CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser came buzzing across both lines, whisked by every black-and-gold sweater in sight, whirled around in the attacking zone, and put on enough of a show that the Penguins themselves, clearly, couldn't get enough.
"Watched them the whole first period," Kris Letang would tell me of the Canucks' high-flying top line a week ago. "We just watched."
Couple nights later in Raleigh, they stayed in spectator mode as the Hurricanes ran through odd-man breaks as if they were practice drills, setting the stage for another stinker.
And then, Monday night back at PPG Paints Arena, this small slice of magic occurred:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 18, 2024
Riveting stuff, huh?
This was two minutes after the opening faceoff. The Kraken, the NHL's hottest team at the time with nine wins in a row, connected on no less than five passes to migrate up ice. That's what hot teams do.
The catch: There was resistance at every single point. The entire Sidney Crosby trio tracked back through the neutral zone after Rickard Rakell lost possession deep in the Seattle end. It was man for man -- or multiple men for man -- every stride of the way. And by the time Yanni Gourde tries to carry across the Pittsburgh blue line, he's met not only by Chad Ruhwedel but also Rakell, who'd tracked back all that distance, and those two helicoptered Gourde onto his hind quarters. A breezy save by Tristan Jarry finished it.
Wait, I'm not done being boring:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 18, 2024
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
This was a half-minute later. Another zone entry for the Kraken saw everyone tracking back again, and it would've been a clean, collective stand-up at the blue line had P.O Joseph not fumbled the puck. But it didn't matter, anyway, as there'd be one, two, three, four bodies back as Jarry'd stop another harmless flick from the right flank. And there'd have been five back if Radim Zohorna hadn't inexplicably gone for a change at the worst possible time, but then, there are reasons he's back in Wilkes-Barre.
One more, and I promise I'm done:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) January 18, 2024
Anyone still here?
Yet another half-minute later, here came the Kraken again. And there were the Penguins waiting for them again, like a weather-tough clothesline. Erik Karlsson stood up a speeding Brandon Tanev atop the right cirlce. Ryan Graves stays right with Jaden Schwartz. Jansen Harkins tagged along just in case. Noel Acciari, seeing Tanev pull up to seek a trailer, sustained 360-degree vision in intercepting the pass that followed. And what's more, Acciari sprung Jeff Carter for a partial break the other way.
All of this, to emphasize anew, was in the first handful of minutes. Just like the Vancouver game, just like the Carolina game ... only the polar opposite approach and the polar-opposite result: Penguins 3, Kraken 0.
Which begs the question: Why?
Meaning, of course, why does this group of professional athletes, a few of whom are headed to the Hall of Fame and a few others who'd be stars in other settings, seldom seem to process that there's only one way they can play that'll come with even the potential to contend?
I turned for the answer on this Wednesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, as I do all too often, to noted truth-teller Lars Eller. And he sure didn't disappoint.
"I think with these games," he'd begin, "it's been a very obvious feeling on the bench when we're on from the get-go and have a good start. Because there've also been the games where we haven't, like in Carolina and some other games. And we're ... I don't know if we're like, waiting to kind of see what kind of pace it's gonna be and trying to figure out if we're gonna play at that level."
Instead of?
"Instead of just taking charge of the pace of the game. And when we do that, we've been really good."
They sure have. That's how they've not just beaten, but wholly silenced some of the NHL's best/hottest teams for half a season now. While also, you know, losing to the Sabres or whoever after falling too far behind in the first few minutes.
"I think it's just a mental commitment from every line, the first shift for every line," Eller'd conclude. "And from there, if you get through that with good execution and doing the right things, that's tended to carry over into the rest of the game for us."
Can anyone take what Eller just spoke and print into a placard everyone has to touch on the tunnel to the ice?
I asked him this, too. To his credit, he just laughed.
I'm being serious, though. Because I've believed from the outset of this season that, when the Penguins are accurately labeled the NHL's oldest team, it's this facet, and not their speed or skill, that opens them for the fairest criticism on that front. They'll see a certain opponent they've long respected on the rink -- think Bruins, Rangers, Lightning, Avalanche -- and they'll accept before the drop of the puck that, if they don't defend, they'll be embarrassed. Whereas, they'll see a younger, less proven opponent -- think Maple Leafs, Hurricanes, Devils, Red Wings -- and they'll want to show they can still trade chances with the kiddies.
Oh, tell me I'm wrong.
"No, I don't think you are," Rakell would sheepishly acknowledge at the stall next to Eller's. "There are times when we see a team that might play with ... less structure, and we'll want to try that, too."
Which doesn't work.
"Which doesn't work. And it's frustrating."
Look, I'm not condensing all of the Penguins' various challenges into a single time-of-game framing. But they're 15-8-2 when they score first, 5-7-4 when the bad guys do. They're 11-4-1 when leading after a period, 4-6-4 when trailing. So a fast, focused start means even more to them than to most teams, with the NHL's historical norm being that a team leading at the first intermission wins 66% of the time.
On top of that, the Penguins aren't, by nature, defensive creatures. Most of the pedigree up and down the roster is that of points, not plus-minus. As such, they concede an average of 30.5 shots per game, ranking 19th in the 32-team NHL, and they've been blessed to maintain an average of only 2.67 goals against only because Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic have rated among the league's top goaltending tandems with a twinned . There remain too many chances for opponents and, worse, too many Grade-A opportunities. To the latter, they've allowed 52 goals from statistical high-danger areas, meaning in the crease or within a dozen feet of it, and that's sixth-worst in the league.
Translation: They need everyone trying.
And they can't afford to wait to find out if it'll be worth the effort.
