It's possible that the Penguins have weakened their defense by trading Ian Cole.
I mean, there's no way to rule it out, right?
Certainly we can't know before the rigorous test of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was a two-time champion here, a heart-and-soul figure on and off the ice, and he was probably a better all-around hockey player than most might have realized over his tenure. So much more than a stay-at-home shot-blocker.
Oh, and there's this: Since the Feb. 23 trade, the Cole-less Penguins have given up an average of 3.53 goals, third-most in the NHL, and 31.5 shots, 13th-most in the league and -- wow to this next one -- have killed penalties at a pathetic 68.9 percent rate, including another power-play goal allowed Sunday in the 5-4 overtime victory over the Flyers at PPG Paints Arena.
Total shot blocks out of Philadelphia's 59 attempts: 9.
Total in the past two games: 17.
Total number of Penguins apparently intent on applying to matador school: 17 ... meaning every skater but Tom Kuhnhackl.
It all sounds awful. And ominous.
Even Mike Sullivan, who's previously attributed the poor PK to lousy puck luck, made a stark reference after this game to insufficient shot-blocking when short-handed.
"That’s an area where I know we have to improve," Sullivan said. "And that’s a mindset. In my opinion, it’s a willingness to play the game hard. It’s a thankless job, but it’s an important job. It’s happening five-on-five, but it’s also happening on the penalty-kill, and that’s one of the reasons it’s been a struggle as of late."
He never mentioned Cole. But that's fine, since anyone can block a shot. As the man said, it's "a mindset" far more than it's a skill set.
Look, not just anyone can eat a Roman Josi slap shot for a snack, like Cole did, and not just anyone can fill lanes, angle the body, jut out the stick and all else that made Cole maybe the NHL's best in this category. Also, not everyone should be trying those things, because there's negligible value to having superstars lying prone in front of triple-digit slap shots.
But you'd better believe anyone can fulfill something as simple as being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. Most often, the mere presence of a body in the path of a potential shot is enough of a deterrent. It'll force a shot to go wide or a dish-off. Other times, it'll take a bruise or worse.
For a week now, the Penguins have chosen none of the above.
And yet, that's all we're talking about, just a week: In the Penguins' first 61 games, they blocked an average of 14.5 shots per game. Since the trade, they've blocked an average of 14.6. Maybe they've been softened up by the very recent string of lesser opponents, and maybe they've just gotten away from that good habit, but it's still a week.
Who wants to bet on a 20-plus block total Tuesday night in Detroit?
• Please, please, please, no regrets over the Cole trade bringing Derick Brassard?
Just as Brassard can't match Cole's defensive impact, Cole can't do this:
Brassard's only clearing his throat. That finish, that resultant emotional celebration in the corner and his streak of six games now with a point are the opening act to what he's done everywhere he's been in the games that matter.
Remember, this dude was playing statue hockey for two years in Ottawa:
Also, bear in mind, he's a creative talent who needed -- and openly sought -- time to mesh with his new linemates. That didn't happen for a good while with Phil Kessel, but the third piece had also gone mostly missing. It still can't be considered set, either, though Conor Sheary's excellent flip pass to spring Brassard for the breakaway drew more than an assist.
"I thought their defenseman was kind of cheating on Conor," Brassard said, referring to the Flyers' Valtteri Filppula, who's a winger and not a defenseman, but whatever. "I kind of got inside, and that was just a great play by Conor to put it into space so I can skate into it."
• Anyone like these new defense pairings?
I found at least one positive, but not more. In spoken words:
• This from the never-ever-take-this-era-for-granted dept., but Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby both scored breathtaking goals after holding onto the puck far longer than anyone in the NHL should be able to hold onto a puck:
Malkin's was already great for his having dangled from here to Philly and back on a six-on-five sequence with the goaltender pulled for a delayed penalty, so it really didn't need the bonus Mike Bullard-esque toe-drag around Jordan Weal, then the zip between Andrew MacDonald's skates to ensure Alex Lyon couldn't see it. Watch the glove go up as the shot beats the blocker.
Poor Weal was shaking his head the whole way back to the visitors' bench.
"That's just what they do," Bryan Rust would say of the resident icons. "That's why they are who they are."
• Funny, but if you include the superlative Crosby-Rust connection in overtime, the Penguins scored four gorgeous goals and one by Patric Hornqvist.
And that's maybe the most fun hockey sentence I've ever written.
• Big-league rosters aren't determined in spring training. As Bob Walk once blithely shared with me, any front office knows in the winter who'll play on opening day, barring injuries or the most dramatic fluctuations in performance.
That can be frustrating to accept at times, though, so it's still welcome to see the scholarship types — for lack of a better term, referring to those players the front office would love to see make it — actually earn their way.
Colin Moran was anointed the starting third baseman by the Pirates seemingly within minutes of being acquired in the Gerrit Cole trade, this despite having all of 16 games to his name in the majors and being a rather old prospect at age 25. But he's gone out and batted .346/.370/.793 in Grapefruit ball, as well as showing a solid glove. There are still real worries there — only two walks in 54 plate appearances, only four extra-base hits and that oh-so-long swing the American League scout described for me down there — but it's not like he let anyone down.
But Tyler Glasnow was handed a long-relief spot, no questions asked and no apparent qualifications necessary. And that's just more of the same silliness that sees these guys perennially try to force draft picks on the roster in hopes that someone will be fooled into thinking they haven't been the absolute worst at drafting/developing in all of Major League Baseball during their tenure.
Glasnow pitched five times in Grapefruit ball -- I covered one of those in Sarasota -- and struck out 25 while walking five. Which is awesome in isolation. But his wildness was now confined to within the strike zone, where hitters found enough dead-red heat to bat .324 off him with 14 runs, 22 hits and three home runs in his 16 innings.
It's absurd that he'll fly north. Not just because of that, but because he's proven nothing at the top level, even in spring settings.
• Francisco Cervelli, enjoying a surreal .400/.488/.829 spring with four home runs, is going to have a fine 2018 provided Clint Hurdle shouts him down and sits him down more often in favor of Elias Diaz. It won't be easy.
• Here's guessing from all these billboards around town promoting the home opener that it's got as much of a chance of selling out as a Nickelback tour stop at Heinz Field.
• Kevin Colbert wouldn't make headlines if he were the first man on the moon. It's just not his way. So trying to decipher what he and the Steelers might be thinking requires one part actual quote, one part knowing a little about his code and, of course, two parts speculation.
Here's what Colbert told our Dale Lolley on Sunday at the NFL owners' meetings in Orlando, Fla., when explaining why the team has put on hold any attempts to sign Le'Veon Bell: “We are where we are. We’re not intentionally ignoring it. It’s just that more urgent business has to be taken care of. We’ll reassess where we are. He’ll reassess where he is and interests are, as well. I anticipate we’ll get back to that once we get through the free agency period and maybe even through the draft. You don’t know. The draft can change things on both sides.”
Wait, the draft can who what?
How does one not interpret that as tossing up the possibility of drafting a running back?
• Colbert also strongly suggested the Steelers will pick up the fifth-year option on Bud Dupree, though I doubt it ever came into doubt internally. As the GM worded it, "He's shown us enough signs that it can happen and will happen."
I'm a Bud believer. Been on record in that regard for a good while, and his 14.5 sacks through 38 career NFL games point toward real reason, especially when it's weighed that Keith Butler flat-out refuses to let him regularly rush the passer. No, he isn't always super-slick in his technique, but letting him do it more often sure couldn't hurt, given all that natural athletic ability.
• Bud gets tagged as the second coming of Jarvis Jones. Jarvis couldn't physically get through anyone. Bud can. He just needs to be smarter about it. I'll take that.
• How did Joey Porter keep his job while Carnell Lake and others on the defensive side lost theirs, when Porter's outside linebackers have led the list of underperformers since his hiring?
• Here's hoping Pitt unearths exactly the right basketball coach with exactly zero name recognition, if only so that early expectations can be fair. Because Kevin Stallings didn't just leave this cupboard bare. He took a spike-tipped sledgehammer to the whole kitchen while Jamie Dixon went and got his own show on HGTV.
• The Riverhounds didn't win or get a goal in their scoreless opener in Nashville, but their outright dominance of a heavily-bankrolled opponent was the otherwise optimal outcome. To boot, they demonstrated an authoritative chemistry on the attack -- especially Kevin Kerr and Joe Holland out of the midfield -- that could prove as entertaining as it is effective.
It's going to be a fun summer for soccer around here, and that's wild to even conceive.
• Hug someone you love, my friends. Tell them you love them. Show them you love them. Every day.
