"I think every game, from here on out, is going to be of that intensity. And you have to match it or exceed it."
This was Jack Johnson, snapping off his shin pads as we spoke late Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, after the Penguins neither matched nor exceeded the Blues' intensity in a 5-1 flop.
And no, this wasn't about daylight hockey. Spare me the meme. These guys were wide awake. The legs were there from the opening faceoff. As was the crisp tape-to-tape passing. Couple of quality chances. Big saves, too, by Matt Murray. So don't paint this as one of those patented matinee bombs because that wouldn't come close to being accurate.
All that happened was that the other guys were visibly that much more determined.
"Yeah, they came out hard," Marcus Pettersson was telling me. "They came out way harder than us."
Look, I'm not big on condensing team sports to simple intangibles -- it's generally a gross oversimplification -- but what I witnessed here, first and foremost, was an opponent that stormed the ice as if this were Game 7. The Blues weren't just physical. They were chopping like lumberjacks, from Robert Bortuzzo to that notorious enforcer Oskar Sundqvist. They didn't just skate the puck up ice. They soared in a five-man swarm. They didn't just go to the net. They crashed it from all points.
That intensity.
And it should have been expected: The St. Louis story has been one of the most uplifting in the NHL all winter, the rise from last overall to sudden Stanley Cup playoff contention. So, after a rare 0-2-1 bump, not least of which was a miserable 2-0 loss Thursday in Ottawa, they bounced back big.
To hear Mike Sullivan tell it, it was expected: "We didn't have the start we wanted to. And that was something we talked about before the game. We knew they were going to play with a certain level of desperation. They'd lost a couple in a row, they're fighting for the playoffs, and they're a good team. So we knew we were going to have to bring a certain level of urgency from the drop of the puck."
They had some, but it wasn't a match, which is how Sundqvist and Vince Dunn struck for the 2-0 lead before intermission:
Then for two more, by Pat Maroon and Jay Bouwmeester, in the opening 2:41 of the second period, chasing Murray:
There's effort from the Penguins in all of those. In some cases, notably those involving Sidney Crosby, it feels silly to question effort. But again, it wasn't a match.
I asked Craig Berube, St. Louis' coach who should be a Jack Adams Award finalist, about his team's desperation, that urgency.
"Yeah, it was definitely there for us right away," he replied. "I really liked our urgency."
Also asked Jordan Binnington, the spectacular rookie goaltender whose 40 saves included at least a half-dozen of the highlight-reel level:
I know, I know. No one cares about the other perspective. But, to reiterate Johnson's sentiment, this matters to the Penguins beyond this single outcome for this single reason: They'd better get used to it.
Sunday night, it's the Flyers right here. They at least think they're still alive.
Tuesday night in Raleigh, it's the Hurricanes, a direct combatant in the East.
Thursday night in Nashville, it's the Predators, one of the best in the West, and Wayne Simmonds' new employer.
Saturday night in Dallas, it's the Stars, now two points removed from these Blues in the same conference.
"If you don't match it or exceed it right away, you're going to get behind the 8-ball like we did here," Johnson continued. "Look at the standings right now. You've got teams fighting for playoff spots top to bottom. It's not just us. It feels like it's almost everyone. We've got to keep fighting. The whole way through."
Murray concurred:
It's crazy but, as I type this, the Penguins are four points out of first place in the Metro, six points ahead of the ninth-place Canadiens currently holding the top non-playoff spot in the East. And in case it skipped notice, that was little different following the three-game winning streak that preceded this loss.
Fact I: This team's likely to win the division if it plays to its peak.
Fact II: This team's one lousy week away from sitting out the playoffs altogether.
Fact III: Time's ticking. Ten games remain. Twenty points to be taken.
It's not more layered than that. Everything else is fine. And if Kris Letang and/or Bryan Rust can return against the Flyers, it'll be that much finer.
"I think our mentality has to be a playoff one," was how Crosby worded it. "Sometimes, it doesn't go your way, and you've got to forget about it. Fortunately, we play tomorrow. Our mindset's got to be on that and making sure we come away with two points."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Vince Dunn
Blues defenseman
Two goals, top-shelf, part of a three-goal output for St. Louis' defense.
2. Jordan Binnington
Blues goaltender
We've heard about this superb rookie from afar and, candidly, it was a blast watching him in person. He's now 19-4-1 with a .931 save percentage, for crying out loud.
