Kovacevic: Johnston somehow digs deeper in win

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- So, let's see if I've got a grasp of this: These Penguins just took two impressive points on the road Saturday night on Phil Kessel's two-on-one goal that brought a 2-1 overtime outcome against the Predators, one of the NHL's most dynamic teams ... and the head coach still somehow dug his own hole even deeper?

Wow, Mike Johnston. That couldn't have been easy.

And yet, it's the fairest possible perspective, at least from this view, of what took place at Bridgestone Arena, at least if I also toss in that Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant. Because if not for Fleury, and if not for Nashville having sleepwalked through the first 50 minutes or so, the cold-water-to-the-face fact is that the coaching would again have been Topics A, B, C and maybe D through Z.

Don't like it?

Think that all victories should be celebrated without complaint?

Well, this might not be the column for you.



Let's start with Chris Kunitz absolutely blistering a puck past Pekka Rinne for the first goal. It was his second point in 27 games dating to last season, and it was set up on a tee by Evgeni Malkin, but a great shot is a great shot:



Let's look at Kessel rapping his own rebound by Rinne 41 seconds into overtime. It was made possible by Malkin's flagrant trip of Filip Forsberg in the neutral zone -- "Everyone saw it," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette fumed, and even a few Penguins privately agreed they got away with one -- but again, an overtime goal is an overtime goal:



Let's applaud, too, all that Fleury brought with his 38 saves.

"He was just fantastic all night long," Kessel said, and each syllable was spot-on.

But with all due respect to the Penguins' result here, as well as being 4-4 in the face of the most relentlessly uninspiring hockey Pittsburgh has endured in more than a decade -- not to mention finishing last season that way -- I dare say this isn't good enough.

Actually, it might even have represented a regression.

And all of this continues to point to the main man behind the bench.

I could fuss over the badly failed five-minute power play in the first period. The Penguins fully set up in the Nashville zone twice. They got the puck to Rinne twice. They didn't threaten, not once, not in the slightest.

I could fuss all the more about that since Johnston has for some reason stripped Rick Tocchet of running the power play. Presumably because he'd know more.

I could fuss about seeing -- and this was after twice rubbing my eyes to be certain -- Sidney Crosby skating backward in a full-blown New Jersey-style trap. This occurred in the second period while the game was still scoreless, should historians wish to record.

I could fuss about Daniel Sprong seeing two shifts in the third period, with the score tied for half of that period and his puck management having been pristine to that point.

I could fuss about broader-scope stuff such as the team's worst scoring drought to open a season since 1970-71, with all of 13 goals through eight games.

But I ... well, I guess I just kind of did fuss about all that, huh?

Whatever.

Here's the real focus on this night: Johnston nearly lost this game. And he did so with a mind-blanking that was almost surreal.

At 11:27 of the third period, old friend James Neal roofed a loose puck behind a fallen Fleury to tie for Nashville, 1-1. A second or so before that, the Predators' Barret Jackman had skated across the top of the crease and bumped into Fleury with enough force to knock him down and knock his stick from his hand:



If you know your pucks, you know goalies will flop, but they won't lose their sticks on purpose, no matter how hard they're trying to draw a penalty.

"He got me pretty good," Fleury would say later of Jackman.

An NHL rule instituted this past offseason allows for replay review of goaltender interference, at the coach's request. If the New York replay officials decide Fleury's ability to stop the puck was impeded in any way -- even accidentally -- the goal is disallowed.

The tying goal.

Halfway through the third period.

Johnston did nothing, even though, as you'll hear me say in this postgame exchange, he had nothing to lose other than his lone 30-second timeout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinelfpA-Hg

Rewind that opening part. Listen to him try to explain simultaneously that he still hadn't looked at the video, then that he had earlier looked up at the scoreboard when it happened and decided it wasn't interference.

Debate this any which way you please, but the bottom line is that the potential advantage gained by using that challenge then and there is infinitely greater than preserving 30 seconds of bench discussion later in the evening.

It was a gaffe.

He blew it.

He had to have known it, even as I can assure you his players knew it. One veteran told me it was being discussed by players on the bench, most of whom were assuming the challenge was forthcoming without saying anything.

I asked Fleury, and all he'd say is that he planned to ask Johnston what happened.

And the coach blew it all the more when he eventually did use that precious timeout, with 12.5 seconds left in regulation, to inexplicably allow the Predators' top players to get a welcome breather before an offensive-zone faceoff right near Fleury.

I feel the need to repeat this, almost as a disclaimer: I like Johnston, I liked the Xs and Os he brought to the team upon arrival, and I like the way he conducts himself as coach. A good portion of the fan base seems frustrated that he doesn't freak out or show some emotion on the bench. I don't share that at all. Another portion thinks he's clueless, presumably because of that blank stare that's unfortunately caught on TV all too often. I don't share that, either. He's a smart man.

But the Penguins currently are facing -- and believe me, they're facing it with full awareness -- the possibility that their head coach is simply in over his head. That he lacks the NHL experience to adjust to superior counterparts. That he lacks the edge needed to motivate against adversity. That he lacks any semblance of an answer for why this team, with all this talent, has somehow been unable to score goals for a very long time now.

That doesn't get addressed after beating a Western Conference power on the road, no matter how it was achieved. But it had better be addressed, for better or worse, before long.