WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Want to blame the coach?
Go nuts. In this city, the home of the magnificent Canadian Museum of Human Rights, the message emblazoned at the entrance emphasizes free speech above all else. Pretty sure it applies to casual hockey talk, too.
Here's the rub, though: It'd be wrong.
Sure, Mike Sullivan's been behind the Penguins' bench for every bit of this deeply disappointing 23-19-7 season-to-date, including the 2-1 loss to the Jets on this Saturday night at Canada Life Centre, and including this latest 3-4-3 swoon that's sunk them to seven points behind the Maple Leafs and Red Wings, the teams taking up the Eastern Conference's two wild-card spots.
That's wild card, as in ... not Stanley Cup contention. Just wild card.
"We have to battle," Erik Karlsson would tell me afterward. "We have to keep battling."
Like I said, deeply disappointing. So disappointing, in fact, that someone -- I've got no clue who -- was swearing up a storm near the visiting locker room in the minutes after this one, simply shouting a certain monosyllabic word again and again, and I'm betting it wasn't some random Manitoban.
I've got zero reason to believe it was Sullivan, but man, I wish it was. He'd have every right.
What's known is that he took far longer than usual to do his postgame press conference, and even then only after reporters had been asked by a team official to move further down the tunnel toward the ice and away from the spot near the coaches' room -- which had its door closed -- where such gatherings have been conducted here for more than a decade.
Once Sullivan emerged, here's how he responded when I asked, in essence, if maybe his team shouldn't have opened the game with 10 minutes of pure pond hockey:
"You know how I feel about this," he'd reply, and I do know this. "I don’t know that that’s a game that’s conducive to winning consistently. You’ll win some, but you’re going to lose some, too. The chance-for-chance game is not a game that we want to play. We’ve had a lot of conversations around it. We’re trying to establish a game out there that we think gives us the best chance to win. Part of that is we’ve gotta be hard to play against. We’ve gotta make good decisions with the puck. We can’t give teams easy offense. We’ve gotta stay above it. We’ve gotta have numbers back. We’ve gotta be willing to defend. We’ve gotta be committed to playing away from the puck."
Meaning not whatever went into gifting Winnipeg the first period's only two goals:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 11, 2024
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 11, 2024
"And then when the opportunity presents itself," Sullivan continued, "we’ve gotta give our talent an opportunity to do their thing. But I think all the other things have to come first.”
They do. He's right. And he's connected with his players on this count far more often than not, notably over the final few games.
Let me restate that for emphasis: With sparse exceptions over the past month, the Penguins have done stuff the right way. My God, that's even mostly true of the power play. They've prioritized defending, they've put possession first, and they've even done the once-unthinkable in putting both pucks and bodies to the opponents' net. And heck, they did so here, too, but for the boneheaded beginning.
Want to know the real problem?
The one that no one in this team's little world ever seems comfortable confessing?
The one that's got zip to do with the coach?
Some season totals:
• Goals/game: 2.90, 24th in NHL
• Power-play %: 13.9, 30th in NHL
• Shooting %: 8.8, 28th in NHL
• High-danger shooting %: 15.1, 30th in NHL
• Shots/game: 33.3, fifth in NHL
I mean, let's not overthink this, people: The team doesn't score. As in, not one output of more than three goals over these past 10 games. As convenient as it can be to isolate the power play, it's also now no longer correct, because they aren't scoring in any situations. And as such, this is a broken roster.
Let's not overthink this part, either: When it comes to offense, every coach at every level of this great game can influence little more than the creation of chances. As the stats lay out starkly above, this group gets chances galore. Golden chances, to boot.
And the following forwards are doing guano with those chances:
• Evgeni Malkin: Two goals in 15 games
• Reilly Smith: Three goals in 33 games
• Rickard Rakell: Zero goals in 10 games
• Drew O'Connor: One goal in 10 games
• Jeff Carter: One goal in 12 games
• Colin White: No goals in seven games
• Jansen Harkins: Zero goals in 34 games
All seven of those players suited up for this one. Presumably got paid, too. Per diem and all. The other five -- Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Lars Eller and Jesse Puljujarvi -- were all terrific and, in the case of the first line of Crosby, Guentzel and Rust, they'd account for the lone goal on a gorgeous connection between Karlsson and Rust ...
