Kovacevic: The Penguins' energy/spark can't all originate with Zucker

Jason Zucker didn't just "drag our team into the fight," as Mike Sullivan's become fond of saying about the Penguins' singularly embodied pulse this winter.

Nope, the man found it necessary to fight. Meaning himself. Meaning dropping the gloves and giving up five inches and 28 pounds to Winnipeg's snarliest defenseman, Brenden Dillon. Meaning finding a way to survive losing his helmet amid the first few throws.

Which he did to a worthy draw, per this footage from Adam, a longtime subscriber, at ice level:

After which, he raised his arms on the way to the box to try to pump up either the near-capacity crowd of 18,268, or his teammates, or both.

After which, those teammates rose up in unison for the traditional stick-bangs on the boards to express appreciation:

JEANINE LEECH / GETTY

The Penguins bang their sticks on the boards to salute Jason Zucker's fight.

And after which, apparently now more appreciative than ever to achieve new heights of hockey-dom ... they'd allow yet another sickeningly easy goal:

Uh-huh ... Jets 4, Penguins 1. Though I can't be certain the visitors didn't keep scoring even deeper into this Friday night at PPG Paints Arena. 

See, here's what I can stomach: The Penguins were missing Tristan Jarry, plus their top three defensemen in Kris Letang, Marcus Pettersson and Jeff Petry, plus two-thirds of their fourth line in Ryan Poehling and Josh Archibald. That's nearly a third of the roster. And to boot, they were facing an opponent so formidable it's being weighed among the best in the West but also as a bona fide Stanley Cup contender.

Here's what I can't stomach: Among those athletes who were able to attend, why was Zucker yet again the only one to actually show up for work?

Seriously, the original Sullivan line on this subject was awesome, a month ago when Zucker got things going for a rousing victory over the Rangers. The same goes every time the script rolls that way, as it did again in the mega-comeback the other night over the Canucks.

But it's also ... well, revealing.

I asked Sullivan afterward if, setting aside injuries and how good Winnipeg's become, this collective effort was to his liking.

"No," he replied without hesitation. "I don't think it's the standard that's been set here by our group. I know we're capable of a lot more, regardless of who's in our lineup. It just wasn't our best."

And what'd he think of Zucker's fight?

"I think it's huge. Zuck's trying to give us some juice there. That's what he does. I was hoping we'd have a little bit more of a push."

Just a little. As it was, there were a few 'LET'S GO PENS' chants from the crowd, a couple of compelling shifts, and then the Mark Scheifele dagger shown above.

"But I think that's just what Zuck brings to our team," Sullivan kept going. "He brings a ton of energy. He's a courageous guy. He's trying to win. I think he was just trying to bring us some energy, and he puts himself in harm's way to do so. That's the type of guy that he is and that's the type of player he is for us. He brings us a certain swagger that we need to try to rally around."

Want to know what kind of teammate Zucker really is? Beyond what's been obvious all along?

Consider that I approached him after he was done with the cameras and microphones and asked something I'd been meaning to ask him for quite some time: Isn't more of what he brings needed?

"From the team?" he came back, and I confirmed that.

From there, he responded the way any dream teammate would respond: "No. I like our team a lot. I think we've got a lot of guys who do a lot of good things here. You know, guys play different roles, and I'm the guy who can do that stuff. So I take pride in that. Everyone's working hard."

With immense respect, my man, that's ... wow, no. Just no.

And there's no way he doesn't know it. And Sullivan doesn't know it. And Ron Hextall, presuming he's still the GM, doesn't know it.

This isn't the time for tiptoeing, with the way this team's trending since Christmas, so allow me, please, to give it a try: It's beyond indefensible that the bottom-six of this forward group's been allowed to disintegrate beyond recognition, especially as it relates to playing the game, per Sullivan's methodology, "the right way." 

Within that, it's beyond indefensible not only that no personnel moves have been made to address this obvious issue, but also that no personnel moves can be made, since Hextall saw fit to handcuff the team's salary-cap situation to insane contracts handed out to Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen.

And within all that, it's beyond indefensible that the general makeup of the third and fourth forward lines were undone by a run of dubious moves, a list that'll always be topped by the even more insane protection of Carter in the Seattle expansion draft that gifted Jared McCann to the Kraken.

I could go on, but that's plenty.

This team will be stronger once healthy. Heck, this same team went into Winnipeg and whipped these same Jets with what's still their most compelling, most complete performance of the season. It's good enough to win, thanks in large part to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Zucker and the rest of the top-six guys.

But it's not anywhere near good enough to win when it matters most, barring a start-from-scratch outlook at the third and fourth lines. 

Trade people. Demote them. Cut them. 

And for that matter, cut out the constant complaining -- this is on Hextall -- when it comes to a cap situation that he himself created.

Sit down with Sullivan and his staff, engage in a candid conversation about what this team needs to look like, how it needs to play, then acknowledge that what we're witnessing ain't it. From there, get to work on addressing these issues without worrying about who's a respected veteran or who was once a useful player several years ago or even seven months ago, then clean them out. And from there, find players -- scrubs, even -- who can do the dirty work while allowing the scorers to simply keep doing what they're doing.

