Kovacevic: When the Penguins fight for pucks, they'll fly with anyone

It's not that they're old.

It's definitely not that they're slow.

Hey, I get it: The Penguins are bound to be labeled that way. And not without cause, given that they're the NHL's only team with an average age over 30, now at 30.1. And coupled with their high-profile Core all being in the mid-30s, it's an inescapable reference right there at the figurative fingertips.

The slow part, though?

Sorry, but that's B.S. And don't just take it from me.

"No, it’s not true," Marcus Pettersson was telling me late Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, this after a 5-2 rapid-fire rally past the Flames and, yeah, this after all of the home team's goals came in the third period of the second game of back-to-backs while the other guys were lounging here at a Downtown hotel waiting all weekend to pounce. “I think we’ve got a lot of good skaters in here, and I think the way we want to play the game is a fast game. I don’t think that narrative is ..."

He paused a moment.

"It's easy to go to and say, I think. But we’ve got a lot of great skaters out there. And we want to play the game fast, too."

He's right. Not just because he's part of the process, either.

Two periods passed, and the only goal to that stage had come from Calgary's 20-year-old Matt Coronato, so the script had set itself up again. About the younger, more energetic, more passionate and yeah, faster opponent. About how the old guys couldn't keep up.

When, in fact, that wasn't the problem.

No, the problem was twofold:

1. Couldn't beat Jacob Markstrom
2. Couldn't/wouldn't win puck battles

I mean, Markstrom was absurd, as he's always been against the Penguins for some odd reason:

One-third of his 15 saves in the first period came off high-danger chances, four of those while short-handed, moving Mike Sullivan to say later, "Markstrom made a lot of really nice saves, especially on the power play. We had a lot of really good chances."

The other problem was the biggie. And several players confirmed for me that this, more than anything, was what Sullivan stressed in the second intermission.

"Stiffen up," was how Pettersson recalled it. "That was the message. Get stiffer on pucks."

“Calgary, give them credit," Sullivan would say. "They’re a quick team, they’re strong on the puck, and their D are very active. They’re active on the walls on the pinches. They really make it difficult for you to gain access out of your zone. Those wall plays are so important. I thought in the third period we were much stiffer on the puck. That was something that we talked about in between periods, just making better decisions on the entries. If there’s no ice to play on, we can’t get stubborn. We gotta put pucks behind them, and then we gotta get our noses over them and hang on to them. I thought we did a pretty good job.”

Stiffening up might sound like hockey hogwash. It's anything but. It means to carry out every task related to puck possession -- fighting for it, winning it, keeping it -- as if it's the top priority with every shift.

So where all the highlights will roll with the four unanswered goals these old-and-slow sorts whipped up in the first 14:14 of the third period, I'll point instead to the stiffen-up sequences that made them possible.

Bryan Rust's equalizer, 18 seconds in:

That's the finish, but the start's Sidney Crosby stubbornly stripping Elias Lindholm of possession after being beaten on the opening faceoff:

"That opening faceoff is a great example," Sullivan replied when I asked him about stiffening up entering that period. "I thought Sid was so stiff on that puck, just taking it to the net. We ended up scoring off that, and we got a lot of juice from that, that’s for sure.”

Reilly Smith's go-ahead goal, 23 seconds later:

That's the finish, but the start's Rickard Rakell beating not one but two Flames to that puck on the far boards and -- for real -- and either tying up MacKenzie Weegar's stick just enough so that the puck could continue through to Evgeni Malkin for the two-on-one ... or tipping it to him:

"Great play by Raks," Geno'd say.

Which was it, tie-up or tip?

Rakell was credited with an assist, so let's just agree he tipped it. It's superb whichever way.

This one by Jake Guentzel put it away at 5:50:

That's the finish, but the start's ... oh, wait, this one happens so fast they're one and the same. Set faceoff play. If Sid bears down and really cleans Lindholm -- he did -- Guentzel knows to drift back into the left circle, and Kris Letang knows to get it to him.

From there, it was a whole lotta this level of persistence in all three zones, notably this rabid forecheck from Jansen Harkins, capped by a crunching of Chris Tanev:

"We just played the way we need to play," Harkins would tell me. "Make the simple plays."

Look, I'm not about to wax poetic over anything related to a 2-1 start. As Geno joked when I'd asked how motivated he seemed through six points over these past two games -- goal and an assist here -- "The season's just started. It's just three games."

There's been stuff to like: The goaltending, including Alex Nedeljkovic's 34 saves in his debut here, has been sharp. Geno's leading the NHL in scoring. His chemistry with Smith's been something to see. Sid's been Sid. Rust's already popped a couple after an off-year. Guentzel's got five assists when he was supposed to be missing the first five games. Erik Karlsson's getting oh-so-closer to doing what he does. The power play's revving up. The offense, in general, is there.

There's been stuff to not like: The third and fourth lines can't continue producing zero goals, as they have. Lars Eller can't keep taking a penalty a game, as he has. Letang and Ryan Graves haven't clicked quite how Karlsson and Pettersson have. The penalty-kill's relying too much on Rust and goaltending. The defending, in general, still lapses into too much looseness, especially when it comes to simple marking of men in the Pittsburgh zone.

But man, can we all at least get past the old-and-slow nonsense?

Is that asking too much in a city that's been blessed with this much great hockey and, in turn, this much hockey knowledge?

Erik Karlsson brought this up upon arrival, and it's worth citing even if it's standard hockey fare: The puck can move a lot faster than anyone can skate. And what these Penguins already have shown, while still finding their collective way, is that they can create offense either way. They're skilled enough to execute, smart enough to know what to do and where to be and, yeah, for crying out loud, fast enough to make those strengths count.

How about focusing on what really wins/loses with this group?

I asked Nedeljkovic his perspective on how the Penguins performed in the third period, and the new guy didn't hesitate:

“That’s what it takes to win. Simple as that," he replied. "Doesn’t matter what team you are, where you are in the standings, where you are in the year. You have to come out and play with that kind of passion, that kind of fire and that competitiveness to want to win. Skill’s only going to take you so far. Talent’s only going to take you so far. You have to be willing to work in order to win.”

They've got the finish. They've got what it takes to get to the finish. They just need more of what gets all that going.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin take the ice Saturday night 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. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW
2. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C
3. Alex Nedeljkovic, Penguins G

THE INJURIES

• None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Jansen Harkins
Matt Nieto-Noel Acciari-Jeff Carter

Ryan Graves-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph-Chad Ruhwedel

And for Ryan Huska's Flames:

Jonathan Huberdeau-Elias Lindholm-Andrew Mangiapane
Adam Ruzicka-Nazem Kadri-Dillon Dube
Blake Coleman-Mikael Backlund-Matt Coronato
A.J. Greer-Yegor Sharangovich-Walker Duehr

Noah Hanifin-Rasmus Andersson
Nikita Zadorov-MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert-Chris Tanev

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins will practice Sunday, 12 p.m., at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, then have Monday off. Next game's Wednesday in Detroit.

THE CONTENT

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