UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- In the playoffs, it's often the "dirty" goals that are difference-makers. Redirects. Tip-ins. Rebounds. Net-front scrambles.
When playing against a team as tight defensively as the Islanders, the importance of those dirty goals will be especially true —you're not going to get many good opportunities on the rush.
"They're a very good defensive team," Mike Sullivan said following Monday's practice at the Lemieux Complex in Cranberry. "They defend in numbers, they have numbers back a lot. They're the No. 1 team in the league in the least amount of odd-man rushes given up in the regular season. ... We understand what we're up against, we know that it's going to be a hard-fought battle, we know that we're going to have to fight for every inch of ice."
Sullivan spoke to the importance of not giving up "freebies" to the Islanders by trying to make too many plays, and having to be stronger when looking to create offense from the blue line, because it can be a risk. He added that he believes that the Penguins are capable of creating offense in multiple ways.
Dirty goals are a part of that.
Prior to Monday's practice, goaltending coach Mike Buckley wanted to work with Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith on stopping redirects. Garrett Wilson and Teddy Blueger were tasked with providing the tips and alternated between shooting the puck and attempting to redirect it:
While the drill was devised by Buckley to help the goaltenders, Wilson and Blueger weren't taking their roles in the drill lightly. Blueger was getting visibly frustrated when his redirects would get stopped, even whacking himself over the head with his own stick after one particular miss.
Both players have experience providing those types of goals in their professional careers (really, most of Wilson's goals over the past few years in Wilkes-Barre came this way), and they know the significance of creating those chances in the upcoming games.
"You look at how many goals are scored from redirects now, that's a big part of the game," Blueger told me. "If the goalie sees the shot clean, it's pretty tough to score on him. Screening goalies, redirections, is a big part of it for sure."
"It's good to practice that kind of stuff for when you get into these big games here down the stretch," Wilson added. "We'll take any kind of goal we can get. It's definitely fun to work on that kind of stuff."
Jared McCann spoke to the importance of just driving to the net and not always looking for the pretty goal at this time of year.
"You have to go to the dirty areas to score goals sometimes," said McCann. "Against a team like the Islanders who play so well defensively, you've got to try to get in there and keep it simple sometimes, just get pucks deep and not try to make the extra play."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins practice, Cranberry, Pa., April 8, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS