CRANBERRY, Pa. -- "I think we're in this business to win," Kris Letang was saying after the Penguins' practice Wednesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, seemingly summarizing the overarching sentiment of the operation as a whole. "I don't see any guys in here that don't show any interest. Everybody's pretty committed to winning. They give their best every single night. Do we make mistakes? Yes. Do we sometimes have a lack of focus on the game plan? Yes. But winning? There's not a guy in here that's not on board with that."
I think he's right. I believe him.
But then, there was this minor matter the other night in the desert:
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There've been these not-so-minor numerical matters, as well: It's now been four losses in five games. And six losses in nine January games. And zero power-play goals in the past 19 opportunities. And seventh place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division. And 12th in the Eastern Conference, five points behind the final wild-card team. And there are just two games left in January, both this weekend at PPG Paints Arena against the Panthers and Canadiens, opponents against whom they'll seldom fare well.
And ... yeah.
Anyone still capable of carrying on a conversation about this team contending for a Stanley Cup? Or simply avoiding a second consecutive season out of the playoffs? Or maybe that other scenario that seems ... wow, still too inconceivable to even comprehend?
It's bad. As in, it's one-word-answer bad.
Mike Sullivan was asked here if he'd expected a stronger response from his team in that 5-2 loss to the Coyotes Monday night Tempe, Ariz., seeing as they'd squandered a two-goal lead in the 3-2 loss to Golden Knights two nights earlier in Las Vegas.
"Yes."
Any idea, the follow-up came, why he didn't receive such a response?
"No."
Might explain why there was barely a sound, much less a smile, through a 45-minute session that saw players put through paces approaching a Game 7 in some drills. And why, in the locker room, the tone struck came across as that much more serious.
“We’re in a dogfight right now,” Bryan Rust would say. “We don’t like where we are in the standings, and we’ve got to start winning games. The more we realize that, the more we’ll play with a little bit more urgency and, hopefully, play a lot better.”
Urgency wouldn't hurt. But I'll reiterate that I'm backing Letang's stance that he and his teammates care, that they want to win.
While in the same breath acknowledging, to parse from that same quote up top, "Do we sometimes have a lack of focus on the game plan? Yes."
Man, they really do.
This weekly feature, far more often than not, offers statistical data to accompany play breakdowns in video form, all aimed at illustrating a finer facet of the game. But I'm all out of Corsi, Fenwick, Expected Goals and every other measurement of this group, advanced or otherwise. I'm way past caring how much they would've or should've scored, or anything else they'll do that doesn't result in ... you know, results.
Let's instead go over the aforementioned game plan:
1. Defend.
That's it. That's the plan.
Oh, there are layers to it, just as there are priorities across all three zones and all circumstances. But the cold truth is that these Penguins, for all their countless concerns, can still have all analyses condensed to this: When they commit to defending, first and foremost, even if it doesn't come naturally, even if most of the roster's built on players who've invested most of their hockey lives putting up points, they'll not only beat any NHL team but also out-perform them.
They know this. Their captain knows this, too, as I'd confirm:
“You look at that Vegas game, we did a really good job and then we just made some big mistakes that cost us," Sidney Crosby would reply to my question on that count. "The Arizona game, I think both teams probably gave up some pretty big chances. Sometimes you can get sucked into that game a little bit when you’re trading chances. I think we know by this point that’s not the kind of game we can win consistently playing. But yeah, I think we know our identity at this point. It’s a matter of going out there and consistently doing it.”
They know their identity, he insisted, and need to apply it consistently.
Fair enough. I'll buy that.
Sid's right about Las Vegas: Through 40 minutes, the Penguins held the defending champs scoreless through a fierce combination of smarts and Sullivan-style physicality. They didn't just reach for the puck. They didn't just poke at it. They fought for it:
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Chad Ruhwedel has a choice upon seeing Ivan Barbashev, a rugged winger, gain body position on him for a loose puck in the Pittsburgh zone: He can go for the puck, or he can shrug off the size disadvantage and try to push him off. He does the latter, bowling over Barbashev and waiting on support from Ryan Graves and Lars Eller before the clear's complete.
Here's No. 2 again:
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Again, Ruhwedel's got options, but he chooses to rub out Brett Howden, who's bigger than Barbashev, and allow Colin White to assist in the clear.
I asked Ruhwedel on this day about the choice a defenseman makes between reaching and being physical.
“When you reach, sometimes it’s what the forward’s waiting for," he'd reply. "When you reach, you get yourself overextended, and then that’s when gaps between your stick, your skates, that’s what the skilled forwards look for and put it through your triangle, through your skates, kind of bait you into trying to play them. And then they go the opposite way.”
Instead of the puck going the opposite way.
To illustrate that it wasn't just Ruhwedel or the defensemen being physical in those first two periods, here's a forecheck:
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That's a couple of bigger boys, Jansen Harkins and Jeff Carter, beating the Golden Knights to a puck below the latter's goal line, then battling, battling, battling until there'd eventually be a Graves shot from the left point.
"We were hard on them, hard on pucks," Noel Acciari, the third arrival on that forecheck, would tell me. "We were able to come out to that good start.”
Not much science to this, huh?
OK, but consider the alternative:
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That's Erik Karlsson in the Arizona game, adroitly demonstrating that the choice between reaching and being physical can also be ... neither. Flagrantly allows Jason Zucker to skate right by, then doesn't even bother to pick up the trailer.
In alternate realities, that alone gets a guy glued to the bench.
More Karlsson:
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On that initial spin behind the Pittsburgh net, Clayton Keller could've become squashed coyote once, twice, even on a third occasion. But Karlsson allowed him to freewheel to the other side, setting the stage for all that follows.
Another:
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That's Karlsson going for the Drive to the Net hat trick back there, with a one-handed, half-hearted poke attempt around Zucker, like a grade-schooler guarding Shaquille O'Neal. But I'd be remiss if I didn't also isolate on Graves seeing nothing other than the puck at his feet and, in a super-rare lapse, Lars Eller doing the same at the far lip of the crease.
Difference with Eller, as one can see, is that he's instantly incensed at himself.
Who else gets it?
