DETROIT -- You know, I’ve got nothing.
Nothing at all.
Which, in what wouldn't have been a coincidence, is precisely what these preposterous Penguins had to offer, following their latest, inexplicable, indefensible failure to report for work on this Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena for what wound up a 7-4 sacrifice to the lottery-bound Red Wings.
Meaning, of course, the work that'd been reasonably expected of them in the opening period.
Instead ...
There. That's the analysis I've got. Those three moving images.
Don't waste my time, please, with anything about the equally predictable three-goal rally that followed in the second to make it 3-3. Or another tying goal in the third to make it 4-4. Because with this group, we should all be way, way past flinging flowers on stage for fractions of a performance. Because this game wasn't lost late, even though David Perron's final two goals of a hat trick broke that final tie in the final four minutes.
Let me be clear: This game was lost in those three frames above. In those 20 minutes. When this team that'd just strung together maybe its three best showings of the entire season, when this team that'd had a chance to pull away from the Panthers by five points and pretty much seal a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs ... still couldn't bring itself to give a complete crap about the event at hand.
Sorry, I can't concoct of a more graceful way to phrase it. But that's what I witnessed from the drop of the puck to the first intermission from the press gondola high atop this place and, honestly, I couldn't believe it. With the exceptions of Jason Zucker, Evgeni Malkin, Drew O'Connor and Brian Dumoulin, I didn't see a damned thing that could've convinced anyone this game meant anything to the team wearing white.
And to stick with the blunt, I'm beyond weary of wondering why or asking why, which I did afterward with everyone in sight:
"Disappointing," Dumoulin would reply. "Obviously, we put ourselves in tough positions there. I thought we got hemmed in our zone a couple times."
And with a pause there, as can be heard but not seen in the above video, Mark Friedman, seated at the next stall, rose up to lean into my microphone and add, "Two stupid penalties."
It's to Friedman's credit to interject that, but he also wasn't lying: He took them both, and the second set up Detroit's icebreaker.
"We needed to take it to them and, instead, they took it to us," Dumoulin continued, unabated. "They made us pay in that first."
Zucker, who probably ought to be the only one allowed to speak on the Penguins' behalf at this point, offered this: "Honestly, I don't know. It wasn't a great start for us. I give us credit for coming back, but obviously it's not enough. We need to be better, and that wasn't good enough."
Hey, at least they had answers. Watch this when I asked Casey DeSmith how the team could take the ice this way after all that'd gone so right in Denver, Dallas, then back home against the Capitals:
"I'm not sure," he'd reply with a headshake before scanning the rest of the reporter group in apparent search of a less vexing question.
It's the same one I'd put to Mike Sullivan, with a similar result:
"I don't know how to explain it," he'd reply. "We got outplayed, you know? We got outplayed in that first period. What I did like was the response. I thought we responded the right way, climbed back in the game. It turns into a one-period game. Then we didn't get it done in the third."
Sullivan knows how to explain it. He has to. He's the head coach. It's his room. There's no way he doesn't know why his team's been outscored, 72-62, in the first period this season and, more telling toward general readiness, outshot, 824-792, even as it's outshot opponents in every other period, including overtimes.
Want to call that sluggishness? Want to cite the team's average age being the NHL's oldest? Want to pick apart this misplay or that missed assignment?
Hey, go nuts. To each his or her own.
But me, I'm through with that. Because the straw that's crushing this old mule's spine is the circumstance. Meaning this specific circumstance. Meaning there's nowhere to run or hide from lacing up the skates for a game of this legitimate magnitude on the evening after both the Islanders and Panthers lost:
NHL
... and not giving a complete crap about setting any sort of tone against this sorry opponent that'd just lost five of six and, on top of all else, was starting No. 3 goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic and his .881 save percentage.
I don't have answers, either.
Have the players, in fact, grown numb to the Sullivan messaging?
For that matter, have the players for whatever insane reason grown numb to the Sidney Crosby messaging despite being one of the most accomplished winners in hockey history?
Or whichever message might've been delivered by whoever after this game -- because there definitely was one, judging by everyone still being at their stalls once the room was opened to reporters -- whether that was Sullivan or a player or players?
Or heck, is it more about Ron Hextall not having the faintest grasp of how to infuse energetic personnel into a lineup?
Or just the garbage goaltending?
Or still missing half the defense to injury?
Or the more common targets of Jeff Carter, though on this occasion he had a goal and a game-high seven shots, or Dumoulin, who might've turned in his finest 200-foot output of the season?
Or Bryan Rust, who's now dragging his goal-scoring drought into not being able to receive routine passes and, oh, by the way, committing the high-sticking penalty that led to Perron's winner?
Or ... wow, I don't know.
But I do know this: A couple games of giving a crap, then another couple of not giving a crap ... that's a surefire formula to be bounced from the playoffs in a Boston minute. Or a Raleigh minute. Or just not making it at all.
Really, would anyone anywhere be surprised by any of that? Including the latter?
I asked Dumoulin, forever a voice of accountability, if the players ever wonder how they're perceived on the outside, by fans who endure these inconsistencies in their own way.
"Yeah, we feel it. We do," he'd reply. "Obviously, it's been an Achilles' heel for us all along, spotting teams the lead, coming out without our best. We know it. And we need to come up with answers for it."
Good luck, my man.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
View from the press gondola high atop Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Tuesday night.
• Taylor Haase has DeSmith's dismal night.
• Taylor breaks down Perron's winner.
• I meant what I said. I'll be driving down I-75 to Cincinnati to engross myself in some baseball.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Little Caesars Arena:
1. David Perron, Red Wings LW
2. Moritz Seider, Red Wings D
3. Dylan Larkin, Red Wings C
THE INJURIES
• Jeff Petry, defenseman, returned from a head injury that dated to March 16.
• Nick Bonino, center, has a lacerated kidney dating to March 9 and is on LTIR. He's resumed skating on his own.
• Jan Rutta, defenseman, has an upper-body injury dating to March 16.
• Marcus Pettersson, defenseman, has a lower-body injury dating to March 18 and is on LTIR.
• Dmitry Kulikov, defenseman, has a left foot injury dating to March 12 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 Pohling - Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor - Jeff Carter - Josh Archibald
P.O Joseph - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Jeff Petry
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
And for Derek Lalonde's Red Wings:
Dominik Kubalik - Dylan Larkin - David Perron
Pius Suter - Andrew Copp - Lucas Raymond
Taro Hirose - Joe Veleno - Matt Luff
Jonatan Berggren - Austin Czarnik - Adam Erne
Jake Walman - Moritz Seider
Olli Maatta - Jordan Oesterle
Robert Hagg - Gustav Lindstrom
THE SCHEDULE
The scheduled practice Wednesday in Cranberry was scrapped after this. The next game's the next night against the Predators at PPG Paints Arena. Taylor will have that, and Danny Shirey will back for the weekend home games against the Bruins and Flyers.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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