This Blue Jackets team is a contender ... for the rights to draft Connor Bedard No. 1 overall this summer.
Not the playoffs.
The Blue Jackets entered Tuesday's game with an 8-13-2 record, the worst in the Eastern Conference, so the Penguins' 4-1 victory over Columbus at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday isn't exactly cause to start planning the parade.
One area in which the Blue Jackets actually have been pretty dangerous as of late, though, is the power play. Columbus went 7 for 23 on the power play in the 10 games before coming to Pittsburgh for a 30.4 success rate. That was a figure that Mike Sullivan mentioned during his press conference after Tuesday's skate when he was talking about the threat posed by the Blue Jackets power play.
"We've got to be aware of that, and we're going to have to get the job done," Sullivan said. "That's going to be a big challenge for us on our kill."
The Penguins took it upon themselves to amplify that challenge a little more on Tuesday, handing the Blue Jackets five power-play opportunities, but then going 5 for 5 on the kills.
"We knew we had a big challenge with those guys," Mike Sullivan said of the Columbus power play. "(Patrik) Laine is always a threat as a shooter. (Johnny) Gaudreau's one of the better power-play guys in the league. They have a great net-front guy with (Boone) Jenner. So they've got a lot of real good elements to their power play that are dangerous. I just thought our guys did a really good job."
The Blue Jackets had 9:35 of total power play time throughout the game -- two minor penalties in the first period, one in the second, and two in the third period, with the final minor coming with 1:35 left in the game. The Penguins' penalty-killers limited the Blue Jackets to a combined four unblocked shot attempts and only two shots on goal throughout those five opportunities.
Gaudreau and Jenner, two of the bigger threats on Columbus' top unit, didn't even record a single shot attempt on the power play.
Of the unblocked shot attempts Columbus did make, they were from distance or tough angles, not quite high-danger opportunities:
Teddy Blueger credited the team's ability to keep the Blue Jackets' players to those areas on the power play.
"I think we were able to keep them to the outside," Blueger said. "Obviously, we wanted to contain Laine as much as possible. He's got a big shot. That was the focus. I thought we tried to slow momentum on the break-ins. The first period wasn't good, but after that we got better. Then 6-on-4 (when the Blue Jackets pulled Elvis Merzlikins on their last power play) is tough just because two extra guys counts for a lot. (Tristan Jarry) was big for us, it's just a combination of those things."
Brian Dumoulin pointed to the penalty-killers being "collective."
"We did some good job getting clears when we had to and not giving them second chances," Dumoulin said. "There was the big 6-on-4 kill at the end, it was still a tight game there. Good job by everyone."
I asked Sullivan what he thought had his team so effective at shutting down such a hot power play night and he attributed his team's shorthanded success to the penalty-killers being "locked in" to details.
"I thought we competed hard on pucks," Sullivan said. "I thought we made good decisions. When we didn't have an opportunity to pressure, we had good awareness away from the puck. But when we had opportunities to pressure, I thought we did it, and we pressured with numbers. That's an important aspect of it."
Another important aspect was just being able to spread around the minutes of the Penguins' different penalty-killers. The usual defensemen were among those who saw shorthanded time -- Dumoulin (5:01), Jan Rutta (4:54), Marcus Pettersson (4:43) and Jeff Petry (3:37), with Chad Ruhwedel (:54) seeing some time as well.
Five different forwards saw shorthanded time, and the one who saw the most (5:00) was a bit of a surprise: Bryan Rust. That's by far the most penalty-kill time Rust has seen in a single game this season, nearly doubling his previous game-high this season of 2:52 in Seattle on Nov. 5. He's only ever played five or more minutes shorthanded in a game four other times in his career -- once in the 2017-18 season and three times in 2018-19.
Rust came up big toward the end of the Penguins' second kill, blocking a shot with his hand in the final seconds that had him going to the locker room for repairs as soon as the penalty ended.
Sullivan pointed to a number of attributes of Rust for reasons why he got as much penalty-killing time has he did, but one of the big ones is that his usage has just been different lately. With Rickard Rakell bumped up to the top power play unit and Rust moved down to the second unit, Rust is now open to being able to be used more in situations like these.
"Number one, he's a really good penalty killer," Sullivan said of Rust. "He's very familiar with the scheme. He's killed penalties for most of his career here. So, he's always a guy that we can go to, and quite honestly, he's one of our best when we utilize him. We choose not to sometimes because we're trying to manage his workload. I think when he's off the first power play, it gives us that ability to utilize him on the penalty kill if we need to."
Brock McGinn (3:30) and Josh Archibald (3:31) saw shorthanded time as usual, with McGinn coming up with a crucial takeaway and Archibald adding some physicality when on the ice. Jeff Carter (2:09) was used more sparingly, but his role was specifically that of a faceoff specialist. He took all but one draw on the penalty kill all game and went 2-for-5.
After Rust, the forward who saw the most penalty-killing time in this game was unsurprisingly Blueger (4:55). The penalty kill has been incredibly effective over the last three weeks or so, and it's hard to ignore that the uptick started to happen coincidentally at that exact same time Blueger returned from injury and made his season debut on Nov. 15. Before Blueger made his debut the penalty kill had allowed 13 goals on 53 opportunities for a 75.5% success rate in 15 games, good enough for 24th in the league during that span. In the 11 game since Blueger has returned, the Penguins have conceded just two goals on 29 opportunities for a 93.1% success rate, the best record in the league in that timeframe.
Asked if that turnaround lining up with Blueger's return was a coincidence, Dumoulin said that it wasn't.
"I mean, he's such a great PKer," Dumoulin said. "He gives us a little bit more leeway there with our forwards being able to use a few more players so our forwards aren't getting taxed. Our PK, we need our forwards to be skating and putting pressure on them. So having Teddy back has been great, and obviously you can see the success the PK has had with that."
As the penalty-kill -- and more slowly, the power play -- has improved as of late, the Penguins' record has tended to follow it. The penalty-kill can go a long way toward keeping the Penguins in the win column. Being able to neutralize the threat that is the Blue Jackets' power play shows that the penalty-kill isn't slowing down any time soon.
