NEW YORK -- Stop this already.
Stop insulting everyone's intelligence. Stop attempting to prove whatever point's not being proven. Stop acting like rank amateurs rather than allegedly responsible stewards of the rest of Sidney Patrick Crosby's NHL career.
Which is to say, stop playing Brian Dumoulin and Jeff Carter.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Seriously, I've never seen anything like this in a lifetime of covering all three of Pittsburgh's teams, certainly not with the Penguins. Not to this extreme. But we've now reached the stage of this becoming an out-in-the-open joke for the whole hockey world to behold, game after game after game, where no one among Mike Sullivan, Ron Hextall or Brian Burke -- three experienced hockey men, the first of those ranking among the sharpest coaches/managers I've encountered in any sport -- will do a damned thing about it.
No, this isn't to isolate blame on Dumoulin and Carter for the 4-2 loss to the Rangers on this Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. There was more to it, from the standard sluggish start to P.O Joseph somewhat mishandling a pass that led to one New York goal to Evgeni Malkin's dubious decision to pass laterally under duress and hand away the game-sealing empty-netter.
But honestly, I liked most of the rest, as I'll highlight below. For real. The start aside, the Penguins out-possessed, out-performed and even out-skated the home team and might've taken a point or two, if only a little thing here or there had gone their way.
Such as New York's first goal:
That's Dumoulin deep in the offensive zone, attempting a blind, between-his-own legs centering pass. And my goodness, it felt like a crime against hockey just to type that sentence.
Now, his spot's covered by Sid, but the bouncing puck that sprung Mika Zibanejad for a breakaway and the evening's icebreaking goal 2:51 after the opening faceoff ... let's just say Dumoulin's not the one to take a risk anywhere near that ridiculous.
New York's second goal:
Stop rubbing the eyes. That's real. Carter threw a backward pass to Joseph there ... and saucered it, as if to ensure it'd be a challenge to settle that puck. When Joseph couldn't, Tyler Motte pounced and pushed it past Jarry.
Joseph hasn't been great lately, to be kind, but be very sure he was taking one for the team when he told me of this sequence afterward: "I've got to make sure there's no loose puck in the middle there."
Nope, kid. Not this one. All Carter has to do there is backhand the puck right back into the neutral zone, where he had not one but both of his linemates waiting along those same boards.
But that's OK. No one can ever speak an ill syllable of Carter. House rules.
Also, Carter can never speak on Carter. While the kid stood tall to answer all of my questions on that sequence, Carter, evidently exhibiting that leadership for which he's always lauded on the inside, pulled his usual disappearing act.
New York's third goal:
This was Chris Kreider's winner with 8:15 left, and the game wasn't all that he won. He also won the net-front battle. Sure, his stick got up, and he might well have slew-footed Dumoulin, too. But that's how those things have gone in hockey since the dog-sled days, and no one sheds a tear for the loser.
To put this bluntly, if a player's only lingering claim to being in the NHL is being a defensive defenseman, that's not a situation in which one should wind up faceplanting on the ice.
None of this is new. None of it. So please spare me any nitpicking.
Buckle up:
• Over the past five games, 11 of the 13 non-empty-net goals the Penguins have given up have come with one of Dumoulin or Carter on the ice. Dumoulin's been on for nine, Carter seven.
• For the season, Dumoulin's been on the ice for 95 goals, 10th-most of any player in the league and a mindblowing 24 more than his next-nearest teammate, Bryan Rust. Carter's been on for 54, though he's logged 470 fewer minutes of ice time than Dumoulin.
• Dumoulin's negative goal differential of minus-37 is the worst on the Penguins by another mindblowing margin of 21 goals. Next worst is Jan Rutta's minus-16, and then, predictably, Carter at minus-14. Though again, Carter's played less than any defenseman.
• Dumoulin logged 30 shifts in this game, tied with Kris Letang for most of any player on either team. Carter logged only 13, but he's now been scored upon with five of the 27 shifts he's taken the past two games. That ain't easy.
• When Dumoulin or Carter have been on the ice together at five-on-five, according to hockey analyst Adam Gretz after this game, they've been outscored, 22-3. Not a misprint.
• And this gem from our own guy:
The Penguins are -28 in goals with Jeff Carter on the ice at 5v5 since the start of last season.
— Danny Shirey (@DannyShireyPGH) March 17, 2023
This isn't scapegoating. These aren't even opinions. There's visual evidence above. There's data. There's even -- gasp! -- common sense to be had.
It's beyond belief that neither's been a healthy scratch. Meaning ever.
