CRANBERRY, Pa. -- "To win in the playoffs, you can't be a high-risk team," Mike Sullivan was saying Thursday at his season-ending press conference. The coach didn't refer to any player by name. Didn't have to either.
Though the Penguins have a few high-risk players, no one fits that description better than Kris Letang. It was his turnover that led to Josh Bailey's overtime-winner in Game 1 and it was his giveaway that led to Jordan Eberle's tying goal in Game 4 of Pittsburgh's humbling first-round loss to the New York Islanders.
It was a dubious ending for Letang, who had a Norris Trophy-like season after coming off an injury-hampered 2017-18. Despite missing 17 games to an upper-body injury suffered in the Feb. 23 outdoor game in Philadelphia, Letang still ranked fifth among all NHL defensemen in goals (16) and eighth in points (56). He was third among all players in ice time at 25:58.
During Thursday's locker clean out, Letang bristled when asked if he needed to reel in his offensive instincts.
"You don't want me to make mistakes? I'll try that," he told a reporter. "Next year, I'll try to make no mistakes at all. Maybe next year you're going to say, 'We have Kris in our lineup. He doesn't do anything offensively.' Now you're going to rip me apart because I don't produce anything."
With Jim Rutherford vowing to make changes, Sullivan's words are sure to spark further speculation regarding Letang's future in Pittsburgh. However, Rutherford vehemently defended the composition of his defense corps.
"I think our defense is probably the best now than it’s been since I’ve been here, as a group," the GM said. "You always like mobile defensemen. You like guys who can move the puck. We have at least one guy on each pairing who can move the puck."
Letang fits that description. This season he became the Penguins' all-time leader in both goals and points for a defenseman. However, the Penguins played their best defensive hockey of the season with a 60.61 goals-for percentage during the 12 games that Letang missed from Feb. 26 to March 19.
"When you look at the month of March, as an example, we were a team I thought that was hard to play against," Sullivan said. "Goals-against were down. We limited odd-man rushes against. We made good decisions with the puck, and there was commitment and compete."
Against the Islanders, the Penguins were outscored 14-6 while Letang was a minus-3. Letang reported Thursday that he was healthy. Later, he owned up to his mistakes but added that he's not going to completely change the way he plays.
"Sometimes I make mistakes," said Letang, whose 76 giveaways were 24th among all blue-liners. "I wish I could take those back. At the end of the day, I wish I could have done something else different at times. I don't think the answer is change my whole game. I'm not going to change the type of game I play over three plays."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins' locker cleanout, Cranberry, Pa., April 18, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS