Sorry, but I've OD'd on AB.
So if it's OK with you, I'll just push some loose pucks your way ...
• I'm loving this matchup tonight at PPG Paints Arena: Pittsburgh vs. Winnipeg. Hottest team in hockey against the very best from the NHL's West.
No, there's no attaching any actual importance to it. It's still a Friday night in early January, and these teams don't share a time zone, much less a conference.
Still, there's this ...
It's a tremendous run. It's saved a season, maybe even saved some jobs. It flipped from 4-8-3 beforehand into the 12-2-1 illustrated above. Not to mention the ongoing seven-game winning streak, capped by a perfect three-game trip through St. Louis, St. Paul and New York. That's a resounding success under any circumstance.
The individual facets have been no less uplifting: The star forwards have been stars, with Sidney Crosby accounting for 12 points in the past five games, Phil Kessel 10 in the same span and even Evgeni Malkin finding enough smelling salts for five points in the past four games. Jake Guentzel's climbing into that star forward category. Secondary scoring's now expected, not an act of God. Kris Letang's nothing less than the NHL's best defenseman at the moment. Brian Dumoulin's nearly matching him. And the goaltending, which had been the shortcoming, saw Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith lead the league in cumulative save percentage through December at .939.
Keep right on going with team facets, too: The power play's dominating, currently on an 8-for-10 cruise. The penalty-kill's been near-perfect, conceding one goal on 17 opportunities through the seven-game streak. And the defense has been ... man, how to begin describing this group giving up nine total goals over the streak?
And yet ... I'm not all the way there, you know?
Not even with the awareness that Malkin will be better and Justin Schultz will be back next month.
Let's see more. A lot more.
Sweeping the 25-12-2 Jets sure would bolster the creds. Remember, it was Nov. 27 up in Winnipeg that the Penguins put together their best performance to that point with a 4-3 win, one that had the locker room as fired up as I'd witnessed all winter. "A really good win for all of us" was what Crosby called it there, and it wound up at least setting the stage for the broader recovery:
Imagine another.
Imagine, with all due respect to the Penguins' streak that began in Washington, beating another elite team for bookends of an eight-game winning streak.
Imagine, then, righting a still-egregious wrong by taking care of the Blackhawks here Sunday night. Then putting down the Panthers, a team that invariably, annoyingly outpaces them, to cap the three-game homestand. Then embarking on another successful trip, this one a five-game monster to Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Imagine that going into the All-Star break.
Is that greedy?
Of course it is.
But, as Jack Johnson told me that same night in Winnipeg, "We've dug ourselves a hole, and we're going to be paying a price for that all season long now."
Yep. So let's see some goals against the NHL's big, bad Jets, not just against the miserable Blues, the boring Wild and whatever hilarious version of Henrik Lundqvist always shows up to face the Penguins. Let's see a shutdown of Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine. Let's see a physical resiliency to rival Jamie Oleksiak's bounce-right-off collision with Dustin Byfuglien that shook Manitoba to its crust:
And yeah, let's see that goaltending go right on excelling. Because it's all starting there.
• I know, I know, it's not football drama. But it's fun, isn't it?
• Seriously, before swinging right back to hockey, I've just got to mention that I did a three-hour radio show yesterday on 105.9 the X, and the thirst for the Antonio Brown subject is at extremes that, candidly, are uncomfortable for me. It isn't enough to rip AB and/or Mike Tomlin -- and both richly deserve it, one for being an idiot, the other for badly bungling the past few days -- but no, there has to be a pile-on about the Steelers' 'culture.'
All of the Steelers' issues in the past calendar year relating to bad behavior can be traced to Brown. All of them. Le'Veon Bell's holdout never was a behavior or 'culture' issue. James Harrison and Mike Mitchell have been gone more than a year.
This is an AB/Tomlin issue. It's a real one, but it's also the only one in this context.
I challenged listeners for the better part of three hours who protested this concept to name another player, another issue, anyone or anything at all. Not one could give an answer. Just a lot of parroted generalities.
Here's the full podcast if you're into self-torment.
If you'll excuse me now, as promised ...
• You know, the game tonight might not mean much within itself, but it's probably worth noting that the Penguins would overtake the Capitals for first place in the Metro with a couple points. For real.
• If Letang's got competition for the Norris at this stage, it's Mark Giordano in Calgary.
Of the usual Norris suspects, Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns and John Carlson haven't been at their peak, Drew Doughty's plunged off a cliff -- as we saw firsthand with the Kings' recent visit to Pittsburgh -- and P.K. Subban's been hurt, and I can't place high-scoring Morgan Rielly in this class yet as long as he's basically a fourth forward in the Toronto system.
Giordano's been legit, and he's been building up for a while, which Norris voters traditionally have valued more than with any other individual trophy. He's got six goals, 33 assists and a plus-29 rating for the Flames, as well as a five-on-five Corsi For of 55.46.
Letang's got nine goals, 26 assists and a plus-13 rating, as well as a five-on-five Corsi For of 55.15.
Should be interesting to watch the rest of the way. But hey, if I'm Letang, I'm weighting my argument with some head-to-head. You know, the Penguins' 9-1 annihilation of the Flames in Calgary two months ago, one in which Letang had two assists and was a plus-5 while Giordano was a minus-3.
Why not?
• No Byfuglien tonight, by the way. He's out until after the All-Star break with a lower-body injury sustained Saturday that Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice pricelessly downplayed as "a flesh wound."
Monty Python interplay aside, that's a big break for the home team.
• Quiz: After Crosby and Guentzel, who's got the third-best Corsi For among the Penguins' forwards?
For anyone who might not know, Corsi For tracks, plain and simple, the ratio of shot attempts the Penguins take vs. what they allow while a given player is on the ice. It's like plus-minus except it's for shot attempts rather than goals. It's a very good possession metric.
One hint: The player in fourth is way behind this one in third. So it's Crosby, Guentzel and this guy way ahead of the pack.
Another hint: You'll never guess.
• Best validator of any NHL team's status is goal differential. It does away with any disguising caused by late wins, late losses, overtime, shootouts and all that.
The Lightning are at an obscene plus-51, the Maple Leafs are at +34, and three teams are tied at plus-23: Penguins, Jets and Capitals.
You're welcome.
• Just as a reminder of what a climb it's been: The three teams with the worst goal differentials -- Flyers, Blackhawks and Senators -- are a combined 4-0 against the Penguins.
• Plan on watching the NHL All-Star Game?
Nope, me, neither. And I'm betting Chris Bradford will watch it only because he'll fly all the way out to San Jose to cover it.
So, if we don't watch it, why do we care who gets picked, who gets snubbed and who, like Alexander Ovechkin, decides not to go?
• Ever since higher-ups within the Penguins told me they're fed up with Derick Brassard and would love to trade him, his next 15 games saw him produce four goals, two assists and 26 shots on goal over exactly 300 shifts. He's also had a 42.49 Corsi For rating that's been the worst among all of the Penguins' forwards.
Don't let an occasional moment deceive. Nothing's changed.
• Oh, the quiz answer: Dominik Simon.
Coaches aren't stupid.
• If you haven't yet checked out Matt Sunday's 2018 Year in Photos, I'm afraid we can't be friends anymore.
Really, get over there. It's a project of passion by a burgeoning pro.