And it's yet another level of beyond belief that both continue to take a regular shift in this mid-March stretch run of which Sullivan himself would passionately say after this loss, "We know where we're at. These games are important. We're fighting for a playoff spot. We get it."
No.
No, Coach, respectfully, you don't get it. Not on this count. Not if you're running these two out there as if nothing's amiss. Not if you're utilizing either of them within the final two minutes of any game that's tight, as occurred here yet again. Not if you're no longer entertaining questions from reporters on the subject, as you made clear three weeks ago with this response to our beat writer, Taylor Haase:
That's not the Sullivan I've come to know and respect. I'm not referring to the response -- everyone's free to answer any question as they wish -- but rather, to the actions that've led to all the questions.
Because, even if this might seem unfair, I don't know Hextall and Burke anywhere near as well as I think I know him. And he's better than this. He's better than to jeopardize this team's chance of securing an 18th consecutive year of Stanley Cup playoffs over some bizarre loyalty to two players who are demonstrably his worst performers. He's better than to not give Sid, Geno and Letang the greatest possible chance to contend in their final years. And even if this call to play Dumoulin and Carter would be coming from above, he's better than to stay silent through it.
He's better than this. He needs to get over whatever grip this situation's got on him. He needs to rise above it.
He needs to do this, like, today.
GETTY
Kris Letang clears a rebound after Tristan Jarry stops the Rangers' Alexis Lafreniere.
• Jarry was terrific. This was the bounce-back everyone'd been awaiting, with 31 saves, eight of those on high-danger chances. Should've stolen all the headlines, including what it might mean to the Penguins moving forward. Taylor has that covered.
• Jeff Petry exited after being elbowed in the head on his third shift by Motte. Taylor has that covered, too.
• Offering Sullivan credit where due on two fronts, the first being that his team struggled in the first few minutes to contain the Rangers' excellent stretch passes, but he made a rare in-game switch in requiring a forward to peel back as a third defenseman once possession was lost. Even Sid did that on a shift, retreating to the Pittsburgh blue line, and it was quite the sight.
It worked.
"I just thought there was more detail to our game, you know?" Sullivan replied when I brought that up. "I thought we were in-between earlier in the game. When we're in-between, I think that's when we run the risk. Part of it is execution, and part of it's decision-making. When we have the ability to play on top of teams, we don't allow them to stretch the ice and create those types of opportunities. I just think we got to play with more conviction."
• The other is that he slid Rickard Rakell back to the top line in the second period, when it looked as if Igor Shesterkin wasn't going to be beaten. And lo and behold:
Rakell on the top line makes so much sense. Let it be.
• Why was Rakell moved up?
"I just didn't think we had enough juice," Sullivan replied. "So we tried to tweak the lines a little bit to see if we could get a spark."
Moved off that top line, of course, was Rust, who's got no goals and one assist over his past seven games. Been a lot of those slumps this winter.
• They'll make the playoffs. Relax on that front. The issue's whether or not they'll arrive in any shape to do anything.
• Bad enough the Penguins lost to the Canadiens the other night, arguably far more embarrassing that, in the Habs' previous game, they allowed eight goals and, in their next game Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla., they were obliterated by the Panthers, 9-5. With seven of Florida's nine goals in the first period alone.
• A quality minute I spent with Rakell:
• Sid's other assist, on Jake Guentzel's goal that tied the score at 9:09 of the third, was the result of a relentless, dominant shift ...
... while his 82nd point of the 2022-23 season also resulted in a slice of neat history, in that now only Wayne Gretzky has averaged more point-per-game seasons:
Never take him for granted.
• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. I'm staying here for the Saturday rematch, as well.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Madison Square Garden:
1. Chris Kreider, Rangers LW
2. Igor Shesterkin, Rangers G
3. Tyler Motte, Rangers C
THE INJURIES
• Dmitry Kulikov, defenseman, has a lower-body injury and is on LTIR.
• Nick Bonino, center, has a lacerated kidney.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Alex Nylander
Drew O'Connor-Mikael Granlund-Rickard Rakell
Ryan Poehling-Jeff Carter-Josh Archibald
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph-Jan Rutta
And for Gerard Gallant's Rangers:
Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Vlad Tarasenko
Chris Kreider-Vince Trocheck-Patrick Kane
Alexis Lafreniere-Filip Chytl-Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Tyler Motte
K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Niko Mikkola-Adam Fox
Ben Harpur-Braden Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
The team's practicing Friday, 11:30 a.m., at Chelsea Piers here in Manhattan. The next game's here, too, at the Garden. Saturday, 8:08 p.m.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