We've seen Zucker be way more productive with those hands than in this fight.

Knock it off already.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

The Jets' Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele celebrate after the former sets up the latter's second goal.

• Rinse, repeat and, above all, read the best Freeze Frame yet. It's not optional. For real, we automatically cancel subscriptions now if anyone doesn't read FF. Deportation's next.

• I had to seek out the footage of the fight up there from social media since the NHL -- hilariously and hypocritically -- omits fights from their highlights packages. Not making that up. 

• I don't know where Hextall is. He wasn't at this game. I don't know why. Only sharing.

• I'm not dismissing the injuries as having an impact. That'd be idiotic.

But having that many players missing tends to galvanize a group to try that much harder. Not to wait for Zucker to blow the trumpet.

• I'm also not dismissing the Jets as having an impact on this evening. My goodness, they were terrific, and this despite playing -- and winning -- the previous night in Buffalo, N.Y. Their stickwork was the best of any team I've covered this season in terms of filling lanes, changing the attack, even whacking the puck out of mid-air to clear.

And once it's boomeranging back the other way, there's ample firepower on the top two lines, plus actual grit/character/size/physicality on their bottom two lines, that the entire roster makes sense.

They're not 28-14-1 by accident.

"Give the players full marks for playing the way we did," Rick Bowness would say, even though he's receiving much of the praise across Manitoba in his first year back behind the bench there.  "There were no passengers tonight. Everyone contributed."

• Danny Shirey has the Penguins' butchery on the temporary-please blue line.

• Did Brock McGinn contribute anything? Could he be classified a passenger? Or does he even exist anymore?

• I could ask the same of Danton Heinen.

• And, sympathetic I am to Teddy Blueger losing both Poehling and Archibald, it's not OK for a player of his decent skill set to have a single goal over 26 games. It's been a long time now since his jaw was broken, and he still isn't the same.

• Dillon was the one who broke Blueger's jaw, by the way, but on this night, he seemed more intent on irritating Sid and Geno. 

That might be another reason Zucker went after him, though all Zucker would say to why he fought was, "That's part of the game."

• So much for the backup goaltending controversy. It took no more than a period-plus of Dustin Tokarski's first start for the Penguins, as well as all the requisite AHL fish-flopping, to make one pine for Casey DeSmith.

• Good for Drew O'Connor for scoring a dogged, straight-line goal off a sharp two-on-one feed from Kapanen:

It was his second goal in 10 NHL games this season, while he also threw three hits, one of them a bone-crusher on Neal Pionk into the Winnipeg end boards.

I asked the kid what the coaches are telling him they'd like to see:

"Just play relentlessly," he'd reply. "Get in on the forecheck. Protect the puck. Be really sound defensively. If I'm reliable, I can earn their trust, find ways that they'd really want to put me on the ice."

The competition's slim, one would think.

• Easy, easy team to like, these Jets. Even looking past my longstanding affinity for the city. They just look to have it all.

Also, they do this cool thing after games where the players distribute not one but two bomber jackets to each other:

Maybe I'll cover the Final up there, eh?

• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage, as always. Hail and farewell to my friends in the Winnipeg media corps who made the trip. And you're welcome for the smattering of snow to make you feel at home.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Jeff Carter and the Jets' Pierre-Luc Dubois face off in the second period.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Mark Scheifele, Jets C
2. Blake Wheeler, Jets RW
3. Cole Perfetti, Jets LW

THE INJURIES

• Marcus Pettersson, defenseman, missed this game with an illness. Sullivan described his status as day-to-day, adding that he wasn't certain about his status for the next game Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.

• Kris Letang, defenseman, has a lower-body injury and has yet to rejoin the team since his father's funeral in Montreal.

• Jeff Petry, defenseman, is on long-term injured reserve with a wrist injury and has resumed skating, though not with the team.

• Tristan Jarry, goaltender, in on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and has resumed skating , though not with the team.

• Josh Archibald, right winger, is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and has resumed skating, though not with the team.

• Ryan Poehling, left winger,  in on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and has resumed skating , though not with the team.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan's lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor-Jeff Carter-Kasperi Kapanen
Danton Heinen-Teddy Blueger-Brock McGinn

Brian Dumoulin-Ty Smith
P.O Joseph-Jan Rutta
Mark Friedman-Chad Ruhwedel

And for Bowness' Jets:

Kyle Connor-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Nikolaj Ehlers
Cole Perfetti-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler
Saku Mäenalanen-Adam Lowry-Karson Kuhlman
Axel Johnsson-Fjallby-Kevin Stenlund-Sam Gagner

Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo
Brenden Dillon-Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg-Nate Schmidt

THE SCHEDULE

There's another game today, 7:08 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C., against the Hurricanes, an opponent that's handled the Penguins in all three meetings. Taylor Haase has flown there to cover.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.