The heat map that shows the location of unblocked shot attempts is striking from the Penguins' 1-0 win over the Bruins Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
Specifically, the side that shows where the Boston attempts originated.
Noticeably absent on that left side? Any unblocked attempts at all from the Bruins in the high-danger scoring areas near the front of the net.
Looking at the clear distinction around the net, I don't know if we can rule out an invisible force field appearing at PPG Paints Arena and encircling the area around the crease.
A more plausible explanation, perhaps, would just be a total commitment to strong defensive play from everyone involved.
"I think our forwards did a great job of coming back to the net-front and stopping it, picking up sticks and late guys," Brian Dumoulin explained when I asked why the Penguins were so effective in that area. "They did a really good job there. With Boston, they have some really skilled players that like to make plays off the rush. Our forwards did a good job of tracking back, picking up sticks, and that really helped us as a defensive corps."
The Penguins' top line, which was most commonly deployed against the Bruins' dangerous top line, did an especially strong job at boxing players out, limiting the Bruins to just six unblocked shot attempts total in the 16-plus minutes they were together at five-on-five.
"We defended hard," Jake Guentzel said. "We know what kind of offense they have and some of the gifted players they have. Our mindset is that we have to defend hard and the offense will come, and I think we did a good job of that."
That in turn made the job much easier for Tristan Jarry, who only had to face two high-danger chances (in this case, shots that were in the medium-danger areas on the ice but came off of a rebound or rush attempt, making them a high-danger attempt statistically speaking) all game. He still had to make some difficult saves at times, but the Penguins completely preventing the Bruins from getting any shots off in close helped Jarry on his way to a 30-save shutout.
"They've been awesome," Jarry said of his teammates' defensive play. "The last couple of games, they've done a really good job of just boxing out. And I think our defense has been leading to offense. Over the last couple of games we've been playing some tight defense and I think it's helped us generate some scoring chances."
Especially in this final stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs, when we're going to see more tight-checking, fast-paced games as usually expected this time of year, this type of defensive focus and smart play could prove to be a difference-maker.
"It boils down to details and commitment," Mike Sullivan said of his team's defensive play. "I thought both of those attributes were there today for our team. There was collective effort as a group, I thought everyone was locked into the details on what their job was and what their role is. As a result, I think our collective effort was better, it makes us harder to play against. The details are so critically important. It's not good enough to play hard in this league, you've got to play smart, too. I thought we played hard, but for every bit as hard we played, we played smart.
"That's the type of game that we have to put on the ice consistently."