See, that's the problem with raising the bar, right?
A couple months back, it would have been beyond cool to consider the Penguins climbing within a couple wins of the Stanley Cup Final, squaring off against an opponent missing a couple of its top talents. It would have been storybook stuff.
Suddenly, it's imminent disaster. And there shouldn't be any soft-pedaling it.
Not after this stab to the heart turned out the lights at Consol Energy Center late Sunday night and maybe for the year:
Why, just listen to what Patric Hornqvist had to say shortly after Tyler Johnson's overtime goal Sunday night lifted the Lightning to a 4-3 victory in Game 5 and a 3-2 lead in this Eastern Conference final, "If we play the way we can, we'll be fine. We'll be back here for a Game 7. There's no doubt in my mind about that."
Did you get that?
No, not the pseudo-guarantee, but the part where it's underscored that what's transpired so far has been wholly unacceptable.
"If we play the way we can, we'll be fine."
The man's undeniably right. Because he's playing for the more talented, faster, healthier team. And that's the real shame of this position the Penguins have dug.
I don't care who this offends or why, but all that they've achieved to this point since Mike Sullivan's takeover will have come undone with a loss to the fourth-best team left in these playoffs. And sorry, but that's precisely where Tampa Bay ranks as presently constituted, missing Steven Stamkos and Ben Bishop while still not seeing peak form from dynamic defenseman Anton Stralman, just back from a broken leg.
That's the group that's poised to eliminate the NHL's hottest and, by most observers' accounts, the very best remaining team.
That's the group that's poised to bounce back from a 2-1 series deficit after being dominated so badly in Game 3 that historians were scurrying for precedent.
That's the group that, against all odds, is bound to go back to the Final.
Unless, of course, the local club gets its collective act together.
"You know, this is the first time we've been in this position," Sullivan would say of facing elimination. "I know that our guys will respond the right way. They have for four months, five months now. So any time your back's against the wall, you have to heighten the urgency that much more, heighten the intensity that much more."
Maybe they'll do that. He's certainly right that this team, until these Games 4 and 5, hadn't lost two in a row since mid-January.
But hear this loud and clear: If the Penguins are going to take this series, they'll have to do it from the top down.
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