Kovacevic: Will Gallant's bluster spur Rangers to be nasty?

NEW YORK — There aren’t many straight lines anyone can navigate through Manhattan these days, with construction cranes and scaffolding everywhere in a visible post-pandemic building boom. But that’s apparently what the Penguins will encounter here tonight in Game 5 in trying to finish off their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Rangers.

Heck, New York's players have pretty much promised as much. 

“I expect a lot of volume shooting and a hungry team that’s a little more straight-line hockey," Ryan Strome told reporters here after practice yesterday in nearby Tarrytown, N.Y.

“To a certain extent, when you play straight-line hockey, things open up,” Adam Fox would essentially echo. “To get to that east-west game that we're able to do, we have to play straight-line hockey and have them respect that first.”

Well, let's first see if their head coach has left them with enough gas in the tank to go any direction before discussing any meaningful rebound, much less respect.

As has been blared all over the back pages here, Gerard Gallant has made no secret of his displeasure with his team following that 7-2 slaughter two nights ago at PPG Paints Arena, having responded now in three ways:

• He tore into his players immediately afterward to reporters in Pittsburgh, labeling their performance “soft” four separate times.

• He bag-skated them -- no pucks, nothing but end-to-end sprints, punctuated by loud whistles -- at the end of practice here Tuesday, and I swear I'm not making that up:

• He spoke after that session about returning to that straight-line attacking style, referenced by both Strome and Fox, that he feels served them well in a 52-24-6 regular season.

“Get back to our work ethic,” Gallant explained when asked what he hoped to achieve with that practice. “Get back to our straight-up-and-down game. We had a great regular season. Second-best in the league in goals against average. We can’t give up seven goals and expect to win.”

The latter’s indisputable, of course, since the Rangers gave up seven goals in each of Games 3 and 4 and, in turn, allowed the Penguins to take their 3-1 series lead.

But the bag-skate that some reporters on-site characterized as palpably punitive in nature?

A middle-of-the-playoffs ‘Herbie,’ as it’s commonly called after Herb Brooks’ famous whipping into shape of the young U.S. team before the Miracle on Ice?

With Game 1 of this series having gone to triple-overtime?

When the opponents have been soaring all over the rink ever since?

OK. 

This much I know: The next bag-skate Mike Sullivan administers as an NHL head coach in Pittsburgh, at least to my eyes, will be the first. And, for the record, he’s stated on several occasions that he doesn’t believe in them, going so far as to bristle when asked if a basic conditioning drill that follows a loss might’ve been punitive.

Why?

Because he prefers to treat his players -- particularly his leadership group -- like adults. And because he's forged a relationship of trust with them that, when things do go awry, they'll take care of it without needing to be scolded or bag-skated.

I asked Sullivan about this after the optional skate this morning:

"Well, as you know, we've been through a lot together," he began his reply. "I have ultimate confidence and trust in these guys. And that they react the right way to difficult circumstances. Because they have on so many occasions. They're an accomplished group, an experienced group. They've been in situations so many times, they understand what it takes. They also understand the challenge and how difficult it is. I feel really confident that we have the leadership that we have in our room."

To be clear, Gallant’s not mistaken in assessing his team’s need to skate forward, and with gusto. In these teams’ four regular-season meetings, the Rangers utilized superior speed and a strong transition game to generate far more odd-man rushes than the Penguins tend to concede. But in this series, New York’s forwards have been stunted at the Pittsburgh blue line — or even at center red — and haven’t chosen to push the puck through and pursue it. As a result, the Penguins’ defensemen have had easy zone exits or even easier reversals right up ice. 

To be just as clear on another count, though, nothing the Rangers try will alter the Penguins’ approach. That’s not how Sullivan rolls. He sees his system as having a built-in solution for any eventuality.

And so far within this series, it really has: When the Rangers came out for blood in the opening 10 minutes of Game 1 -- undoubtedly at Gallant's behest -- the Penguins just kept playing and, when they weren't being dismembered, actually were fairly effective, as well as more energetic by the time that decision was at hand. When the Rangers tried exceptionally hard to connect on stretch passes in Game 2, the Penguins' defensemen were back and waiting and, rather than attempting a play on the puck, they'd simply flick it out of harm's way. When the Rangers continued to show zero systemic fluidity on the forecheck, the Penguins came back low, collected the puck and tic-tac-toed it right out of the zone. When the Rangers' penalty-kill became atypically aggressive, the Penguins rotated atop the points -- even having a second forward up high -- and created indecision among the New York forwards.

