NEWARK, N.J. -- "1-2-3-4 ... 1-2-3-4 ..."
Jared McCann made it sound like a Broadway ensemble or a Brazilian samba, the way Mike Sullivan rattled off all of the Penguins' forward lines throughout their desperately overdue victory over the Devils on this Tuesday night at Prudential Center.
"There was just this energy going through all of us," the kid continued telling me. "I thought Sully did a great job of getting everyone involved, getting everyone pumped and participating ... there was a real rhythm out there. We could feel it. All of us."
All that might have been missing musically was that the boys prevailed, 4-3, in three-quarter time.
It mostly began in the second period, a rare one in the NHL as neither side spent a second in the box. Coaches love that stuff. Players do, too. It's how they're conditioned as children, rolling and rolling and rolling, one line after the next. Ideally, too, it's all on the fly because it's only common sense that the world's fastest sport hates to stop.
If hockey has a pulse rate, this is it.
And if these unpredictable yet unflappable Penguins ever get around to forging that long-awaited identity ... this probably has to be part of it, right?
I don't know. I've wavered on this, I'll admit. When Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are everything they've been of late, especially Malkin, all things seem possible. When Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist are being their best selves -- and don't fret on the latter two -- there are the makings of a superlative top six. Zach Aston-Reese's latest revival only helps.
But then, I weigh that this team's greatest single shortcoming has been its inability to consistently apply its greatest single principle: Defend at the other end. And within that, I wonder how far they might go in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Because the bulk of the blame for the inconsistency has always been on the forwards here.
So, take these two points for what they were worth: You know, two points. Bad, banged-up opponent, but still two needed points.
Then hear this:
Yeah, he kind of liked it, didn't he?
"When we talk about a team identity and how we're trying to play and what does 'Penguins hockey' look like ... that's it," the man spoke. "We're defending up the ice with puck pursuit. It's a five-man unit, and it's cooperative play. We need everybody to understand their role, their responsibility. And when we add the urgency, the sense of purpose, we're hard to play against."
And that's initiated, in his mind, by finding that rhythm through rolling the lines. Which he could do in that second period, one that saw the Penguins score both goals and dominate the Devils territorially.
"It was nice where we had a period where there weren't too many penalties and so we could get into a flow a little bit. We could just roll 'em over the boards," Sullivan added. "And I thought the guys were into it. Their shift lengths were reasonable. We were making good line changes. And we just kept rolling 'em and rolling 'em over the boards. We really liked the energy that was on the bench, and it was translating onto the ice."
Rolling, rolling, rolling like this evenly distributed shift chart:
NaturalStatTrick.comSo he liked it?
"Yeah. Yeah, I did. We need everybody to have the juice to play the game the way we want to play it."
Now, that might seem obvious, given that any coach anywhere would want to roll four. But let this underscore why this coach has never stopped mining for forward depth.
The question, then: Do they have it here now?
Jim Rutherford has five days until the NHL trade deadline Monday, and that call will be his. (No, not necessarily the call he was making standing right outside the locker room after the game. That might as well have been for a New York-style pizza pie.) At the same time, the players on the ice can, over the coming week, immensely influence that call.
How about that second line since Aston-Reese was added, huh?
With his mom, dad and sister in the crowd, skating in the building where he once sprinted up and down the lower-bowl steps in training as a Staten Island all-star, he buried the above icebreaker, then was part of a superb shift alongside Malkin and Kessel to set up Chad Ruhwedel's winner. He also destroyed the Devils' Mirco Mueller on a loud check into the boards early on.
Take this from someone who met with Aston-Reese's family at intermission: Sullivan might love him more.
"It seems like, ever since he's been a Penguin, he gets to the point where he gets comfortable, gets some traction, starts to take ... and then he's gotten hurt," Sullivan said. "Right now, he knows he belongs. He knows he's an NHL player. He knows he can help us, whether it's in the top six or another role."
