensive lapses put them in an insurmountable 5-2 hole after 40 minutes.

Later in the second period, after yet another inexplicable sequence of absentminded hockey, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby slam, slam, slammed his stick off the boards when Pavel Zacha scored his second goal of the game. It was a breakaway goal resulting from more Penguins chaos, a bad line change, and failure to chip the puck into the zone, to make it 5-2 late in the second.

For the record, Ville Koivunen tried a cross-the-blue-line pass to Justin Brazeau instead of getting it deep, but Penguins defenseman Kaedan Korczak had a second chance to dump it in for a line change. He, too, failed, hitting Brazeau with the puck, and Boston’s lightning-fast transition game launched Morgan Geekie for a breakaway goal.

Crosby’s slammed the boards in front of the Penguins’ bench. His blade ricocheted across the ice. The captain and the fans had enough as boos rained down from the modest crowd after the second period.

The Pittsburgh Penguins remain their greatest opponent, and for the most part of the 2026-27 season, their demons are far superior to their better angels. The nightly breakdown of the goals was another who’s who of whoops.

“I think it’s just like (we need to) keep improving, trying to simplify the game,” said goalie Arturs Silovs. “I think going back to the basics, what works, you know? Do the things that don’t require much skill. Dump the pucks in, win the battles. The competitive mindset. And I think sustaining it for a whole game is gonna have a good result.”

Xs and Os

A veteran team cannot and should not be this consistently inept at the fundamentals of puck management and defending.

“(If) we go off of tonight, and it was a lot. It was puck play. Some of it was defensive positioning. Some of it was coming off the wall battles. I think right now for us, it’s obviously there’s a number of things that crept in tonight, and I think we’re not going to fix them all overnight, but we have to start making those corrections.”

In fact, the Penguins’ generational DNA is to charge ahead for offensive pressure. Their lineage is to be creative. But perhaps it has been many, many years since a team was so careless, leading to so many puck mistakes and necessarily playing more defense (and more mistakes).

The Penguins abandoned chipping the puck deep. They didn’t provide puck support, especially to the defensemen high in the zone. Defensemen were backing up rather than playing tight gaps.

Thursday was going to be a terrible matchup for the Penguins. Boston is rigidly structured, almost always with greater numbers back, thus taking away a rush game, but they also pressure high and have one forward ready to fly the zone.

It’s the worst possible scheme for the Penguins to face, but somehow, the Penguins made it even worse for themselves.

As a prime example, the Penguins yielded a two-on-one midway through the third period, which Fraser Minten buried for a 6-2 lead. Then, on the very next shift, defenseman Sam Girard was trapped on the offensive blue line with nary a passing option in sight. He was abandoned, which led to a two-on-none.

Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs made that save. His stats continued to be beaten like a rented mule despite his otherwise stellar play.

Things the Penguins consistently did well:

Yep.

The Penguins’ attack found energy in the second period. They found connectivity with the simple game. They dumped pucks deep. They had success creating a forecheck, which also kept the Bruins deep and denied their ability to pressure points and send a runner.

The Penguins’ resistance, nay, refusal, for puck support or a simple game only fed Boston’s transition and Silov’s nightmares.

Penguins Report Card

A couple of performances deserve to be noted with poor grades, but otherwise, we’ll note a few players who generally played well. One player who didn’t get a grade was Hendrix Lapierre, but his steadfast support as a high F3 kept their line in the game.

They get a few points for a good 10 minutes in the second period in which they adopted the simplest fundamentals of chipping pucks deep and getting on them. Otherwise, watching them self-destruct remains as painful as blocking a Zdeno Chara slapshot.

The Penguins mustered just 18 shots on goal but had 55 shot attempts.

The Penguins’ top defenseman was a minus-4 after the second period. At 18:57 of the first period, Karlsson’s blatant turnover in the defensive zone gave Elias Lindholm a breakaway goal.

Even on Zacha’s two-on-one goal, Karlsson had backed in so far as to make it almost a two-on-none. The harder he tried, the worse it got Thursday. Karlsson was in the quicksand.

Silovs gave up only goal that wasn’t an odd-man rush. A couple of breakaway goals, a couple of two-on-ones. The only goal in which he wasn’t hung out to dry was Mark Kastelic’s pretty deflection goal in the first period.

Koivunen was involved in the Penguins’ first-period goal and delivered a couple of hits in the second period (but not credited). His shot deflection hit the post, momentarily exciting the home crowd in the second period. His game notably improved in the second, but he could benefit from taking it to the next level. He still seems tentative in spots, too.

His forecheck set in motion the first goal, which he then finished with a heavy wrist shot from the right circle. He provided good puck support and a heavy presence; the fact that the Penguins wasted it doesn’t affect his grade.

The fourth line was the only Penguins line with a positive expected goals-for ratio (54%). Blake Lizotte showed speed and began pushing the play. Dewar distributed well in the offensive zone. And the trio were generally on the puck.

Crosby did not have a shot on goal. Nor did Rickard Rakell. After some pressure in the first period, the line was swimming upstream. They were defending rather than attacking. Because they stepped onto the ice just before Geekie’s breakaway goal, they were a minus-3. In reality, they were “only” a minus-2, but the absence of their offense speaks to another abysmal Penguins game.