Sam Lafferty watched up here with us.
Take whatever one will from the Penguins' 7-1 flattening of the Flyers on this Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena -- and there was plenty from which to pick, even beyond the broader sight of the franchise's archrival mired in abject misery for three full hours -- but that's the one that struck me from this press-box perspective.
Because Lafferty belongs up here about as much as I'd belong down there.
And yet ...
"When we have a healthy lineup, we've got a pretty competitive lineup," Sullivan opened his reply to my question after this game about how the gradual return of his half-dozen injured forwards has impacted the competition level for jobs. Meaning, specifically, the circumstance that prompted the young season's first healthy scratch of Lafferty, who's more than proven in his first 10 NHL games -- three goals, three assists, so much more -- that he's more than good enough to stay.
"Our coaching staff's gonna have some real difficult decisions. We had some for tonight's game," Sullivan continued, clearly referencing Lafferty. "And that's a good challenge for a coaching staff. We really like the depth of this group. We feel we can be a four-line team. Every line is participating, and that's what it takes to win in this league. ... And getting some of our guys healthy and back in the lineup, I think, creates some internal competition within our group, an internal push to be at your best."
He paused a moment.
"And so, I think that's a real neat dynamic to watch."
Brian Dumoulin expressed a similar sentiment when I broached the internal competition aspect:
Hey, who'd argue on a night like this?
Seven goals came from seven different players.
Ten forwards produced at least a point, including three each from Sidney Crosby, Dominik Simon, and Dominik Kahun.
All four lines produced at least one five-on-five goal, and three of the four utterly dominated possession, outshooting the Flyers, 26-8.
And overall, within this 8-5 start, they've managed to rank sixth in NHL scoring at 3.54 goals per game, fourth in even-strength shots on goal at 339, fifth in even-strength high-danger scoring chances at 103. This despite missing nearly half their forwards for long stretches: Evgeni Malkin, Alex Galchenyuk, Nick Bjugstad, Jared McCann and Bryan Rust have cost a combined 55 man-games lost to injury. And this despite, not coincidentally, a disappointing power play stuck at 23rd in the league at 16.2 percent.
That scenario's a "neat dynamic," all right. But, to further borrow from Sullivan, it's also a "good challenge."
The challenge began getting formally undertaken on this day with returns to Wilkes-Barre for Adam Johnson and Joe Blandisi. The former made an impact early in his stint, and he'll be back, but those, respectfully, were the easy calls.
Then came scratching Lafferty, which had to have hurt. I'm told that management, all the way up to Jim Rutherford, feel so strongly about his showing to date that they view him -- at least in terms of readiness -- as here to stay. And maybe he'd be that, if this weren't the actual lineup Sullivan and staff put together to face the Flyers:
Guentzel--Crosby--Simon
Galchenyuk--Bjugstad--Hornqvist
Kahun--McCann--Rust
Aston-Reese--Blueger--Tanev
Who's getting bumped out of there for Lafferty?
Teddy Blueger would appear to be lowest on the pole, but he's picked up five points, he's been a lead penalty-killer, he's second only to Crosby in faceoff success, and his 51.79 Corsi For percentage is very high for a fourth-line forward who starts most shifts at a territorial disadvantage, taking a team high 77 defensive-zone faceoffs.
Won't be him.
Won't be Zach Aston-Reese or Kahun, either, now that both have gotten going after flat starts, including another goal for each in this game:
And that's to say nothing of this: Lafferty is now the lone forward left on the roster who wouldn't need to clear waivers to get back to Wilkes-Barre. And since he's 24, he needs to play, not be part of some NHL taxi squad. So he'll almost certainly be sent down soon, if not this week, on that count alone.
But wait: Malkin's likely back Saturday for the matinee with the Oilers. Which means that one of those players I just listed as not coming out for Lafferty will be out for Malkin. Maybe Blueger. Maybe, because wingers are always less essential, one of the other two. Maybe some huge surprise.
So good luck with that, Coach, after a collective showing as complete as the one on this night.
The other potential solution, of course, is a trade. Maybe Bjugstad. Maybe Rust. Both are in a salary range that could bring still-needed cap relief. But I've heard not a whisper suggesting Rutherford's motivated to make any such move and, in fact, I'm not sure what he'd achieve toward the current roster if he did. Barring an immensely unlikely trade of a player for a draft pick -- remember which GM we're discussing here -- another player will come back into the same logjam. And trading a forward for a defenseman would only recreate the logjam Rutherford just relieved by trading Erik Gudbranson.
Might be best to just win and bear it.
