The performance of Brian Dumoulin is one of the biggest question marks surrounding the outlook of the Penguins’ season.
After a rocky 2021-22 season that ended with a grade 3 MCL tear in the postseason, the Penguins banked on Dumoulin returning to form as a steadying defensive presence on the top defense pairing with Kris Letang.
The two were an increasing mess together, so much to the point that there was a stretch of eight games in which Dumoulin was on the ice for at least one even-strength goal against in seven of them. In four of those games, he was on the ice for multiple even-strength goals against in a game.
Dumoulin was finally taken off the top pairing, and in the six games since then, the reduced role seems to be squeezing a bit more out of his game, as the Penguins have controlled over 50% of the quality offense with Dumoulin out there in five of those six games.
"Defensively, it’s just kind of trusting my instincts a little bit more instead of trying to analyze every situation and thinking too much, almost," Dumoulin told me of the slight improvement to his game recently. "Just trusting my instincts, trusting my reads and being on my toes, and when I make a decision to trust it, to go with it. I think that’s been helping."
It’s always been an important aspect of Dumoulin’s game to take care of the puck, even if he’s not the most skilled, but his puck management to start the season was troubling. It makes sense that he was up in his head a bit.
I asked him if his injury from last postseason might have also played a factor in his performance out of the gates, but he brushed that aside and said he’s 100%.
"The injury is completely healed, so I feel good," he said. "I just think it was decision-based. Obviously when the team’s not winning, everyone’s kind of questioning their own games and stuff like that, and I think it got to the point where I was kind of not worried about making the wrong play, but I was thinking about which play I should make instead of just making a play.
"I feel like anytime you’re going through those stretches, you can kind of start questioning yourself, but at the end of the day, it’s just a game of hockey and I’ve been playing this game for a long time. It’s a fun game, I’ve made a lot of reads, sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, but I just got to trust them and when I make the read, I got to just go.”
MORE PENGUINS
2. The Penguins have obviously been frustrated with the way things have been going over the past several weeks, but I've found it somewhat interesting as to how they trudge forward with the confidence as if things were going exactly the way they'd hoped. It's not to be mistaken with arrogance, though.
"When we win a game we’re not through the moon, and when we lose a game we’re not down on the ground," Dumoulin told me. "We’re always kind of staying in that middle of the pack, and you got to have that mindset where if you win a game and the goalie steals it, you can learn from it, but you’re still satisfied with winning. If you lose a game and you played really well, then we can live with that, too." -- Shirey
3. Even though he's currently back on the Penguins' first line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, it's been nice to see Rickard Rakell finally start to show some flashes of chemistry with Evgeni Malkin, as the Penguins' second line has been the team's largest source of offense lately. The key to gelling, Rakell told me, was a willingness to grind it out just as much as they wanted to flash their skill.
"We just tried not to get too pretty," Rakell said. "We were happy with getting dirty goals and taking pride in doing a good job on the forecheck and getting pucks to the net. It’s nice when those kind of things are working for us. That’s what we said, we want to have those kind of goals, but when the opportunity comes, we can bring our skill to it, as well." -- Shirey
4. Rakell has four points in his last three games and has been one of the Penguins' best and most consistent players all season. I wondered if that might be a product of feeling even more comfortable in his new environment after spending the entirety of his NHL career with the Anaheim Ducks. Rakell told me he started to feel comfortable rather quickly after the trade, but it's only getting better and better for him as more time goes on.
"It’s a great group of guys and coaching staff that’s helped me along the way. I’m starting to feel more and more like myself," Rakell said. "I started to play some good hockey and I just want to keep doing that and get better."
Rakell currently ranks third among all NHL skaters in Evolving-Hockey's goals above replacement (GAR) model, an imperfect hockey version of the baseball stat wins above replacement, or WAR. Rakell, unsurprisingly, was unfamiliar with the metric when I brought it up to him, but he was pleased to hear he grades out so well right now.