3. Pat Maroon
Blues left winger
Razzle-dazzle move set up Blues' third goal, big-bodied screen set up the fifth.
THE GOOD
Uh ... the power play?
Watch the determination and puck movement on this one in the first:
Yeah, they'd go 0 for 4, but they were all over everything throughout, including peppering Binnington with 11 shots. And coming off two games in which they'd gone 5 for 8, the performance of the top unit remained richly encouraging.
Still ...
"They moved the puck great, and we knew they would," Binnington said, "but there was also some plays we were shown on video they like to do, back-door stuff, that we were aware of. I feel like we did well to stop a lot of those."
THE BAD
Murray?
Nah, that'd be another case of gross oversimplification.
Four goals on 13 shots sounds awful, but it didn't look that way. He made four superlative stops among his nine and, as Sullivan explained: "The reason we took Matt out wasn't performance. As I said to the players afterward, three of the goals we gave up were right from the slot. We have to do a better job as a team defending that area of the rink if we're going to win consistently. That, for me, is the hard lesson we learned today."
Murray's assessment: "It was more about quality than quantity, I think. They had a few really good chances, and I wasn't able to make the saves. So I definitely have to be better."
Casey DeSmith conceded one goal the rest of the way, and it won't matter. Bank on Murray facing the Flyers.
THE PLAY
No one had it rougher defensively than the top line. Taylor Haase has that in Drive to the Net.
THE CALL
Officiating wasn't a variable in this outcome, to put it kindly, but all crosschecks need to be called for the safety of the participants.
This was Bortuzzo on Malkin early in the first:
Squarely in the ribs. Felled him for nearly a minute.
Bortuzzo additionally crushed Crosby in the upper back in the second. Neither was called.
There aren't many uglier offenses in hockey than using the stick as a weapon. Admirable as it's been that the NHL has pushed hard to cut down slashing -- including a sharp call on David Perron for whacking Guentzel on the gloves -- it often feels like the crosscheck's been left behind.
THE OTHER SIDE
Binnington's earned all the headlines under the Arch and, with saves like this one on Patric Hornqvist in the second period ...
... that's as it should be.
But the undercurrent to the Blues' surge has undoubtedly been the blue line, where the defensemen now have scored 44 goals, most in the NHL. Dunn's first on this day was his 10th of the season, marking the first time in franchise history that three defensemen achieved double-digits. The others are Colton Parayko and Alex Pietrangelo.
"We know we've got a bunch of guys here who jump into the attack," Dunn said. "It's a big part of our game."
It's something else that could be a lesson for the Penguins, as the Flyers, Hurricanes and Predators are all wired the same way.
THE DATA
• Dominik Simon's goal, a standstill turnaround from the right circle in the second period, ended a 20-game slump. Taylor's got more on that, as well.
• In addition to their 41 shots on Binnington, the Penguins had 16 others blocked by the Blues and missed with nine others for a total of 66 attempts, or more than one per minute.
• Crosby was held without a point for only the second time in 11 games, a span in which he's still produced eight goals and 11 assists.
• The Blues are 8-1-2 in their past 11 games in Pittsburgh.
• Phil Kessel will play in his 319th consecutive game with the Penguins on Sunday, tying Craig Adams for the franchise's iron-man record.
THE INJURIES
• Kris Letang, defenseman, missed his 10th game with an upper-body injury.
• Bryan Rust, forward, missed his ninth game with a lower-body injury.
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, missed his third game with a hip injury and is out longer-term.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his ninth game with an upper-body injury and is out longer-term.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11. He’s on IR.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
McCann-Crosby-Guentzel
Blueger-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Bjugstad-Hornqvist
Blandisi-Cullen-Wilson
Dumoulin-Trotman
Johnson-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
• And for Berube's Blues:
Schenn-O'Reilly-Perron
Maroon-Bozak-Thomas
Schwartz-Sundqvist-Steen
MacEachern-Barbashev-Sanford
Dunn-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Del Zotto-Bortuzzo
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are right back here Sunday, 7:38 p.m., against the Flyers. After that, it'll be another dozen days to the next game at PPG Paints Arena, as a four-game trip will follow to Raleigh, Nashville, Dallas and New York.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Blues, PPG Paints Arena, March 16, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS