CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It's a hell of a hockey team.
But man, it took a hell of a half-hour on this Monday morning, not to mention the hellish four months it followed, to rediscover that realization.
At 10:32 a.m., a couple minutes after being fever-checked and quizzed upon entering the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex for the first time in forever, I climbed the steps to the press perch above the main rink, cracked open the Purell, wiped down my assigned, socially distanced work station and watched Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry take to the pristine sheet of ice.
Everything was so quiet and seemed so ... clean:
See what I mean? Hear it?
Then, at 10:46 a.m., just as I'd plugged in all the various apparatuses and awaited Bryan Rust inevitably bursting through the bench door ahead of the other skaters, the team sent out an emailed statement advising that nine players of the expected 32 wouldn't participate due to coronavirus concerns.
As in, nine. Of 32.
As in, more than a quarter of the roster.
As in, uh-oh.
And though the statement, upon closer inspection, wasn't nearly as ominous as what I'd initially absorbed -- applying innocuous terms such as 'potential secondary exposure' and 'abundance of caution' -- it certainly sent up a shiver. Not just for the individuals involved, notably Patric Hornqvist, but also for the outlook of all else that was about to occur here. Because if something like this could happen, however serious, at this prenatal stage of the process, then try to picture what could lie ahead.
I went there. I went there hard.
Which is when Rust emerged ...
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS... alone as ever.
Which is when more of them poured through.
And before long, Evgeni Malkin whipped a wrister by Jarry before playfully skating back to center red to pump a solitary left fist, then calling for Sidney Crosby to feed him for another rush.
And Kris Letang flicked aerials from his knees at the defending blue line to practice clearance.
And Zach Aston-Reese planted Jake Guentzel with the first solid contact he'd likely felt since his shoulder was ripped apart at Christmastime, bringing the loudest roar of the session from teammates who loved Guentzel's handling of it.
And Conor Sheary, no doubt already feeling the burden of being on the top line with Crosby and Guentzel, took target practice on the cardboard goaltender, aiming for every hole but the five.
And Sid, at the far end, was knocking down water bottles like they were a buck each at Kennywood:
That was just before 11 a.m., when Mike Sullivan, joining his players on the ice for the first time since a March 11 practice in Columbus, blew his first whistle. But it had already begun to feel a whole lot different.
Not quiet. Not clean.
____________________
It's a hell of a hockey team.
That crystallized no more than a handful of minutes in, when Sullivan rolled out the following lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
Marleau-McCann-Lafferty/Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Johnson-Schultz
I mean, my goodness. Plug Hornqvist in at third-line right wing, and drop the bleeping puck.
It's difficult to forecast how it stacks up to the 2016 and 2017 depth chart, but it feels safe to say that the defense is deeper than either of those teams, considering Justin Schultz was No. 1 in the latter run and that John Marino's unlike any youngster the franchise has had at the position in quite some time. If feels just as safe to say there won't be many teams in the field of 24 who've got a starting goaltender with two rings and a backup who just outperformed him in the regular season.
Up front is where it's tough.
Crosby gets Guentzel and Sheary, as he'd had all through the pre-camp workouts, and they might recreate their possession magic from 2017. But they also might not. At some point, Sheary will have to pop a goal or three to earn the stay.
As for Guentzel, the highest praise anyone could offer is that he looked like himself. Other than an unusually longer mane, like most of us these days.
"I thought Jake looked terrific today," Sullivan said. "He's been on the ice for quite a while now. He's worked extremely hard to get to this point. He looks strong."
"He's looked really good, for someone who's had as much of a layoff as he did," Crosby said. "He's done a great job of being ready to go."
Of Sid and the Kids II, he added, "We're pretty familiar with each other. We had some fun together. We have a short period of time here to get ready, so that should help moving forward."
The day's other significant on-ice development, though this wasn't stunning, either, had Jason Zucker showing up on Malkin's left wing, with Rust on the right. He'd done far too well alongside Crosby after arriving from the Wild -- six goals, six assists in 12 games, plus responsible two-way play -- to discard from the top six. And although Zucker never lined up with Malkin until this morning, he's shown the ability to chameleon his way into any setting.
"It's a work in progress, for sure," Zucker said. "He's an amazing player, as everyone knows. He's got a little bit of a different style than Sid. It's definitely a positive. It's exciting."