"Oh, really? I had no idea. I guess I’m doing something right," he said with a laugh. -- Shirey
5. There was a pretty interesting contingent of visiting scouts in the Penguins' press box this week for the game against the Maple Leafs, with the Blues, Stars, Rangers, Flyers, Golden Knights, Sabres, Devils, and Blue Jackets all having representatives. None of them are regulars in the Penguins' press box, though the Flyers' and Golden Knights' scouts are two regional scouts who are there sporadically. Two of those teams sent their assistant general managers, with the Sabres sending Jason Karmanos and the Devils sending Dan MacKinnon, both of whom previously had roles in the Penguins' front office. A pro scout's job isn't all about potential trades, part of their role is preparing for future matchups, too. Will be worth keeping an eye on to see which of those teams' scouts keep coming back. -- Taylor Haase at PPG Paints Arena
6. I've seen some "leaks" of the Winter Classic jerseys going around on social media over the last few days. They're fake. Almost all of them have some kind of wordmark on the front (like the actual 1920s NHL Pirates jerseys had), but the Penguins' Winter Classic jerseys have no wordmark, just the "P" logo. They're also cream-colored with no blue. -- Haase
7. The Penguins debuted their Reverse Retro jerseys with the robo-Penguin logo earlier this season in Buffalo, but the game against the Maple Leafs this week was the first time they wore them at home. In honor of the occasion the Penguins brought Gary Adams -- an artist with Vance Wright Adams and Associates Inc. who designed the original logo -- to the game. -- Haase
8. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has a pretty deep group of forwards this year, which means that a number of rookies are in-and-out of the lineup. One of those players is winger Ravis Ansons, who has only appeared in five of Wilkes-Barre's 12 games, somewhat of a surprising development given how high the organization seemed on him in the camps this summer. I got a chance to talk with coach J.D. Forrest this week and asked him for his thoughts on Ansons and what he needs to do to become a regular.
"It's more of adapting to the style of play," Forrest explained. "Last season (in junior), he's playing a ton of ice time and he's kind of pacing himself out there shift-by-shift. We want him to gas himself every 45-seconds shift he has, leave it all out there and come back and recover. So I think that part of his game is improving and understanding the intensity from shift-to-shift that you have to bring out there. He does have the smarts and ability to be on the penalty kill. He's taking steps there. I think anytime it's junior to pro, it's a pretty big leap. So if it happens overnight, awesome. Usually, it takes a little more time. So I think he's starting to grasp this concept." -- Haase
9. I was working on my next round of Survey Says questions this week in the locker room, and without giving one of the concepts away, I can tell you that a couple of players brought up that Crosby baked banana bread and brought it in for his teammates the other week, drawing rave reviews. Guentzel said that "it was unbelievable, it was gone pretty fast." Dumoulin gave away that Crosby's mom Trina might have had a little more to do with it than Crosby, though. -- Haase
STEELERS
10. It's no accident the Steelers racked up 217 yards on the ground against the Saints. While the offense struggled to find ways to be consistent and maintain possession through the first eight games of the season, there was a concerted effort to come out of the bye week with a heavy ground attack. Obviously, the game dictates what will and won't work, but the Steelers were able to establish the run early and, for the most part, maintain it throughout the game.
The Steelers were so dedicated to making a significant stride in the run game, they even quantified it.
"Coming off the bye week, that was one of the things we addressed. We needed to make sure we're getting at least 4-to-4.5 yards per carry," Zach Gentry told me this week. "That was our goal coming out of the bye week."
The Steelers averaged 5.0 yards per carry in the win over the Saints. Mission accomplished. -- Chris Halicke on the South Side
11. Against the Saints, the Steelers ran 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) more often than they had all season. It makes sense since Chase Claypool is now a Chicago Bear and the Steelers have to figure out different ways to run the offense effectively.
Like it was with the dedication to establishing the run, the Steelers definitely have dabbled with the idea of using 12 personnel, or any two tight end sets from here on out.