I could do this all day, but the New York Post's Mollie Walker summed all this up succinctly in writing after Game 4 that the Rangers have operated with "no structure, no control."

Yep. That.

My point from the Pittsburgh perspective: None of those strategies I just cited in that bulky paragraph are new to the Penguins under Sullivan. They didn't require teaching or even reinforcement. They've been in place since the opening week of training camp ... in 2017. They've been on tap for half a decade, available when needed. Even that surprising semi-trap they tried near the end of Game 3.

I asked Bryan Rust after the optional how much that steadiness -- strategically and otherwise -- makes a difference to the players:

"I think it helps just kind of knowing that it's pretty much ingrained in our mind," he replied. "Things come second-nature to us. I mean, certain reads or plays or situations. I think that familiarity can go a long way."

I'm betting he didn't just mean tonight.

Faceoff's at 7:10 p.m.

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

Tristan Jarry shares a laugh with Jeff Carter, teammates on the bench during the Penguins' optional skate.

• Tristan Jarry took a "big jump," as Sullivan worded it, in his recovery from a broken foot by partaking not only in a separate session before the optional skate but also in the latter.

He worked alone beforehand with Andy Chiodo and Ty Hennes, taking some modest shots from Hennes. Then, after the ice was cleared, he stayed out with his teammates and took real, live NHL shots. And if anything was being held back, I sure couldn't detect it. Slap shots high and low, wristers high and low, breakaways and dekes ... I mean, they weren't headhunting, but it's by far the most action he's seen.

"Tristan had his longest workout today, made a big jump as far as his progression," Sullivan said. "Raks is the same. Their status has not changed: They're still day-to-day.”

That was a reference to Rickard Rakell, out with a presumed concussion since Game 1. He, too, was part of the optional.

• A minute of Jarry's morning:

• Also on the ice: Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, Drew O’Connor, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel, Nathan Beaulieu, Alex D’Orio. 

• Jason Zucker didn't participate in the practice yesterday or the skate today, but Sullivan described him as "fine."

• Let it be noted for posterity that Carter took the very first NHL shot on Jarry and, just to make sure he'd build up his goaltender's confidence ... lasered one over his glove top-shelf and shouted, "Woo-hoo!" as he skated away.

Hockey players never grow up.

• Imagine the myriad benefits for the Penguins if they end this tonight. Especially if the Hurricanes-Bruins series -- Carolina leads, 3-2 -- gets stretched to seven. 'Badger' Bob Johnson used to preach to the Penguins' inaugural champions in 1990-91 that every Cup winner needs at least one series that's over in a hurry, and history supports him.

Sullivan made it sound as if that sort of awareness is there.

In addition to a resonating respect for the Rangers.

"For us, we've got to bring a certain level of urgency to the table that helps us be at our best," he'd say. "We're going to face a team that that we expect to get their best. They're they're a good team. They've been a good team all year there. They've got a dynamic offense. They're well coached. They're a good team in every sense of the word. We expect to get their best, and we're going to bring our best."

• Key matchup tonight: Louis Domingue vs. Igor Shesterkin.

If, in fact, Shesterkin's among Gallant's "soft" squad -- and if he's crumbling because Pittsburgh fans are chanting his name, it'd be tough to dispute -- then the reverse should hold true here tonight. Which might best explain Gallant's instant anointment of Shesterkin as his Game 5 starter after the game Monday, even though Alexandar Georgiev's been better.

And as far as Louis goes, I'm going to keep expecting that he'll have to have at least one excellent game in this series until it becomes reality.

• Remember when I shared after Game 4 that the Penguins had 22 of the game's 24 high-danger scoring chances?

This illustrates that way more powerfully:

• First sign of trouble, the Garden will turn. Just watch. It's Philly Lite. Always has been.

Oh, they won't boo right away. That's all-the-way Philly. But they'll go quiet, then turn snarly.

• Rust, asked if Sidney Crosby’s turned back the clock in this series: "I'm not sure he has the same clock as the rest of us. His time might go a little slower than ours."

• On that note: Stop being nervous. This isn't 2014. And Marty St. Louis coaches now. In another country. The coast's clear.