I asked about his system adaptation, too:
Zucker: "I felt like I was getting more comfortable in the system and then you have all these months... It's nice to be able to study the system a little bit while we were away. I'm excited to play in it and learn it a little bit better." pic.twitter.com/YfpWn57iHa
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 13, 2020
Remember, this guy's found gold. He shouldn't be here. Or Guentzel shouldn't. But they definitely shouldn't both be here.
Heck, one might say the same for a future Hall of Famer, Patrick Marleau, being handed the unimaginable break of having four months to heal his 40-year-old body before the hardest hockey.
Believe it or not, I found a respectful way to inquire about that.
"Yeah, for sure," he answered. "There are guys who've got bumps and bruises. I was able to work out a lot during the time off, was very fortunate to have a gym for myself. It was almost like a summer training for me. I hope that bodes well."
While on this track, it's worth underscoring that Schultz won't be here this winter, working now on an expiring contract. And every season Marleau plays could be his last. And for all we know, Murray could be gone, too, either because of restricted free agency contract pressure or because Jim Rutherford wouldn't want to lose him to Seattle in 2021 the way he lost Marc-Andre Fleury to Vegas.
I don't know if these Penguins are the class of the East. There's a lot to like about the Bruins and Lightning, and it'd be unwise to dismiss the Capitals and even the upstart Flyers. But I do know that there's a ton of talent here, just as I know that a lot of it won't be here once this extraordinary event is over.
That's why I asked Sullivan about the opportunity at hand. Predictably, he came back top-shelf.
"I think this team has as good a chance as any to win the Stanley Cup," he answered. "I mentioned that to the team today. We've had that discussion in our WebEx meetings over the course of this pandemic. And I think our players recognize the opportunity. The other aspect is that we also recognize how hard it is to win it. There are a lot of good teams out there. We feel that we're a good team. We're excited about the opportunity that's in front of us. Now, it's a matter of taking advantage of that opportunity."
____________________
It's a hell of a hockey team.
Things can go wrong. As Sullivan stressed, the playoffs are no picnic, least of all for a No. 5 seed in a makeshift, constantly re-seeding tournament that heavily favors the top four. The legs can take too long to get going. The puck can bounce the wrong way. And, as the day reminded, health remains paramount throughout.
But there's too much to love to ignore.
It's a robustly motivated group, beginning with a captain who's addicted to winning.
I asked how much this one would mean to him, to Malkin, to Letang, especially since it's seemed through much of 2020 it might never happen.
"You have a short window in your career to be able to do that," he answered. "Anytime you get the opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup, you want to take advantage of it. It's not easy, but it's a great feeling, we've felt it before, and we know what it takes. That's your goal every year, we're in a position to compete for it, and we've got to find a way to get it done."
Imagine those three with ... one, two, three, four rings. Then imagine how they'd enjoy the fourth as much as the first.
"That's why those guys have those championships, because that drive is always there," Marleau said, and his next will be his first in two decades in the NHL. "It's why I'm happy to be here."
Sullivan spoke of the Penguins wanting "very badly" to win one for Marleau, similar to the refrains once heard for Ron Hainsey, Trevor Daley and others. So that narrative's already firm, but with plenty of accompaniment.
As I see it, this will come down to conditioning, chemistry and the flat-out luck that even the greatest champions need, lest we forget Chris Kunitz's flipping knuckler past Craig Anderson.
Conditioning was a hard read on this day. The practice involved hard skating amid a heady pace, but there weren't wind sprints -- Sullivan hates those -- or anything like that which would've exposed players. From this perspective, there was some huffing and bending over, but only where justified.
"I think our guys did a terrific job preparing themselves for this camp," Sullivan came back to my question about the team's general fitness. "My first impression is that we've got a pretty fit group. I do think there are aspects of our fitness to get our guys game-ready. Mostly, it's the belligerence, the combative drills, the tight spaces, the pushing and shoving. That's a different type of conditioning, and it's been the only type they haven't been able to address until today."
Still, he expressed all the more appreciation for the chemistry, for the spirit he saw.
Which everyone saw, actually. And heard. And felt.
Witness this reaction to Marino's bar-down beauty that won a semi-silly half-rink tournament based on an old USA Hockey drill that's a Sullivan favorite:
"Great energy. A lot of enthusiasm," Sullivan said. "There were parts of the practice where I felt we had to push through the fatigue, and we did. We've worked extremely hard to get to this point, and I think our players and our leadership deserve a lot of credit for that. That's how you have the type of day we had today."
Ideally with a few more to follow beginning on the first of August.
Now where'd I put that Purell?