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) February 11, 2024
... as well as 21 of the team's 46 shot attempts at five-on-five.
I asked Rust about the offense, and he began, “Sometimes, whether it’s individually or as a team, you gotta simplify a little bit. You gotta get ugly. I think the more we can get pucks and bodies to the net, I think some guys are gonna get some bounces, and then, hopefully, we’ll be able to get some more goals.”
Like his. And like a few others of late. And like a ton of others that didn't convert. Which, as I'd follow up with Rust, might mean that they're heeding that objective now more than at any point all winter?
“Yeah, but when you’re going to the net, I think it takes a little extra effort," he'd return to that. "It’s obvious everyone’s working hard, everyone wants to score, everyone’s trying to get there. But I think it’s just takes that little bit more. Maybe that extra reach or that extra little fight for body position, things of that nature.”
Rust and Company aside, the rest of this offense has become a joke.
Geno's general showing of late's been a joke, with all due respect to the remainder of his career. Smith being on the first power-play unit's a joke. Rakell's fade from 20-goal fixture to non-factor's a joke. Almost everything about the third and fourth lines, with the significant exception of Eller ... that's been the biggest joke of all. And that was true when Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto were around, too, achieving next to nothing in the attacking zone, let alone actual goals.
And I'm out here peppering Sullivan?
Like when I asked him here if maybe he doesn't just need some people who are paid to score to do precisely that:
“Well, we need more guys to step up. I think I’m probably stating the obvious whenever I say that," came this reply, and he's right that it was obvious. "It takes a complete effort. We need everybody to make contributions here throughout our lineup on both sides of the puck.”
Another awesome answer. But again, why I am asking anyone at ice level?
Where's Kyle Dubas?
And I mean that in both the literal and figurative senses?
In the literal, per my tracking, he hasn't spoken with Pittsburgh reporters since a Dec. 11 press conference in Cranberry. And yet, in the same time, also per my tracking, Dubas communicated with at least one Toronto reporter, Chris Johnston, to share the meaningful news that he'll wait beyond his original target of the All-Star break to weigh what he might do at the NHL trade deadline, as well as doing semi-regular interviews with a team employee, play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff ... and that's it over two full months to the day.
While Sullivan's forced to stand out here and explain why three-quarters of his forwards are allergic to goal horns?
Who assembled this roster, anyway?
Who's accountable for it?
Whose hockey wisdom was responsible for replacing Jason Zucker with Smith? Or committing $27 million to Ryan Graves? Or silently sitting through all of this without doing a damned thing?
As long as I'm at it, how does any right-thinking, remotely-in-touch executive of any Pittsburgh team find it appropriate to share meaningful news with a reporter in the market of his previous employer?
But yeah, blame the coach.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Canada Life Centre:
1. Connor Hellebuyck, Jets G
2. Nikolaj Ehlers, Jets LW
3. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
THE IN-GAME INJURIES
• Penguins: Jansen Harkins received treatment on the bench from athletic trainer Chris Stewart after a hard hit by the Jets' Adam Lowry in the first period, apparently favoring his right shoulder. He didn't miss a shift at that time, but he was held out of the third period entirely.
• Jets: None.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith-Evgeni Malkin-Jesse Puljujarvi
Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Rickard Rakell
Jansen Harkins-Colin White-Jeff Carter
Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang
Ryan Graves-Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig-Chad Ruhwedel
And for Rick Bowness' Jets:
Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Nikolaj Ehlers
Cole Perfetti-Sean Monahan-Gabe Vilardi
Nino Niederreiter-Adam Lowry-Mason Appleton
Morgan Barron-Vlad Namestnikov-Alex Iafallo
Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg-Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley-Nate Schmidt
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are off Sunday, then practice the next two days in Cranberry, then have games the two days after that: Panthers at PPG Paints Arena, Blackhawks in Chicago. I'll cover both.
THE FEED
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