Add that to Malkin Unleashed and the implied inevitability that Kessel will someday resume shooting pucks, and the second line seems fine.
The third might remain a work in progress for a while, but it's got promise. Hornqvist is Hornqvist. He hasn't scored in 14 games, and that only puts us one step closer to the next eruption. McCann's been a frighteningly good fit from the moment the police escort arrived at PPG. And Bjugstad ...
... is beginning to do a bit of that.
That tied the score, 2-2, late in the first and, though it came on the power play, the point stands that he, too, is finding his fit. Sullivan's decision to switch him to center affords both of the Sunrise newcomers a chance to work where they're most comfortable -- they're sharing faceoffs depending on the rink position, and they're both equally free to skate up the middle if it's there -- while also showing faith.
"I'm honestly fine with either one," Bjugstad told me, "but I've always felt like I could create more offense from center."
There it was.
Then there's the fourth line, which now comes complete with two spare parts each night. Matt Cullen's the mainstay, flanked on this night by a vibrant version of Tanner Pearson and the Corsi-friendly version of Dominik Simon. They were stuck with an undeserved minus early on a Jesper Bratt shot Matt Murray should have stopped -- more on that later -- but otherwise looked ... not all that different than the other three lines.
"I thought Cully's line was really good all night long," Sullivan said. "They were on the puck. They were physical. They brought a ton of urgency, a ton of energy to the ice tonight."
So did the first line, as always, highlight by Guentzel going the full Paul Coffey with this setup for Rust:
Again, it's one game. It's two points. But the guy on the phone would undoubtedly prefer paying for his pizza with cash rather than draft picks.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Marcus Johansson
Devils left winger
Sorry, I know New Jersey lost, but this was the best player on either side by a mile. A goal, an assist, a career-high eight shots, four blocked shots, and I'm not even scratching the surface. He's available for trade, by the way, and Ray Shero's price didn't exactly drop.
2. Kris Letang
Penguins defenseman
Still paying attention to plus-minus? Well, give that up already. Letang was a minus-1 and was magnificent, beautifully breaking up a two-on-one ...
... matching Chad Ruhwedel's team-high four shots on goal and killing it on advanced analytics: He was on the ice for nine scoring chances for the Penguins, zero for the Devils. The Norris march continues.
3. Chad Ruhwedel
Penguins defenseman
What a score. What a celebration. All spelled out below in The Play.
THE GOOD
Beating the Devils. I'm serious.
Because it hasn't mattered that they've been in last place or that they've lost a quarter of their roster to injury, including reigning Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall since before Christmas. New Jersey won all three previous meetings this season by a combined 15-6, and that extends back to 6-0-1, if including last season. And in this one, too, the Penguins had to overcome early 1-0 and 2-1 deficits.
"It feels good to get a win against this team," Rust would say. "This is a team that's been giving us fits for a long time now. They're a team that works really hard, and we had to come out here and match that urgency. I thought we did."
The matching of urgency had been the theme of Sullivan's morning speech to the players.
"Every time we've played Jersey, it's a hard-fought battle," he recalled sharing. "There's no secrets out there. We know exactly what we're going to get from them. They play with structure, they're well-coached, and it's hard to play against those guys. This game wasn't so much about skill. It was more about will. That's what we talked about beforehand."
THE BAD
Murray was miserable. More miserable than his stats -- 30 saves on 33 shots -- and more miserable even than that mindboggling Miles Wood ... I can't even call it a shot ... that brought the Devils within 4-3 with 4:50 to go:
Wow.
This wasn't at all how he'd hoped to bounce back from getting yanked Saturday against the Flames, but I'm only guessing at that since he didn't appear in any mood to commiserate afterward.
Sullivan's generous assessment: "I thought he was pretty solid, for the most part. I mean, obviously, that one that squeaked in for the third goal, it is what it is. But other than that, he made some timely saves for us."
