The conversation in the Flyers' room couldn't have been clearer.
There were Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere, three of their foundational players, standing in one corner, openly discussing -- no, dissecting -- every slice of one particular sequence of the game in which they'd just participated. And demonstratively flailing their arms. And shaking their heads.
You know, like all the rest of us.
Upon completion of this little congregation, I approached Voracek, a pretty good dude, and asked the glaringly obvious: Have you ever been on a team that had a four-on-two break in the final minute against a team that's up a goal?
"Uh, no," he came back. "I don't think so."
Then, accompanied by a thumbs-up, he added, "But thank God, right?"
Probably not the Penguins' sentiment, I'm guessing.
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This finish was awful.
No, not Couturier's overtime goal with 3.4 ticks left to complete the Flyers' 2-1 escape. Three-on-three's always a crap-shoot, even if the Penguins have only known the first half of that term in this facet.
I'm talking about that four-on-two:
That's James van Riemsdyk with the redirect behind Matt Murray. That's 18.8 ticks left in regulation. And yeah, by all that's holy in hockey heaven, that's a four-on-two for the Flyers entering the Pittsburgh zone.
What happened?
"What happened?" Jack Johnson repeated my question back to me, still visibly incredulous. "We gave up a four-on-two or three-on-two with, like, 15 seconds left. I mean ... that just can't happen."
Johnson hadn't yet seen a replay. He wasn't even aware who all was on the ice at the time. He wasn't pointing fingers.
Which is fine. I'll get to that.
But the bottom line, the part that might make this result hurt the most -- that should make it hurt the most -- more than the blown point in an airtight Eastern playoff race, more than winning what likely will be the first of many games minus Evgeni Malkin, more than the blown opportunity to bury their archrival from the same playoffs ... is that it's nothing new. It just isn't. It's symptomatic of the same, sickening inconsistencies this team's slogged through all winter.
"We needed to defend harder," Mike Sullivan began at his postgame press conference, though it could have been any of a dozen. He was asked, of course, about the four-on-two. "We didn't have numbers back. And we should have had numbers back."
He's right. Obviously. So let's call out the numbers:
The black sweater at the top of the above screen is Jared McCann, a tremendous addition whose effort's never come into question. On this sequence, as I'd confirm in the room, he's F1. That means he's the high forward, or first on the forecheck. But, as is plainly evident up there, he's achieving nothing. He was too high in allowing Couturier to skate right around him and did nothing to disrupt the outlet from Gostisbehere to Couturier.
The same video above also shows Bryan Rust. He's F2. That makes him responsible for cutting off passes up the strong side of the rink, in this case Gostisbehere's side. Since Gostisbehere instead went through the middle, that mission was accomplished. But here again, Rust's too high, given that it's the final 30 seconds and there's negligible benefit to pressure.
Here's a better look at why:
See how late Rust and McCann both are in returning?
There's a time for F1 and F2, and there's a time to simply stay on "the right side of the puck," as Sullivan relentlessly stresses. Rust and McCann are looking at the wrong sides of every Philadelphia sweater in sight.
I saved the worst, by far, for last:
Criticizing Sidney Crosby's no pleasure. He's the consummate professional and, to his considerable credit, he was all-Selke mode for most of this night, backchecking and supporting to the level of a third defenseman. Which is undoubtedly why Sullivan kept rolling him onto the ice, shift after shift after shift.
But Crosby, who as F3 held the main defensive responsibility among his line, took a terribly ill-advised stride forward in trying to strip Couturier of the puck he'd just received from Gostisbehere.
This was mostly the Philadelphia guys' focus afterward.
"I had my back turned to the play," Couturier recalled, referring to the pass from Gostisbehere. "Crosby could have just stepped me up or gone the other way. But I got the chip by him."
Couturier sent across to Travis Konecny, who fed back to van Riemsdyk.
It's a bad decision by the captain.
Oh, and one more callout: My respect level for Sullivan approaches that of Crosby, but if a coach is going to send his superstar over the boards that often, it might be prudent to use that lone precious timeout.
Our staff checked the logs: Crosby took 18 shifts through two periods, but 12 in the third alone. He was on the ice from 2:04 on the clock to 1:29, then right back on for a faceoff at 1:00 and through the tying goal. So of the 1:43 leading up to the goal, he was playing for all but 29 seconds.
How about a timeout at that faceoff?
Sure, that would have allowed the Flyers' best to recalibrate, as well. But Sullivan and his staff could have recharged their most important player, as well as renewed all necessary emphases on, you know, defending a hell of a lot harder than they did.
For sure, this is a group that hasn't fully absorbed that message.
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"We played 59 great minutes," Rust would say, and he really enunciated the adjective. "Even in overtime. We couldn't get enough past their guy, and they capitalized on their chances."
All that was expressed commonly enough by the players that it had to be what Sullivan told them afterward and, to an extent, it's fair: The Penguins dominated possession, notably in the form of a 10-5 doubling in high-danger scoring chances. And the Flyers getting 41-save brilliance from rookie Carter Hart, a day after the Blues' own rookie, Jordan Binnington, was similarly strong, had to compound the angst.
But it doesn't change the conversation. Not the one those Flyers were having in the corner. Not the one we're all having.
Nine games remain. Seven points separate the Penguins from the Canadiens, the East's ninth-place team, and missing the playoffs, with Montreal holding a game in hand. It remains immensely unlikely the Penguins will miss, in part because the Habs just aren't that good. But it's not impossible. And beyond that, if the Penguins were to simply squeeze in, under these circumstances, with this ongoing idiosyncracy, they'll be first-round cannon fodder for the Lightning or Capitals.
Getting Kris Letang back will be a boost, and I'll be stunned if that isn't Tuesday in Raleigh. Seeing Teddy Blueger step up for the second line without flinching, as he did in this game, could mean almost as much. So will all the fire that led to those 59 great minutes.
But sorry, all this positivity about pluses and minuses within the game ... maybe that's where the script needs to be rewritten.
"We have the puck the whole time and they make a good play on a broken play and come down 2-on-1 and score," Patric Horqnvist would say, hands on hips. "Overall, a great game from our side. The result was not great. But if we play like that we're going to get wins."
That sounds swell in October. It sounds strange once the calendar flips. And it borders on delusional with a season on the brink.
That's the real dialogue at hand, isn't it?
First up on this four-game, season-shaping trip are the Hurricanes, holding the top wild card spot and three points behind the Penguins. It'll be that franchise's biggest game in years.
After that are the Predators, one of the West's best.
After that are the Stars, clinging to that conference's playoff precipice the same way the 'Canes are in this one.
Even with the reeling Rangers rounding it out, what's a plausible take from those eight points on the table with Malkin missing?
Half of them?
Five or six at the most?
Maybe, if the math isn't motivation enough, Dana Heinze can mount this on the locker-room wall:
The Flyers celebrate James van Riemsdyk's tying goal Sunday night at PPG Paints Arena. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS"This is the kind of challenge we expect from here on out," Johnson told me. "Tonight's very frustrating because we should've been able to lock it down with 20 seconds to go. But we're going to get the same thing from Carolina, and we've just got to be ready for it."
Before leaving the Flyers' room, I ran into Radko Gudas, another pretty good dude provided one isn't on the wrong end of his wickedness. He had that gap-toothed grin radiating.
So yeah, I had to ask him, too, if he'd ever witnessed a four-on-two in such a scenario.
"That was incredible, huh?" he replied with a burst of laughter. "Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there but ... it was awesome for us, you know?"
We know, we know.
We're about to find out what the other guys know.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Flyers, PPG Paints Arena, March 17, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS