It's not so much that I no longer know what I'm watching.
It's that I don't know who I'm watching.
Other than this: They sure as hell aren't Pittsburgh's Penguins, a civic treasure and the NHL's marquee American franchise. Not anymore.
And they haven't been for, oh, 476 days now, by my count. Marking to the day, of course, that the Boston bean-counters at Fenway Sports Group bought the team as an a la carte item on a menu headlined by acres of heady Uptown real estate. And then, from there, proceeded to operate on an absentee basis as Ron Hextall, overseen by Brian Burke, grotesquely mismanaged assets to the point that ... I'll say it again: I don't know who I'm watching.
Because this is sickening.
It's stomach-turning.
And no, believe it or not, I'm not remotely referring to Senators 2, Penguins 1, the final score on this Monday night at PPG Paints Arena. That was just the latest in a long list of lackluster efforts by a collective that, even with the iconic Core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang showing better than anyone should have a right to expect in their mid-30s, by and large has no heart, no soul and, most gnawing of all, no accountability.
At any level.
Start with the players, since it always should. Because this loss was little more than a microcosm of what's been witnessed all winter. Score a goal, give one up right away. Seldom prepared off the opening faceoff. Seldom aware in a period's final minute. And in the third period, my God, the Penguins have 11 losses already in which they've led in the third, and this might as well have been an even dozen.
Have any idea how tough it is to blow so many points so late?
Have any idea how rare it is for a team in an alleged push to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for a 17th consecutive season, the longest active streak in professional sports, and to look at that lameness, that lifelessness in the same context? And here, on the same night the surging Panthers whipped the Red Wings, 5-2, in Detroit to overtake the Penguins for the East's final wild card spot?
Except for Sid, Geno, Letang, Jason Zucker, Marcus Pettersson and no more than a couple others, there's been next to no ... fire. And that's the appropriate term. It really is. Because when I'm up in the press box covering the Penguins peppering young Dylan Ferguson, making his first NHL start between the Ottawa pipes, when I'm seeing 49 shots and 89 shot attempts ... sorry, but I'm not fooled by why only one of them crossed the line to tie with 5:21 left in regulation:
And it couldn't have been more palpable that neither were the 17,080 who wasted too much money on too little perspiration. For a period and a half, when the Penguins couldn't be bothered to do more than skate in circles against an inferior opponent, they'd take some harmless shot then do one of those ugly Jeff Carter-esque wide turns that one generally sees only in an optional morning skate. And all concerned could discern the difference between that and late in the second period, when the players finally began to churn up the ice a little.
The players performed, so the fans cheered. When the players didn't give a crap, neither did the fans. Natural order of things 'n' at.
That's an embarrassment. And it's an embarrassment that begins at ice level and should continue to the locker room mirrors.
Which self-respecting players carry themselves like that?
Which self-respecting players, regardless of their head coach preaching discipline, can see Ottawa thug Austin Watson flagrantly cross-check Sid from behind, then do nothing? Or speak a syllable at Watson from the bench as he skates by? Or even look at him?
There's no hockey era, no hockey culture in which that isn't outright cowardice. Meaning on the part of Sid's teammates.
Care to blame any of that on the captain?
Hey, go nuts, but I'll take my chances with the type of leadership that's brought three Stanley Cups to Pittsburgh and endless glory to Canada, and I'll instead find fault with the various nobodies and has-beens who seem to think that sticking up for the preeminent player of his generation is somehow beneath them.
Talk to the men and women of this organization who've been around. Ask them how they feel about it. Ask them how they feel about this team's pulse registering a consistent zero, regardless of circumstances. Ask them how they felt, including those who made the trip to New York just before this, about seeing players sleepwalk through the final 40 minutes of that 6-0 loss. Ask them, but be sure to cover the ears of any nearby children when they answer.
I'll find fault with the head coach, too. He's next up the ladder.
Mike Sullivan wasn't the one who acquired this many players who don't come close to fitting his system. But it couldn't be clearer, especially after his impassioned response to my question the other night at Madison Square Garden about his usage of Carter and Brian Dumoulin in light of documented damage they're doing, that this part's on him. There's next to nothing a veteran can do to come out of a Sullivan lineup. Not a forward who goes three months without a goal. Not a defenseman who might as well be firing on his own goaltender. Not anyone. Cross the age of 30, and it's a permanent residency on this roster.
This was Dumoulin on the Senators' winner, with 2:09 left by Drake Batherson:
There was more to it, as I detail in Freeze Frame, but Dumoulin was too little, too late, too limp on the stick-lift, and he's all of that far too often, now having been on the ice for 11 of the past 17 non-empty-net goals the Penguins have allowed.
And need I remind, this was Carter the other night at the Garden:
That sequence just above would get 100 of 100 NHL players jettisoned from the next game, possibly as far as the next planet in the solar system. Instead, the healthy scratch on this night was Alex Nylander, a younger player who was the AHL's leading goal-scorer when a rash of injuries finally forced his recall, fared well for a couple games, was demoted to a lower line after that, and now this. He'll be driving back across I-80 before he knows it.
That's organizational poison. Top to bottom. And that includes Wilkes-Barre, where every prospect's got to know they'll never see the light of day in Pittsburgh without being the next Bobby Orr.
Who's Sullivan answer to?
Well, maybe nobody, since FSG's only significant action since buying the franchise was to sign Sullivan to a three-year extension while doing nothing of the kind for the GM and/or the team's president of hockey operations, essentially empowering Sullivan in a way no other NHL head coach anywhere enjoys.
