Kovacevic: Perfect trip reminds how Penguins perform with spirit, focus

NEWARK, N.J. -- Nope, Sidney Crosby didn't score. He's still stuck at 499 goals.

And if I'm being real, not much of significance would appear to have occurred in the Penguins' 4-2 flat-liner of a final over the Devils on this Super Bowl Sunday, when all else in sports comes a distant second, and here at the Prudential Center, amid the woeful, wintry backdrop of what's already one of our country's most decayed, depressing urban centers.

That might come across as a cheap shot. It's not.

Even if one counts the class and charm of a bronzed Marty Brodeur caked in snow ...

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

... that scene was accompanied on this afternoon by sirens screaming all over, two police stops I witnessed being made within the brief walk from my hotel, an unrelated open drug deal on a nearby arena sidewalk, and this block of Broad Street, the adjacent main thoroughfare:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

What a place, man. For everyone here, I hope it improves someday. I really do.

And I've got to share, this time purely from the hockey team's perspective: I can't imagine it's a bus ride that'll pick up the spirit or perk up the focus. For a weekend matinee, no less. Against a cellar-dwelling opponent. One that's currently without its leading scorer, top defenseman and starting goaltender. And by the time the puck dropped, it'd take place in front of an announced paid crowd of 11,242, a fraction of which actually attended.

So yeah, give credit where due. 

Because every syllable of this Mike Sullivan assessment of his players' performance was accurate: "I thought we worked today. I thought we were trying to dictate the terms out there as far as controlling territory and executing some of the strategies that we utilize as a group to try to do that. I do think we played well enough to earn a win."

Same with this from Bryan Rust: "I think the Devils are a good, fast team that creates a lot off the rush and gets a lot of odd-man rushes, so I think that was kind of our focus here. Play on our toes, play in their faces so they couldn't get that separation and get those looks, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."

While biting back:

That's a Mike Matheson wrister smoked past Jon Gillies at 13:16 of the second period, six minutes after New Jersey's Jack Hughes had the icebreaker.

Then this:

That's a Rust redirect, marking his fifth game in a row with a goal, moments after a power play expired and 36 seconds into the third period for a 2-1 lead.

And after the Devils' Nico Hischier tied on a fluky ricochet at 2:51, there was the dagger:

That's Brian Boyle with the winner at 6:58, underscoring a superb day for the fourth line that also included Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon. 

And once Jake Guentzel found an empty net in the final minute, the Penguins were packing up for the return flight -- in a huge hurry, it turned out, as Sid had made plans to have everyone over at his house for a Super Bowl party -- with a 30-11-8 overall record, an overtaking of the Hurricanes for first place in the Metro and, maybe above all, a perfect three-game road trip that brought out their best 200-foot hockey in ... months?

Remember, this was what Sullivan had talked about in Boston, emerging from the All-Star break with a priority of reestablishing the systemic play.

When I reminded him of that here, he replied, "For the most part, I think, we're trying to play the game that gives us the best chance to win. And our players have a real good understanding of what that looks like. When we're on the same page from a collective effort standpoint, I think we're a team that plays a stingy game. We do it differently than a lot of teams. We're not a team that sits back and just defends. I think our best defense takes place 150-160 feet from our net, just with our puck-possession game or our puck-pursuit game, using our quickness, our stick skills. But it takes a collective effort. It's not an isolated effort."

And he's seeing that again?

"I think we've seen a lot of that here coming out of the break."

It'd be hard to miss. Through Boston, Ottawa (where only 500 fans were allowed to attend) and here, the Penguins kept on course and conceded four total goals. And aside from a sloppy first period against the Bruins, they had that "collective effort" and did "dictate the terms." They defended, first and foremost, by holding onto the puck. And they did that through their speed and playmaking.

This is who they are.

Check that: This is who they need to be if they're to blossom into a full-blown Stanley Cup contender.

Their stars can still be exceptional, but they won't win on star power in 2022 as they had before. Their supporting cast can score, but that won't cut it, either. The special teams, the defense, the goaltending ... all of it's good, but none of it's enough to succeed on that "isolated effort" Sullivan referenced. It's going to take the whole bleeping thing to get it done. And that, as we all saw early this season in the desperate days without Sid, Evgeni Malkin and others, begins and ends with the in-your-face approach to procuring and protecting the puck.

Even with all those points piled up in January, that'd gone missing. Sullivan knew it. His staff knew it. His players knew it. Some of it was legit fatigue, but that didn't alert them, until they'd be able to smash some hard reset button on their core process, to make it once again the default, any streak or ascension in the standings was going to feel hollow.

These three Ws aren't some seismic deal as far as outcomes, and I'm not trying to make them out as such. But the template's back in play, and it's all the more impressive that it came with spirit, with focus that had to be conjured up completely from within.

GETTY

Evgeni Malkin takes a shot Sunday in Newark, N.J.

• Malkin returned after missing two games to COVID protocol and, despite registering no points and one shot, looked surprisingly strong on his skates coming off a layoff. If anything, he wasn't receiving the puck often enough, in particular from Kasperi Kapanen.

• I counted three Kapanen pirouettes, pulling up inside the New Jersey blue line when he could've instead kept right on utilizing that world-class speed.

Whether or not anyone wants to give up on Kapanen as a fit in Pittsburgh, this much already holds true: He can't play alongside Malkin. Not doing that stuff. It's a possession-killer, a shift-killer. And before long, based on Malkin's ample precedent, it'll be a morale killer.