• The only forward line that didn't dominate the Flyers five-on-five was Galchenyuk-Bjugstad-Hornqvist, but the first two names there are just back from injury, and even they grew stronger with each shift.
• Nice to see Kahun scoring ... and smiling. I'd noticed the latter seemed to be an issue for him upon arrival, and it's impossible not to wonder if that impacted him.
His goal with 6.6 seconds left in regulation was as hollow as it gets, but it visibly meant much to him since his family had just flown over from Germany for their first game in Pittsburgh. He's a Czech native, as his name gives away, but his family moved to Germany when he was a child.
"It feels good right now," Kahun told me. "I don't feel like I had my best game today, not as good as the last games ... but I had three points. Sometimes it just goes in."
He's being modest. He had primary assists on the Penguins' first two goals, including a slick pass between an opponent's skates to set up McCann's tap-in, and he lasered a wrister over Carter Hart's left shoulder for the goal.
They're human. Some need real time to assimilate.
• Simon lasered a wrister of his own past Brian Elliott earlier. He also rocketed a pass through a maze of Flyers to set up Crosby's roofed goal. He also forced the issue on the goalmouth scramble that led to Jake Guentzel's goal.
What, you didn't think Matt Sunday was going to write about that?
All I'll add is this: Simon's aware of the extraordinary opportunity he has. He's also aware, in his own way, that the people who believe in him the most are his linemates, his teammates and his coaches, followed by a precipitous drop outside the locker room walls. He knows he's got to finish. And in turn, he knows he's got to shoot.
"Yeah, I do, but I'm not going to change my game," he told me after this. "I want to do everything I can for Sid and Jake."
Good for him. He's there to do exactly that, and the math powerfully supports that he does so better than anyone else on the roster.
Watch him more closely. There's more to hockey than the highlights at the end of the sequence.
• The Flyers changed coaches in hiring Alain Vigneault, but the Flyers will never stop being the foils in this script if they can't develop a contender-level goaltender for the first time since ... for real, Ron Hextall way back in the 1980s.
Hart's got the talent and, at 22, the potential. And if he'd been managed by a franchise that doesn't still prioritize intangibles over tangibles, he'd have gotten the start in this particular game, one that could've been valuable to his early maturity. Just as the Penguins need to beat the Flyers, the Flyers need to beat the Penguins. Not just for the rivalry but because of the shared division and conference. Sitting this young man in favor of Elliott, arguably the worst regular goaltender in the NHL, just because he'd had a nice week and because his teammates find him to be Mr. Tough Guy ... it's just so Flyers.
It took six goals pumped behind Elliott for Vigneault to see that for himself.
• Other than Travis Konecny attempting more rink-length runs than a Dutch speedskater, and other than Jakub Voracek summoning enough courage to take one-handed rabbit punches at Aston-Reese after teammate Justin Braun had already pinned Aston-Reese to the glass, the Flyers were mostly as meek as they've been for years now, despite getting smoked.
I'll admit it: I kind of miss the old Flyers.
Can't they at least reacquire Wayne Simmonds and/or Radko Gudas?
• The Penguins with whom I spoke were furious with Konecny. Watch for that in the future. Memories with this stuff are long.
• Matt Murray was sharp again in stopping 29 of 30 shots, and maybe it's past time that the goaltending in general starts getting its due around here. Get this: Murray and Tristan Jarry have a combined save percentage of .927, ranking fourth-best in the NHL as a team in that category behind the Bruins, Coyotes and Sabres. Murray's individual save percentage is .923, and Jarry's at .929 in his three starts.
That's elite goaltending to date, nothing less.
• Speaking of elite ...
NHL... never underestimate how much Sid loves facing the Flyers. It's not a narrative. It's not an act.
"You know there's always a little more in those games, and you just try to prepare knowing that," Crosby would acknowledge again. "With all the games and the playoff series in the past, I think a lot of the guys who've been around for a lot of those games, I'm sure everybody on both teams feels that way."
• Stop and look up at that graphic again. Five of those eight Philly tormenters spent all or most of their NHL careers in Pittsburgh. That's hilarious.
• Making Sid's night all the more impressive, he was forced to wear an extra shield over his face after being struck by a shot Saturday in Dallas. He conceded it was harder to look down toward the ice, allowing further that it likely cost him a goal on the sequence where Guentzel eventually buried the puck:
"I would normally have had that one, I'd like to think," Crosby said. "When the puck's in your feet, it's harder to pick up."
He's going to shoot that thing into the sun at the first chance.
• Next up is Connor McDavid, right here in town to face the best player in the world.
• No, not Claude Giroux. Behave.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Flyers, PPG Paints Arena, Oct. 29, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
