Dominik Kahun didn't dodge the puck that dropped him Thursday night in Toronto, a shot that appeared to catch him on the left knee, but he might've dodged a bigger bullet.
After he was held out of the Penguins' practice Friday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, Mike Sullivan downplayed Kahun's injury in saying, “Right now, his status is just day-to-day. So we’ll take each day as it comes. We’ll see how it is tomorrow. He’ll be a game-time decision,” meaning for the Saturday home matinee against the Sabres. All I'd asked about was Kahun's status, so the unsolicited information about the Buffalo game could be taken as an encouraging sign.
This was the Denis Malgin shot with 5:49 left in the third period of that 4-0 loss Thursday:
Yeah. Ow. Kahun would stay down for more than a minute and needed significant help getting off the ice, then down the runway.
But hey, he'll apparently bounce right back.
And if I were the betting sort, I'd say his teammates will, too. Not just because these remarkably resilient Penguins are 11-3-1 following a regulation loss. Not just because they've instantly tightened up in those 14 games in allowing a total of 30 goals. Not just because they've had only two losing streaks of any length all season.
Seriously, there were three regulation losses in a row Oct. 19-23 -- Golden Knights, Panthers, Lightning -- then back-to-back 5-2 stinkers Nov. 29-30 at Columbus and at St. Louis. And that's it.
Crazy, right?
But it isn't even that precedent that gives off the sense, at least from this perspective, that the next rebound will be right away.
Rather, it's this:
That's the planet's best hockey player, pumping away at pucks being fed to him by Ty Hennes, the team's skills coach. This was a few minutes before Sullivan had begun formal drills.
Nothing new there, of course. But then, that's the point.
Because when Sidney Crosby was done there and those drills began, he was buzzing around with the rest of the boys ... with the broadest of smiles. Same with Evgeni Malkin, who wasn't just scoring on Tristan Jarry but also celebrating with enough gusto he might've been heard out on Centre Avenue. Same with Patric Hornqvist, who'd eventually bump Jarry from the crease to take his own turn there, albeit not a terribly fruitful one.
After which Hornqvist, Marcus Pettersson and both goaltenders stayed on the ice for an additional half-hour to engage in a silly game of long-shot. Once it was finally complete, Pettersson strode in front of Hornqvist into the locker room with both arms raised.
"Champion!" Pettersson exclaimed to no one in particular.
"This time," Hornqvist huffed.
A lesser collective tightens up. This one loosens up, then buckles back down.
"I think it's a great group of guys mostly in the sense that we've got great leadership," Brandon Tanev was telling me afterward. "When things don't necessarily go our way, like they didn't in Toronto, our leadership's able to get us in the right mindset and then get ready to go for the next one."
And this is how. Not through berating. And definitely not through burying what happened. But with a smile.
Sure, Crosby spoke bluntly about the Penguins' need for a better, more consistent forecheck.
"I think we'd like to spend less time in our zone and make sure we aren't giving up the quality of chances that we are," he'd say. "But that just comes down to execution and work ethic, and that's something we should be able to influence pretty quickly."
Another smile.
"I mean, it's hard to shake off a loss like that sometimes because, you know, that's your life," Dominik Simon told me. "But you have to. You have to forget about it as soon as possible and move forward. We've got guys in here who lead the way with that. You can see how professional they are, and that helps so much."
"How you deal with adversity always starts with your leadership," Chad Ruhwedel would essentially echo. "Our leaders' focus is always about getting us ready and pumped for the next game. Because that's how they handle it. Their confidence becomes our confidence."
• Not that this was all gags and gimmicks. Malkin and Hornqvist became engaged in a highly spirited discussion during a power-play drill about how/when Hornqvist could make himself available in the higher slot. It was wholly amicable, as always with those two, but I didn't want to give off the wrong impression above. These guys are serious as heart attacks when it comes to actual hockey.
• Hornqvist listened, by the way. Went to that spot in the high slot. But Teddy Blueger, who's neither deaf nor dumb, went there, too, and picked off the pass for the easy clear.
• Sullivan on the forechecking subject: "Our team is at its best when we're defending up the ice with our puck pursuit. Territory for this team is important. When we're spending time in the offensive zone, that means we're on top of our game."
Translated for convenience: When we're spending time in the offensive zone, we aren't missing Brian Dumoulin and John Marino nearly as much. Which we are. A lot.
You're welcome.
• No sign of those two guys or any injured players on this day, incidentally.
• No line rushes or pairings shown, either, not to mention not a hint as to the goaltender rotation for the weekend. My guess is Jarry vs. the Sabres, Matt Murray the next day in Washington, where he was brilliant earlier this month.
• Jared McCann's gone 13 games without a goal and, as always, that's rooted in not shooting enough: 30 total shots in that span for a 2.7 average. Two combined shots in the past two games.
To that end, Sullivan and McCann have spent extra time together, including a meeting Thursday morning in Toronto, with the head coach ensuring his confidence in the player remains unwavering.
"There's a tendency to focus on scoring goals," Sullivan elaborated. "That was the point of the conversation: Take the focus off scoring. Just play the right way. You've going to get chances. Just keep shooting the puck, and it'll go in the net for you. You've just got to trust the process."
• Most mindblowing hockey stat anyone could read anywhere today: Justin Schultz has one power-play goal in his past 144 regular-season games, none in his past 41 games dating to March 25, 2019.
• This doesn't exactly buttress the local cause ...
#NHLBruins acquire Ondrej Kase from @AnaheimDucks in exchange for David Backes, Axel Andersson and a 2020 1st-round pick: https://t.co/sBchhozQo7 pic.twitter.com/gINvF6X4QQ
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 21, 2020
... but then, the Bruins and Lightning are a level above everyone else, meaning the entire NHL, not just the East. This only underscores that.
What we can't know, for obvious reasons, is how the Penguins would stack if they were ever wholly healthy.
Maybe someday.
