Kovacevic: Proof that these Penguins haven't 'shown our best yet'

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — “Hockey’s a funny game,” Bryan Rust was saying Saturday at this city’s Hockey For All Centre, practice facility of the resident Jets. “Most sports have a funny everything.”

This was after he and the Penguins had completed a half-hour workout that’ll be sandwiched between their 6-4 victory over the Wild the previous night and the next game Saturday -- 7:08 p.m. Eastern faceoff -- against the Jets at Canada Life Centre.

And yeah, this followed yet another game in which Rust didn’t score, amid yet another season in which he settles into an uncomfortably long slide. In this case, it’s four goals through the first 17 games, but it’s also no points in the past seven games and a team-worst minus-11 rating ... while skating alongside nothing but elite talent who've kept right on producing without him.

“There’s a time for me to go through things where everything goes your way and time to go through things where everything’s not,” Rust would continue. “I think you’ve just got to keep checking on things day by day, keep working hard, focus on those little things and just making sure the rest of my game’s rounded out and I think the offense will come.”

It will, of course. Always does. He’s as capable of being bone-dry for a month, then one of the NHL’s most dangerous wingers the next, with the only consistency being that there’s a bounty of good awaiting after any bad. And the principle reason for that, as he suggested himself, is that his focus on an intensive two-way approach, founded on impeccable character, never wavers.

I don’t waste time worrying about Rust, so I won't offer solutions. He'll break out in a big way.

That said …man, it’d sure be wonderful if a few such issues related to this 7-7-3 start, all seemingly resolvable to the level of inevitability, would get about doing so sooner rather than later. Or, as Teddy Blueger put it, "We haven't shown our best yet as a hockey team, and we all know that. We've got to push to get there."

Tristan Jarry’s the headline culprit at the moment, lugging along a 3.65 goals-against average and — ee-yuck — an .895 save percentage. All he represents is the fate of the franchise this season and, maybe, beyond. As I wrote from St. Paul, that’s got to change, like, two weeks ago.

Solution: Try climbing back atop the crease again. Watch the heels. Always where he finds trouble.

But it’s never been just him, a point I’ve made throughout.

What about Brian Dumoulin?

He had the highest Corsi For percentage at five-on-five of any of the Penguins or Wild two nights ago, to his credit. But that’s the exception, and it needs to become the norm. If it doesn’t, there can’t and shouldn’t be any hesitation about a reduced role.

Solution: Don't be so serious. And I'm serious in saying this. Dumoulin's the consummate professional, and that can backfire in some settings. He beats himself up over a mistake, then it snowballs into more mistakes, and nobody benefits.

Jeff Carter?

I don't like two goals over 14 games. I really don't like 26 shots over that span, considering his gunning history. And, for as much as the Penguins internally try to build him up as some two-way tower of strength, the data strongly supports why I don't like his defending, either, aside from faceoffs. He oozes all the intangibles, and that part's real. But that's the only reason I'm loath to connect his downward spiral to the two-year extension he signed at the middle of last season.

Solution: Get mad. Carter mixed it up with a few Wild guys in St. Paul, and it seemed to hasten his pace. 

Danton Heinen?

Everyone was singing his praises, and not without cause, after three goals in the first five games. But two of those came against the Blue Jackets, maybe the NHL's worst team, and the other against Brian Elliott, by far the NHL's worst goaltender. And there've been none in the past dozen games. Heck, there've barely been any attempts, with five total shots over the past seven games. I like his overall game, and I love his commitment to the Penguins in accepting less money -- one year, $1 million -- to return via free agency. But for a third-line type, he's still best appreciated for his ability to finish.

Solution: Dude, just shoot.

And hey, presuming he isn’t traded by the next snowfall here, what about Kasperi Kapanen?

I’m here to attest, observing him on this trip, this very much looks like someone who’d rather be someone else. Not to suggest he isn’t putting in the sweat equity. He very much is. But if it isn’t enough to picture a man simultaneously wearing green pants an equally glaring frown, as he was after the game in the locker room … yeah, that’s imagery I can’t top.

Ron Hextall’s on the trip. He sees it. He no doubt feels it, and by that I mean the weight of his own more-inexplicable two-year, $6.4 million offer that Kapanen and his agent likely leaped through sharded windows to sign this summer.

Can’t just drag him around. There needs to a resolution. Either recommit to him, or ship him to Wilkes-Barre. Or, again, see if there’s a taker in a pure cap-dump trade.

Solution: Swallow pride. Include cash. Move him.

When Rust slumps, he fixes it himself. Not everything’s so casually solved.

PENGUINS

The Penguins practice Friday at Hockey For All Centre, the Jets' facility, Friday in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

• The Penguins' practice here came with full participation, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Even though the team's playing three games in this four-day span.

File this one away, please, for future discussions about how the NHL culture continues to fly in the face of modern approaches in other sports that value rest and recovery for their athletes, but especially the older ones. Because this remains madness.

They could've been hockey pioneers in this regard. Still could. The profile's a perfect test case.

• Don't think for a split-second that Rust will be kept off the top line for long, no matter how well Rickard Rakell fares there.

Although the lines stayed the same for this practice as in St. Paul ...

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn-Jeff Carter-Danton Heinen
Ryan Poehling-Teddy Blueger-Josh Archibald

Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph-Jan Rutta

... Sullivan had this reply when asked Saturday how the Rust/Rakell switch had worked Thursday: 'I thought they played well. We’ll see how it goes. It's one game, but certainly we were pleased with some of the adjustments and how they performed.'

Translation: The instant Rust looks better, he's back up there. Bank on it. Never mind that Rakell's been maybe the team's most consistent forward to date.

• Josh Archibald, on the fourth line's uplifting showing since Blueger's return: "I think we all play the same way – hard, gritty. We all use our speed. At the same time, Teddy’s easy to play with. He’s big and tall and there’s lots of talk on the ice so far. Part of our game plan was take care of the defensive zone, the offense will take care of itself and I thought we played really well defensively and we got some breaks there."

• Reminder: Geno's playing in his 999th game here Saturday, his 1,000th -- presuming all goes well -- the next night in Chicago. But as tradition has it, that'll all be celebrated once he's back home. Next game at PPG Paints Arena is Wednesday night against the Flames. And best of all, it'll happen before what's annually the most boisterous regular-season crowd of all on Thanksgiving Eve, a Pittsburgh tradition.

• Maybe the most impressive aspect of the Jets' 10-4-1 start is that they've done it with Kyle Conner, author of 47 goals last season, having only two through Winnipeg's first 14 games ... until this Thursday night:

That's how those types roll. They'll bust out against someone. And better for the Penguins that it just happened to the Ducks.

"I put a little more emphasis of getting to the net," Connor would say of his hat trick. "Just put yourself in good situations. That's all you can ask for."

Seems like sound advice anyone could heed.

• Question for the readership: Do you hate these Freeze Frame features that Danny Shirey and I have been putting together? 

Because the page-view figures sure suggest you do. And we can stop at any time. Just because we enjoy writing them -- and we really do -- doesn't mean a reader has to enjoy reading them.

• Yeah, I'm ecstatic to be here, as ever. That'll never change.

And yeah, it's cold. Like single-digits.

And no, I couldn't care less. The bathroom floors in this city are heated with internal wiring. It's a way of life.

Jim Bender of the Winnipeg Sun contributed to this report.