But on paper, Sullivan answers to Hextall. Which ... isn't ideal.
Hextall's personnel moves have ranged from a couple of good trades, notably the one that brought Rickard Rakell, to a universally mocked mishandling of the Seattle expansion draft in which he handed away a young, fast, skilled, energetic Jared McCann so that Ron Francis and the Kraken could benefit from his 30-plus goals for the foreseeable future. All so he could protect Carter ... at age 36 ... while also giving Carter a two-year extension ... with a no-movement clause!
Almost as bad, though arguably worse, Hextall was handed a dream scenario of having the hardest parts already here -- multiple elite skaters at relatively bargain prices, with theoretical cap space to spare -- and he couldn't even handle the menial chore of securing a serviceable third line and a bunch of petal-to-the-metal fourth-liners.
And almost as bad as that, though arguably worse than any of it, Hextall was granted a blessing from the hockey gods when the Blues spared him from his own worst-ever contract -- two years, $6.4 million -- to Kasperi Kapanen by plucking him off waivers and freeing up the cap space to offer this team a bona fide impact player. Instead, he pursued the spectacularly overpaid Mikael Granlund from the Predators, gave up a second-round pick to do so and, just for fun, took on all of Granlund's $5 million cap hit ... for this year ... and the next ... and the one after that!
On that note: Anyone know when Granlund's due in town? Did we lose our airport's nonstop to Nashville?
Who's Hextall answer to?
This one's easy: It's Burke. Only Hextall and Burke are in lockstep on everything. And when I say that, I mean actual lockstep. Like, they walk together like twins. Everywhere. They do everything together. And as far as the eye and ear can tell, the next time they disagree on anything will be a first.
So much for that invaluable oversight Burke was hired to provide.
Who's Burke answer to?
Also easy: Nobody.
At least not a solitary soul in sight, as the last time anyone's caught so much as a glimpse of either John Henry or Tom Werner, the top two men at FSG, was while applauding politely at Geno's 1,000th game celebration in the locker room at PPG Paints Arena.
That's it. I'm told there's a surrogate who patrols the premises. I don't know of a name, a face, anything. And there's been absolutely no access to anyone of the kind.
President of business operations?
That's Kevin Acklin. Also inaccessible. Our site's been requesting an interview for months. Nothing. Not even a polite rejection.
I'll ask it again: Who are the Penguins now?
What happened to players being held accountable, whether through their coaches, or even -- via the media -- by the public?
How, how, how does Carter get away with refusing interviews in all forms, even with the Penguins' paid TV rights-holder, while Sid, Geno and Letang are asked to do them and oblige at every turn? How does that, just that one thing, happen? Really, what's this guy's grip on this organization?
What happened to the head coach and GM being truly accountable, knowing they had ownership that was invested in the operation for more than the development rights across Centre Avenue?
What happened to having Mario Lemieux right here in the house?
Ever wonder about that?
Well, pull up a chair: I did some poking about the building on this day, and suffice it to say that both Mario and Ron Burkle aren't exactly tickled about FSG's handling of the final details of the Nov. 29, 2021, sale, and even though both retained a small stake in ownership, both have stayed away on purpose. I was told, in fact, that Lemieux's annual fantasy camp, which began earlier Monday, is being held in Cranberry rather than at PPG Paints Arena for that reason alone.
How cringeworthy, then, that the team's in-game entertainment people on this night showed on the big video-board some of those camp participants in one of the suites, then rattled off the names of a few of the ex-players working with Mario up there, then Mario himself ... and even though he was in attendance with the campers, there was no direct camera shot of him, nor acknowledgment from him.
Imagine the Penguins without 66.
Imagine what that'd be like. How things would fall apart. How they'd function without the living embodiment of their heart, their soul and, yeah, their accountability.
Maybe it's not even necessary to imagine, is it?
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Mark Friedman and Jason Zucker converge on the Senators' Claude Giroux in the first period Monday at PPG Paints Arena.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Dylan Ferguson, Senators G
2. Drake Batherson, Senators RW
3. Rickard Rakell, Penguins RW
THE INJURIES
• Marcus Pettersson, defenseman, has a lower-body injury and was placed on LTIR Monday morning. He's eligible to return April 13 for the regular-season finale in Columbus, Ohio. Taylor Fedun was made an emergency recall in his place and logged 14 shifts with a minus-1 rating and one block.
• Jeff Petry, defenseman, has an upper-body injury and resumed skating on his own Monday morning.
• Jan Rutta, defenseman, has an upper-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-Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen-Ryan Poehling-Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor-Jeff Carter-Josh Archibald
P.O Joseph-Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin-Chad Ruhwedel
Mark Friedman-Taylor Fedun
And for D.J. Smiths' Senators:
Brady Tkachuk-Tim Stutzle-Drake Batherson
Alex DeBrincat-Ridly Greig-Claude Giroux
Derick Brassard-Shane Pinto-Julien Gauthier
Patrick Brown-Dylan Gambrell-Austin Watson
Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub
Jakob Chycrun-Travis Hamonic
Thomas Chabot-Erik Brannstrom
THE SCHEDULE
The team's taking off for a two-game trip Tuesday to Denver and Dallas, beginning with a same-day practice in the former at 4 p.m. Eastern. Taylor Haase has the trip. I'm looking forward to baseball.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
