It doesn't take any deep, hard-hitting analysis to come to the conclusion that the Penguins would likely already be on their way to the second-round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs if their goaltending had been up to par throughout the first-round.
Instead, the Penguins, who dropped Game 6 to the Rangers 5-3 on Friday night at PPG Paints Arena, are headed back to New York for a winner-take-all Game 7.
They've played well enough, outside of the crease, at least, to have eliminated the Rangers by this point. From total domination in territorial play, to lighting up the soon-to-be Vezina Trophy winner, there's a lot to like about the current state of play from the Penguins' skaters.
One area that could be cleaned up, and might ultimately cost them the series, is their power play. That holds especially true for the multiple five-on-three power play opportunities that they absolutely botched.
After the Penguins saw their two-goal lead evaporate during the second period of Game 6, they were gifted a two-man, minute-long advantage on the power play. Sounds like a perfect time to take control of the game and get back in the driver's seat, right?
It's also a perfect opportunity to zap your momentum and hand it right to your opponent that has no business hanging with you.
Right after Jeff Carter won the faceoff to begin the two-man advantage, Evgeni Malkin shimmied to the middle of the ice and shot the puck wide of the net:
Sure, Carter was in front of Igor Shesterkin, but even if Malkin's shot connected with Carter's stick, the likelihood of a deflection going in from that angle is low. There's just no reason to shoot that puck. It almost seemed as if the Rangers didn't react the way Malkin had hoped, so he just fired the puck because he didn't know what else to do.
Malkin played a strong game at five-on-five and scored a magnificent goal late in the second period to tie things up. It doesn't take away from that, but he stunk up all of Fifth Ave. with his play on the two-man advantage.
It also didn't help that all three of the other Penguins forwards on the ice at the time were idle, waiting for Malkin to make something happen on his own.
"When the power play is firing on all cylinders, those guys are snapping it around," Sullivan told reporters after the game. "There's a lot of motion, there's a lot of instinctive play and they're hard to handle. I just think that the couple of five-on-threes that we got were a little bit deliberate with our decision-making, we're deliberate with our execution, and as a result I think we're predictable."
Predictable. That's an understatement.
Watch Andrew Copp bait Malkin into attempting a pass right through his stick:
Malkin worked to the middle while slightly shading to his left. Everybody in the building knew an against the grain pass to Jake Guentzel was coming. Copp smartly kept his stick out of the passing lane until Malkin committed to the pass, and then swung it over as the puck came through to break up the play.
The Rangers were then able to, ridiculously, considering the whole, y'know, two-man advantage, win a race to the loose puck and get a clear that went the distance of the ice. Yet again, all three of the other Penguins forwards on the ice were flat-footed, waiting for someone else to make something happen. Had there been any sort of off-puck movement from them, they probably have enough momentum to win a race to the loose puck, or at the very least, create a two-on-one puck battle that should play out in their favor.
"When they're feeling it out there, they're snapping the puck around," Sullivan reiterated. "There's movement of the puck, but there's also player movement as well. And through that, they create a lot of deception, and then they see the plays that are there and that's when they're at their best. We've gotta find a way to free them up to get them in that instinctive mindset."
I see no movement, and thus, no deception. Just a whole lot of telegraphing.
Things didn't improve for the top power play unit with Kris Letang leading the charge into the zone, either:
Upon bursting into the zone down the right wing, Letang attempted to force a pass to the slot as he glided through the corner instead of hanging onto the puck and waiting for a better option. There was no way Ryan Lindgren didn't know that pass was coming. Not only did Letang's eyes signal a pass to the middle, his left leg dangling in the air behind him as he rode the inside edge of his right skate made it all too clear he wasn't hanging onto that puck.
Seconds later, the Rangers were able to clear the zone again.
It was a boneheaded pass. It was also a direct result of the core's raw skill and their long history of finessing pucks to their teammates that had no business getting through.
"We have to clarify those things," Letang told reporters following the loss. "Maybe simplify. Taking shots, creating rebounds, stuff to read where the puck's gonna go."
As the Penguins' two-man advantage came to a close, Malkin fired another low-danger attempt that caromed off Shesterkin's pad, right onto Adam Fox's stick. He then whipped the puck up ice to Mika Zibanejad, who had just left the penalty box, for a breakaway:
"And when you're five guys on the ice against three, maybe you gotta find that rebound and put it in," Letang said.
During the regular season, the Penguins scored 4 goals with a five-on-three advantage. That was tied for third in the NHL, although their 14 minutes of play in that scenario was more than any other team in the league.
This isn't a matter of these guys not knowing what to do with all that extra ice. They absolutely do. It comes down to the execution ... or lack of.
If the same thing had happened in consecutive games in the middle of January, nobody would bat an eye. But this is the playoffs. Everything is magnified, and every single micro-event could impact the result of the series.
For the Penguins, the discombobulation couldn't have come at a worse time, as they need every competitive advantage they can get while they continue to trot out a journeyman in between the pipes.