"(Claypool) was a big guy out there. He could be out there for the pass or run," Gentry told me. "It's not really something we've addressed totally, but we do feel like we run the ball well out of 12 [personnel]. I think this last game proved it too. We ran the ball successfully. We accomplished what we want to accomplish." -- Halicke
12. While Gentry is utilized much more as a blocker, but at 6-foot-8, 265 pounds, he can also be an attractive target in the passing game. He only has 12 catches to this point in the season, but the biggest one came against the Bengals in Week 1 -- a 32-yard catch and run. At his size, it's a miracle he was even tackled on the play. "Hopefully I can get loose," Gentry laughed. "Get some open grass in front of me again. I'd love that." -- Halicke
13. Mason Cole and I have talked quite a bit throughout the season about different blocking schemes (gap vs. zone) and how the offensive line has continued to gel over the course of the season. It's not always produced exactly what they want in terms of results, but my conversation with Cole and other offensive linemen this week have been far more upbeat, and not just because of the performance they had against the Saints. "We feel like we're so much better than we were then -- in the run game, the passing game, protection-wise, technique-wise," Cole told me. "We've had 10 weeks together now in stadium. I feel like we've grown a lot." -- Halicke
14. Football players chat, sometimes even gossip, about NFL news and rumors too. When Adam Schefter's report of Ndamukong Suh signing with the Eagles began circulating throughout the locker room Thursday afternoon, there were several players chatting about it in a similar way one would say, "Did you hear..." at the lunch tables in high school cafeterias. I even heard one player say, "Man, they've got a super team now." --Halicke
15. Winning certainly cures a lot of things. The locker room has been much more lively this week, with the players goofing off, roughhousing and playing with each far more than we've witnessed most of the season. Myles Jack and Terrell Edmunds are two players that like to be in the thick of it, and it's clear to see those two guys are some of the most-liked in the locker room. -- Halicke
16. At the Steelers' facility on the South Side, the hallway from the main lobby to the locker room is lined with photos taken by the team's staff of the previous game -- win or lose. These aren't cheap prints either. It's quite impressive.
Among the photos from the Saints game is Jaylen Warren's hurdle over Saints defensive back Paulson Adebo.
"It's a cool ass picture," Warren told me with a smile. "I told about it before I even saw it." -- Halicke
KARL ROSER / STEELERS
17. It turns out that hurdle proves Warren possesses good football instincts. "I didn't even know I was going to hurdle," Warren told me. "It was like, 'What am I going to do?!' If I got tackled by him, I wouldn't have gotten the first down, and there wasn't space to juke. So, my body said, 'Hurdle!' So I just jumped." -- Halicke
PIRATES
18. The Pirates went after one of the most notable free agents ... in the coaching world. Jason Ochart, the director of hitting at Driveline -- one of the premier baseball facilities in the country -- recently joined the Red Sox director of hitting development and program design last week. Ochart was interviewed for a similar position with the Pirates, but it was ultimately determined that he was not the right fit. -- Alex Stumpf
19. That doesn't mean the Pirates are adding a new director of hitting this winter. Word is they would prefer to promote someone internally who has relationships with the hitters and coaches in the system eventually, but they don't have the right guy right now. -- Stumpf
20. To bring this back to the major-league team, despite some public outcries for his job, Andy Haines’ job was always safe. Everyone knew he was inheriting a very tough situation because he wasn't allowed to be in contact with his hitters when he was hired because of the lockout and the Pirates were in an early part of their roster overhaul. He was brought on with the understanding it would take time for his message to resonate with hitters. -- Stumpf
21. A reminder that just because a player was left off the 40 man roster doesn't mean they will be taken in the Rule 5 draft, but I had heard buzz from league sources around Blake Sabol and Cody Bolton over the last year. The Pirates haven't lost a player in the Rule 5 draft since Deolis Guerra in 2015. That could change this year. -- Stumpf
