Kovacevic: After Carter, Dumoulin blow another, I ask Sullivan ... why?

NEW YORK -- Just watch, I'm about to pull this off without expressing a single opinion.

Here goes: In the wake of the Penguins' 6-0 loss to the Rangers on this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in the wake of an opening period in which the visitors out-chanced the home team but trailed by two, and in the wake of those goals following mistakes by Jeff Carter and Brian Dumoulin, I asked Mike Sullivan why, with so many opposing goals of late being scored against both -- data verified, so still no opinion -- he keeps playing them.

The following was the exchange:

Typing all that out, verbatim:

"You know, you guys like to pick on certain guys, and you go to them all the time," he began, looking directly at me. "We respectfully disagree with you in a lot of circumstances. When goals are scored, we look at a lot of the details on the hows and the whys. The reality is, it's more than one person, for the most part, when goals end up in the back of your net. So, I think those are easy guys to pick on."

I've written several scathing columns about the performances of Carter and Dumoulin. Including off the 4-2 loss to the Rangers here Thursday night, in which Dumoulin fed New York's rush on the first goal by attempting a drop pass deep in the attacking zone, in which Carter made a backward saucer pass that P.O Joseph couldn't handle to set up the next New York goal, and in which Dumoulin was outmaneuvered in the Pittsburgh slot by Chris Krieder for the third New York goal.

No opinion there. Not a syllable.

"But what I will tell you is that, all year long, we've put them in difficult circumstances," Sullivan continued. "Those guys play against top players in defensive situations all the time. Carts, going into tonight's game, is sixth in the league in faceoff percentage. Sixth overall. In the whole league."

This is accurate: Carter's won 59.1% of his faceoffs, sixth in the NHL among qualified centermen. And to Sullivan's point about "difficult circumstances," 56.2% of those faceoffs were in the defensive zone. On the same subject, though, research by our Taylor Haase after this game shows that Carter's had 17 games this season in which he's surpassed a 70% success rate on faceoffs, and that the Penguins' record in those games has been 6-7-4. The Penguins' record in all the other games: 28-18-6.

No opinion.

Also to Sullivan's point, it's accurate that Carter's started 321 of his shifts in the defensive zone -- or 22.8% -- compared to 176 in the neutral zone, 92 in the offensive zone and the other 792 on the fly. On the same subject, though, regardless of where or how Carter starts his shifts, once he's on the rink, opponents have outscored the Penguins, 55-40, a minus-15 figure that's second-worst on the roster only to Dumoulin's minus-40.

Also to Sullivan's point, albeit indirectly and independent of defensive assignments, he remained on the third forward line all season until two weeks ago and he continues to be deployed on the second power-play unit despite having no power-play goals since December and two goals of any kind in the past 30 games. 

No opinions in there, right? We still OK?

"He wins a lot of faceoffs," Sullivan continued. "We win the faceoff or we don't gain the blue line. There are a number of circumstances that are involved there. It's not just any one guy."

Speaking only for myself, as readers will attest, that's a pet peeve I'll bring up all the time myself, that it almost always takes two or three to make a mess of a sequence.

"So what I would say to you guys is, I think it's easy for you guys to pick on one or two guys, and what I will tell you is that I respectfully disagree with all of you. Are we making some mistakes? Sure. But when you get put in those situations as often as those guys do ... there was a stretch of 20 games leading up to the last little while here where they were doing a pretty admirable job in that same circumstance."

This is also accurate, though more so with Dumoulin than Carter.

"So, I understand your question," he continued, again looking back at me rather than apparently addressing the several reporters at hand in the plural. At least for a moment. "But I think the answer to the question is a little bit deeper than just scratching the surface like you guys do. It's never any one guy's fault when those types of things happen. It's a team game out there. There's six guys on the ice. It's all of those guys' responsibility to execute, and we didn't do it in certain situations."

That was the end of the answer.

I can't know what Sullivan meant by "a little bit deeper" vs. "just scratching the surface." Speaking only for myself and the other two hockey reporters on the DK Pittsburgh Sports staff, Taylor and Danny Shirey, we've utilized every tool at our disposal, from advanced analytics to video breakdowns to statistical logs to whatever this blob is that Danny's been bouncing around:

We've researched and created all of that content. Every NHL franchise, including Pittsburgh's, has access to information that's infinitely beyond our own. So these works aren't perfect, I'm sure, but I'm quite comfortable stating as cold fact that it's not "scratching the surface."

Still not an opinion.

Continuing the process in that spirit, then, I'll share the Rangers' two goals in the first period that allowed them to take the lead despite the Penguins outshooting the Rangers, 15-12, and out-attempting them, 27-20.

The first, by Mika Zibanejad:

Carter's wearing No. 77, Zibanejad No. 93. Follow them from front to finish.

Please don't make me break the no-opinion pledge here. Please.

