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Dan Muse's late-game decisions draw criticism after recent Penguins losses


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Daniel Lucente
December 10, 2025  (10:45)
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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse speaks to his players during a stoppage
Photo credit: Edit from The Hockey Writers

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse is facing criticism for the players he deploys late in games when the team needs to protect leads.

Dan Muse has been a stabilizing force for the Pittsburgh Penguins this year, and he certainly is a candidate for the Jack Adams Award. Nothing, of course, can erase the gaffe that he committed on Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks.
"That doesn't excuse the mistake he made on Tuesday."

- Josh Yohe
When the Penguins had a one-goal advantage toward the end of the game, the power play opportunity came with 18 seconds left and a face-off in the advantageous zone. This was one of those situations when it was important to play it safe.

What Dan Muse did that drew criticism

However, Muse sent out Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang, who do not often play together as a unit.
Crosby got the face-off, but Anaheim picked up the puck. Crosby and Novak could not stretch the break-out, and Anaheim went in on the attack shorthanded in the last seconds.
Beckett Sennecke brought it down the ice on the left side, stayed on the edge of the ice around Bryan Rust, and extended the play into the zone. Letang attempted to knock the puck instead of bodying him, missed, and left a hole.

Why the arena suddenly went silent

Karlsson went down, and Sennecke's attempt bounced off the bottom of Karlsson's glove and into the net with a fraction of a second left.
The arena went silent. The Penguins had outshot the Ducks 47-28 and taken the lead on a power play goal by Anthony Mantha.
In overtime, the four-on-three power play opportunity gave looks to Sidney Crosby and Connor Dewar, the latter of whom hit the post on an open net. The game got to the shootout, where the Ducks took the win.
For the Penguins, it was another shootout loss in a long string of them, and a night full of criticism towards Muse.
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DECEMBRE 10   |   130 ANSWERS
Dan Muse's late-game decisions draw criticism after recent Penguins losses

Has Dan Muse been deploying the wrong players late in games when the team has to protect leads?

Yes10983.8 %
No2116.2 %
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