My own assessment: Casey DeSmith has to play Thursday night against the Sharks and, if he fares well, Saturday night outdoors in Philadelphia. The priority right now isn't about who's No. 1 or No. 2 or, perish the thought, who gets the prestige of playing in all that pageantry this weekend. It's about collecting points. And if DeSmith presents the best chance to be stable for the very next game, then he should be the choice for the very next game.
THE PLAY
Ruhwedel's played four games now since being scratched from the previous 37, and he's been the best version of himself: Understated, dedicated, diligent and ... oh, yeah, he can gun a one-timer.
Midway through the second, he ripped this on Kinkaid:
That isn't common. Most of the Penguins can't/don't do that often. Ruhwedel seldom settles the puck and, yet, he can get his shot off authoritatively and accurately.
And seven minutes later came this cannon from center point:
My goodness.
I had to ask ...
THE CALL
Sullivan made one lineup switch before the game, and it proved significant, reinserting Pearson over Blueger, then watching Pearson put up a 52.94 Corsi For percentage, plus executing lots of little stuff like this dig-deep backcheck in the first period that boomeranged a two-on-one the other way:
That's good hockey. And it's emblematic of what Pearson had cited as his objective at the morning skate, saying, “They want me to be part of the forecheck. That’s kind of where my game can be pretty good, causing turnovers and working along the boards, making plays out of that situation. And probably getting a few more shots.”
Before coming to Newark, I asked Mike Lange who would be his key player to watch down the stretch, bowing before his amazing ability to see hockey things before they happen. The Hall of Famer didn't hesitate: "It's Pearson. He's got a lot of what the Penguins need, and he's been there; he's won it all. I think you're really going to see him step up."
Hm.
So when I asked Sullivan afterward to assess Pearson's night, this came back: "I thought Pears had a great game."
Buy him a drink and get his dog one, too.
THE OTHER SIDE
The Devils, 23-29-8 and still last in the Metro, haven't enjoyed a whole lot over the winter, so it's easy to see how following up a rare two-game winning streak by losing to a team they'd owned could be legitimately disappointing.
"We've done well against Pittsburgh, and I still think we did," Keith Kinkaid said after stopping 24 of 28 shots. "But we've lacked that consistency, that ability to take it through all 60 minutes. That's what got us here more than anything, just a few minutes where we let down a little."
"I liked our first and third periods," John Hynes, the coach, would observe flatly. "We were deficient in the second."
THE DATA
• The Penguins have won four of five, their best such stretch since the first five games of January. And just like that in the airtight East, their 32-21-7 record has them third in the Metro and five points behind the first-place Islanders.
• Kessel didn't register a shot, and he attempted only one. (It was blocked.) He also committed a giveaway that led to a New Jersey goal and a tripping penalty. He's now gone 10 games without a goal and, in that span, he's registered one or zero shots in eight of those games.
• Hornqvist's own goal-scoring slump is now at 14 games. He registered one shot in this one.
• Crosby's assist on Aston-Reese's goal extended his points streak to six games, over which he's put up two goals and 10 assists.
• Malkin's assist on Ruhwedel's goal moved him within eight points of 1,000.
THE INJURIES
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder and is expected to miss a month. He's on IR.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines/pairings for this game:
Guentzel–Crosby–Rust
Aston-Reese–Malkin–Kessel
McCann–Bjugstad–Hornqvist
Pearson–Cullen–Simon
Dumoulin–Letang
Johnson–Schultz
Petterson–Ruhwedel
• And for the Devils:
Johansson—Hischier—Bratt
Wood—Zajac—Palmieri
Agostino—Coleman—Anderson
Seney--Rooney--Stafford
Greene—Severson
Mueller—Gryba
Butcher—Lovejoy
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are off Wednesday, traveling back from Newark. Their next game is Thursday, 7:08 p.m., against the Sharks at PPG Paints Arena. Taylor Haase will lead our coverage.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything, including Matt Sunday's View from Ice Level and a rinkside Morning Java video.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins at Devils, Newark, N.J., Feb. 19, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS____________________
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