And it's not as if he isn't having that drilled into him daily. Sullivan might as well have him reach up to touch a sign that says 'SKATE FORWARD' on his way through the rink's tunnel.

• Sid wound up with two assists and four shots, three of which were high-quality, all of which were rejected by Gillies.

Hey, whatever. He's got a chance to do it at home now. Against the Flyers, no less, Tuesday night. And with this symmetry: His 500th goal would also be his 50th against Philadelphia.

Anybody talking about any of this in there? Including maybe the planet's most superstitious athlete, who didn't meet with reporters on this trip?

"There hasn't been silence about it," Rust would say with a smile. "Like, it's been talked about a little bit. But it's not something that's consistently brought up."

By the way, Sid's 409th multiple-point game moved him past Paul Coffey into 11th on the NHL's all-time list:

NHL

• How much do the Penguins love Boyle?

Well, there's this:

But there's also this neat interaction -- something we haven't been able to see much in pandemic days -- between Matheson and Boyle as I was asking both of them questions:

Sullivan had this to add of Boyle, from the intangible standpoint: "Brian's had an impact for us, both on and off the ice. He's a good pro, first and foremost, and he commands a certain level of respect by his teammates just based on the career that he's had. He's earned his career the hard way. And he's fit in and played a really important role for us. He's embraced the role that we've cast him in. He gets a big goal for us tonight, but he's been a good penalty-killer, he's blocked shots, he does a lot of the thankless jobs that I think help teams win. He's also been a great addition to our leadership core."

Reminder: This was a tryout contract in training camp.

• Boyle wasn't alone, as mentioned above. He, Aston-Reese and Simon were on the ice for 14 of the Penguins' shot attempts at five-on-five, compared to three for the Devils. That's insane.

The latter two -- Aston-Reese has scored once all season, Simon twice -- won't be appreciated as much as Boyle, who's now got six goals. But be sure they hear it where it matters.

I asked Rust about that:

• With Malkin's return, the decision regarding a healthy scratch obviously came down to Radim Zohorna, who hadn't shown much of late, or Simon. Sullivan's choice clearly was the correct one.

• I've long since run out of adjectives for Tristan Jarry, so suffice it to say he made most of his best saves in the third period, when he'd face 13 of his 30 shots.

That said, he's got to start getting breaks. I'd use Casey DeSmith against the Flyers, then go back to Jarry for the Thursday game in Toronto, scene of one of his peak showings this season. But then, I'm not likely to get consulted on this, so we'll see.

• Matheson does ridiculous things on the rink. I could've compiled a reel from this day alone, but I'll instead just share this one miss:

Trust me, anyone who was in that building must've been blown away. I referenced it in casual conversation near the Penguins' room afterward, and not a soul mistook it for the goal he'd scored earlier.

"A rocket," Sullivan called it.

He'd add, "Mike has such dominant physical attributes. He's a great skater. He's a good puckhandler. He might have one of the hardest wrist shots in the league. those half-slappers from the blue line ... I mean, they're just missiles. And the goal tonight was an example of it."

So was the non-goal.

I asked Matheson to describe his technique, considering the wrist shot's fade in the NHL.

"I've worked on my shot a lot," he replied. "I think the quicker you can get it off, the more effective it is. As for technique ... there's a lot that you can break down into a shot and, so, in the interest of time, I won't. But I think just it's all about practice, right? And the more you work on things, hopefully, the better they'll get."

I had time. Maybe next session.

• Hughes' wrister wasn't so bad, either, albeit more in the placement category:

The kid's good. A bona fide All-Star. And that's good, both for the NHL -- a No. 1 overall pick -- and this market.

This might not be popular, but I pull for a healthy New Jersey franchise as much as for Newark itself. It's been way too long that both have been down, but there are certainly bright signs on the ice. It's a fast team with as intimidating a transition as I've seen all winter.

“We were right there," as Lindy Ruff bemoaned. "There were some plays we left out there.”

Jesper Bratt, Dougie Hamilton and Mackenzie Blackwood were among New Jersey's absentees.

• Thanks for reading, as always!

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Prudential Center:

1. Brian Boyle, Penguins C
2. Mike Matheson, Penguins D
3. Jon Gillies, Devils G

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Evgeni Malkin, center, came off the NHL's COVID list after missing two games.

• Drew O'Connor, left winger, has been on LTIR since Jan. 15 with an upper-body injury. He's back to practicing.

• Teddy Blueger, center, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw Jan. 24. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks. He's skating.

• Jason Zucker, left winger, has been on IR since undergoing core muscle surgery Jan. 25. He's week-to-week.

• Louis Domingue, goaltender, has been on IR since he was struck by a puck in the right foot at a morning skate Jan. 20. He's week-to-week.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McGinn-Malkin-Kapanen
Heinen-Carter-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Boyle-Simon

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel

And for Ruff's Devils:

Sharangovich-Hischier-Hughes
Tatar-Zacha-Vesey
Studenic-Boqvist-Mercer
Geertsen-McLeod-Bastian

Siegenthaler-Severson
Smith-Subban
White-Graves

THE SCHEDULE

No activity for the team Monday, then the game Tuesday against whatever's left of the Flyers. Faceoff's at 7:08 p.m.

THE CONTENT

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