Kovacevic: It's not at all impossible to be positive about these Penguins taken at PPG Paints Arena (DK's Grind)

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Valtteri Puustinen celebrates his goal in the first period Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena.

DK's Grind

Kovacevic: It's not at all impossible to be positive about these Penguins

By Dejan Kovacevic

Mar 18, 2024 • 12:22 am

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Valtteri Puustinen's English, in addition to being far more advanced than my Finnish, remains a work in progress. 

So when he had almost no reaction to my asking how he'd feel about making the Stanley Cup playoffs with these Penguins, fresh off flogging the Red Wings, 6-3, on this Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena, I kinda knew I hadn't connected.

Not in the moment, anyway.

"Wait, playoffs?" he'd then come back with a broad, sudden smile. "Yes! So fun!"

Yeah, kid. Playoffs. 

Imagine:

NHL

What's up there is the NHL's Eastern Conference wild card race -- such as it is, with so many teams running in place, and the Islanders and Devils also losing on this day -- and only the top two will qualify. Which makes Detroit's 74 points the current bar.

Which puts the Penguins five back.

Five.

With 15 games to go, and the next one in the same critical context Tuesday night against the Devils in Newark, N.J.

Maybe no less important, there are signs, however faint, of actual good hockey being committed by this group of late, without stretching stuff too far, and I feel it'd be fair to underscore five of those on this occasion, in no particular order:

• THEY'RE ... SCORING?

I mean, it's no tidal wave, but 16 goals over the past three games makes for a massive upgrade over the 11 goals they'd squeezed out in the prior 1-6-1 stretch.

And that's to say nothing of three power-play goals this weekend alone, including this front-to-finish beauty on this day between Sidney Crosby and Lars Eller:

No, that slick zone entry wasn't scripted. None of it was. I checked.

"When you’re out there with great players, they’ll find you," Eller would tell me. "I just put my stick down."

But wait for the double-gasp and behold the newcomer, Michael Bunting, who still hasn't had it beaten out of him to not barge his way to the blue paint:

"He has a semblance of Patric Hornqvist with his ability to get to the blue paint, make the goalie’s life difficult," Mike Sullivan would say. "It’s a really important aspect of creating offense. He certainly brings that to our team."

Oh, and look who else scored:

First goal in a dozen games for Sid. First multi-point output since two assists Feb. 27 in Vancouver. First trademark two-way performance all month, really.

"Been a while, so nice to see it go in," he'd acknowledge with that familiar half-smile. "Hopefully, some more will start to go in. There's some huge games coming up, and it'd be nice to start seeing some more go in the net."

• THEY'RE ... TRUSTING YOUTH?

Wonder why everyone in this little world's always pushing Puustinen to shoot more?

Try this:

"If I can score," he'd say of the goal, "this is helping the team to win games."

The youngsters, in general, are doing that, but mainly Puustinen and Drew O'Connor, the latter having been the roster's most dynamic forward since returning from his concussion this past Tuesday in Ottawa. And that was the case in this one, too, concluding with a richly deserved reward near the end:

Don't make me say it. Just don't.

• THEY'RE ... DEFENDING?

Not to push this, because six of the Rangers' seven goals Saturday came within a dozen feet of the crease, and the first period of this game saw one glaring lapse, but the defending did pick up over the final 40. To the extreme that it seemed the Red Wings, equally in need of points, pretty much poofed out for long spans.

I brought this up with Sullivan.

"Well, I thought we were much better defensively tonight, certainly than we were yesterday," he'd reply. "Give Detroit credit: They've got some good players, and they’re gonna get some looks, but I thought we just did a better job just defending with numbers and keeping the puck to the perimeter. That’s just an essential aspect of winning. You have to be able to keep it out of your net. You’ve got to manage the puck. You’ve gotta stay above the attack."

Shots were 40-27 for the victors, including 17-4 after the first period. High-danger chances were 16-11. And all of that came, I should add, against precisely the type of opponent -- young, fast, skilled -- that tends to give the Penguins fits.

• THEY'RE GETTING GOALTENDING?

Alex Nedeljkovic hardly stole these two points from his previous employer, but he made plenty enough above-average saves among his 24 that, in all candor, it stood out a little too much from the goaltending the Penguins have gotten through most of March. A clear team strength had spiraled into one guy or the other getting yanked every other night.

So yeah, this mattered. No way this team takes off to any degree without restoring quality to its most important position.

"We're chasing these guys for a playoff spot," Nedeljkovic would say. "To get two points is huge, especially in regulation."

• THEY'RE ... TRYING HARDER?

Hate to even bring this up, but I mean ... we all witnessed what led into this, right?

There's no praise to be had for extra effort in any prism of professional sports, much less within a playoff pursuit. Not even with the Penguins enduring eight games in the past 13 days as part of the NHL's amateurishly constructed schedule. But the Jake Guentzel trade knocked the figurative wind out of this team's veterans, chiefly Sid, and, no matter how anyone might evaluate that, it took until this weekend to take that next deep breath.

Seems to be in the past, though.

Contrast some of the recent displays with this from the captain when I asked how much it'd mean, in this specific season under these circumstances, to claw back into a playoff berth:


“Yeah, it’d be huge," he'd reply. "We’ve gotta go a game at a time and get points. We’re all pushing. We’re all trying to do what we can to put ourselves in that position. We’ve gotta just worry about going out there and getting the next one.”

On to another of those veterans:


“It would be a good accomplishment," Kris Letang would reply, "especially with the season that we’ve had, the ups and downs the last few weeks ... and we’re still there. If we can make something of that chance, it’d be great.”

I don't get the sense that he's mirroring public sentiment -- this crowd of 17,191 seemed distracted enough that I was scanning the place for squirrels -- but that's immaterial at this stage. Because this shouldn't be about outside disappointment or even outside expectations for how this long this maddening group might last if it makes it. Long gone now are the days when the players themselves weren't aware of clinching playoff berths on the nights that'd occur. Long gone, too, should be the days of viewing that as beneath anybody around here.

If Sid says it'd be huge, it'd be huge. If Letang says it's be great, then it'd be great.

But take note that I ended all five of those observations with a question mark.

Keith Dambrot takes down the Atlantic 10 Conference championship net Sunday in New York.

DUQUESNE ATHLETICS

Keith Dambrot takes down the Atlantic 10 Conference championship net Sunday in New York.

• Congratulations to the Duquesne basketball program for reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years. As a forever-ago student there, I can confess that I envisioned this happening right around the time the Pirates would win another World Series. Which is to say, not at all. But here it is. Keith Dambrot, a confident athletic administration and long-needed support from Old Main made it happen, as well as, above all, the young men taking the court in Brooklyn on this day.

• If anyone would like to see us fly to Nebraska to cover the Dukes in the Dance, go to this link, scroll to the beginning of the comments, and leave an up-cup.

• Jim Leyland days till Miami.

• Thanks for reading.

• And for listening:

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