The second, by Artemi Panarin:

This was on a New York power play late in the first. The clock showed 15.9 seconds when Dumoulin first made contact with the puck. Vince Trocheck, No. 16 for the Rangers, wasn't yet close enough to pressure. Rather than clearing, Dumoulin pulls the puck back, costing another 0.9 seconds and allowing Trocheck closer, then opts to pass to teammate Ryan Poehling. Poehling's one of the NHL's verified fastest skaters, but the chances of his achieving anything with a few seconds left if he receives that pass are beyond astronomical.

The pass is intercepted, and Panarin puts it home with 10.7 seconds left.

Opinion-free addendum: In that moment, 13 of the past 15 non-empty-net goals the Penguins had given up came with either Dumoulin or Carter on the ice. Dumoulin had been on for 10, Carter eight.

Now, no goaltender's easily forgiven for five-hole and short-side goals, so it'd be fair in most circles to assess some fault to Tristan Jarry, who'd get pulled by Sullivan after the Rangers scored twice more in the first seven minutes of the second period. To which Sullivan himself might've suggested some dissatisfaction with Jarry in explaining the pull thusly: "You know, sometimes you make a change with the goaltender to try to create a spark. But there were a number of things that went through my mind."

Sullivan also did more than suggest that he liked his team's overall first period, saying, "I thought we came out with the right intent. I thought we had, for the most part, a pretty good first period. We were down, 2-0."

He didn't say why.

Don't make me say it. 

GETTY

Jake Guentzel's rebound try is stopped by the Rangers' Igor Shesterkin in the first period.

• Taylor has Jarry's evening covered. And now that I'm past the column lede and no longer bound by my no-opinion oath, I can safely express that I didn't have much use for his showing -- four goals on 17 shots -- or his aggressiveness, while also acknowledging that he faced high-percentage shooters making high-percentage shots.

• Taylor has Freeze Frame, too.

• Look, I didn't like the effort after the first period, either. But I'm putting myself inside the helmets of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jason Zucker and anyone else who's busting it out there ... and I'm honestly not sure I can blame them.

To his credit, Sid sat at his stall afterward and answered questions seemingly forever.

"Tonight, obviously, was tough," he'd say. "We weren't good, and it showed on the scoreboard. So we've just to move by it."

Eh, not so simple. The Penguins are now 34-25-10 for 78 points, and they've fallen into the East's second and final wild card spot. Right behind them, the Panthers are now 35-27-7 for 77 points, and they're 5-0-1 over their past six, including an impressive 4-2 doubling up of the Devils on this night down in Sunrise, Fla. And their next two games are against lottery participants in Detroit and Philadelphia.

What did Sid think went wrong here?

"They get a late one in the first and get some momentum," he'd say. "We still have lots of time, but then they get the third… I'd say it was at some point in the second period. I don't specifically know when. Six-nothing is a pretty tough deficit to come back from."

• Sullivan on the playoff race: "The reality is that nothing's changed. We still have control of our destiny. We've got to go out and get ready and win the next game. We're trying to learn through the experiences, don't get me wrong. We're looking at film. We're trying to help these guys. We're trying to grow through these experiences. Tonight was a humbling experience for all of us. These guys that put the uniform, they're proud guys, and they care -- a lot -- about what's going on here. So, nobody feels it more than the players themselves and the coaching staff. But also, we believe in this group, and we believe we have what it takes. We're going to have to pick ourselves up off the mat, dust ourselves off and get back in the fight."

• There might be an issue at hand that'll render all else moot in a mad hurry: Marcus Pettersson sustained a lower-body injury late in the second period, exited, tried another shift in the third, and that was that. Sullivan had no details to share, but that's on top of three other defensemen already being out -- Jeff Petry, Jan Rutta and Dmitry Kulikov -- and, uh, yikes.

• Anyone know when Mikael Granlund's due to arrive from Nashville?

• I asked Bryan Rust what's got to change:

• How does a team hold 27:45 of offensive-zone time to the opponents' 20:10 and lose by a touchdown?

Simple: Massive mistakes. And the earlier those massive mistakes occur, the bigger the influence on the proceedings.

This isn't scapegoating, my friends. It's as real as real gets.

• All I've got. I'm out. Thanks for reading my hockey coverage. I'm doing the next one Monday night against the Senators, as well. At least it'll be back home.

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Madison Square Garden:

1. Igor Shesterkin, Rangers G
2. Mika Zibanejad, Rangers C
3. Artemi Panarin, Rangers LW

THE INJURIES

• Marcus Pettersson, defensemen, exited this game with n lower-body injury. Sullivan had no update afterward.

• Jeff Petry, defenseman, has an upper-body injury.

• Jan Rutta, defenseman, has a lower-body injury.

• Dmitry Kulikov, defenseman, has a lower-body injury and is on LTIR.

• Nick Bonino, center, has a lacerated kidney and is on LTIR.

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-Mark Friedman
P.O Joseph-

And for Gerard Gallant's Rangers:

Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Vlad Tarasenko
Chris Kreider-Vince Trocheck-Patrick Kane
Alexis Lafrenière-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 off Sunday, right back on the ice Monday with a game against the Senators, 7:08 p.m., at PPG Paints Arena. I'll cover that one solo.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.