Jake Guentzel can't beat the Flames' Mike Smith on the backhand in the third period Thursday. - AP

Penguins

Kovacevic: In spite of OT loss, visible progress brings Sullivan praise

Nov 3, 2017 • 1:26 am

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CALGARY, Alberta -- They aren't exactly the all-the-way-for-real Penguins yet, but it's entirely possible that this is as close as they've come.

Close isn't good enough, of course, and the outcome of this 2-1 overtime loss to the Flames on a snowy, freezing Thursday night on the Albertan plains didn't result in satisfaction, much less celebration. That much was clear all through the Scotiabank Saddledome's visiting quarters.

As Sidney Crosby told me afterward, "You're looking to get better, but you're always looking for results."

That's an understandable sentiment. The captain, like his team, has performed much better over these past 48 hours, including the 3-2 win the previous night up the road in Edmonton. But he hasn't scored a goal in seven games, and he went without a point for the sixth time in this 15-games-young season. Show me a scorer who isn't scoring, and I'll show you a righteous scowl.

But on this night, with all due respect, the bigger picture's got to take precedence. Partly because of the flatline losses in St. Paul and Winnipeg that opened this five-game trip. Partly because, oh, you know, the Penguins were 0-4 in second legs of back-to-back sets and were annihilated by an aggregate 29-7, as I'm guessing you've heard a time or 20. Or 200. And partly because Tristan Jarry would be making his season debut amid management's hopes that he can finally settle the backup goaltending job.

In turn, they got a 32-save gem from the kid, they opened with a 19-8 shot storm on counterpart Mike Smith in the first period, they wound up with a 44-34 edge in spite of abysmal officiating that handed the Flames four of the game's five power plays and, after Calgary struck first on one of those power plays late in the third period, they still salvaged a point on Patric Hornqvist's deflection goal with 1:12 left:

They even dominated the overtime, against an opponent that had been sitting idle since Sunday and should have shown the fresher legs, though it was Mark Giordano who ended the three-on-three at 2:19 with this laser:

Anyone still care to complain?

Well, Mike Sullivan was doing that a lot early in this trip, but it was quite the contrast after this:

Let's type out that assessment for emphasis: "This was one of the better games that we've played, back-to-back or no back-to-back. This is definitely the best game we've played on this trip, and we probably deserved a better fate. We liked a lot of our game tonight."

Think that's hype?

This is what Glen Gulutzan, Calgary's coach, had to say: "They were determined, from our point of view, to end this back-to-back thing of theirs, and our goalie bailed us out. It's as simple as that. They came at us with a Stanley Cup championship performance, and our goalie bailed us out. That’s one of the best goaltending performances I’ve seen in a long time."

The praise for Smith was effusive and universal, as it should have been. In addition to his usual stand-tall, square-up stance that swallowed up the Penguins' longer-range shots, he also stopped no fewer than five players on clear or near-breaks: Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Brian Dumoulin, Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary all had one-on-one chances, and all were stuffed.

"Our goalie was our best player by a mile," Giordano said. "And honestly, we kind of knew he'd have to be. Our whole team was talking about their back-to-back situation, and we thought they'd come out a really desperate team. Which they did."

Which is why the visitors seemed at least guardedly uplifted. The collective focus, meaning from the coaching staff to the players, has been on team defense and puck management from the moment their charter flew out of Winnipeg. To that end, that process began with a lasered message at practice Tuesday in Edmonton regarding forwards tracking back through the neutral zone and staying in closer clusters when attacking. The defensemen were similarly admonished to work off those facets. And by the time they beat the Oilers, it at least began.

Well, this wasn't just a continuation.

"It was progress," Rust told me. "It really was."

"A lot of things are getting better," Ryan Reaves fairly echoed. "I think, more than anything, you're seeing guys come together, figure out how we're all going to play, and it's ... it's getting there."

All except for one thing.

"We just need to score," Crosby said, and that can't be questioned. The Penguins' past seven games have seen goal totals of one, two, two, one, one, three and one. And this isn't a group that's ever considered itself unable to beat any goaltender, even one who played as Smith did.

But the notion that these guys are going to have some challenge getting back to scoring, especially since they've averaged 33.1 shots over these same seven games ... yeah, that's the problem they'd want to have.

Hey, maybe they'll have a riot in Vancouver.

WHAT'S BREWING?

• A newly invigorated Friday Insider offers legit inside material not just on our major-league teams but now, for the first time, our colleges, too. Total team effort, one that's led by Katie Brown here with me in Calgary. That includes our sponsorship from Point Park University.

• Speaking of Katie, she's got a separate piece isolating on Jarry's wonderful performance here. I hope you don't miss that or my one-on-one interview with Reaves on his penalty. We're covering the Penguins with every resource we've got.

• Also worth a look each Friday is Taylor Haase's one-of-a-kind Favorites and Likes collection of Pittsburgh sports social media.

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