Kovacevic: Any case for Penguins' defense?

BOSTON -- Brian Dumoulin was awesome.

It feels wholly fair to open with that on this Wednesday night with the rest of the Penguins' defensemen exposed, one excruciating stumble after another, in a 5-1 blowout at the hands of the Bruins at TD Garden. Because especially in that setting, he stood out all the more.

No, really, bear with me here a minute. I'll get to the burying in a minute.

"He's a good player," Mike Sullivan was telling me afterward, in regard to Dumoulin. It doesn't sound like effusive praise in print, but trust me, the intonation was special. "We've asked him to do so much, and he's gone out there and done the job."

Yeah, he has. And rather than go on about a player so valuable to the Penguins it's an absolute afterthought that he's yet to score, let's rewind to the first period.



Below is Brad Marchand, who'd score his 31st goal on this night. He's almost as fast as he is annoying, almost as dangerous around the net as he is with his blade across your neck.

This was how Dumoulin handled a Marchand rush up the right wing in the first period:



Wow. Dumoulin positioned himself perfectly, skated stride for stride, then whipped around and went middle breakout right in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. This is domination. This is stuff hockey coaches can show across North America.

But wait, there's more ...



Same shift, I swear. Same player. Same result.

Funny, but does anyone recall last summer, when Dumoulin was the Penguins' No. 1 concern, with Jim Rutherford openly fretting how the kid would handle a prominent role in his first full NHL season?

"Well, yeah, but I sure didn't think of it that way," Dumoulin was saying after this one, staying hushed in the context of the quiet locker room around him. "I mean, I did hear it. But I believe in myself, and Pittsburgh believed in me. It was good to come in and play right away and get those games early on to reassure myself that I could play at this level and bring a high level every night."

And the Marchand sequence?

"I've been playing against guys like him all season, so that helps more than anything. He's a threat every time he comes at you. He creates plays out of nothing. I just have to be who I am."

What Dumoulin's become is one clearly confident young man. It's shown on and off the ice. And I dare say it's never been more visible than on this night, when he kept his cool even as the walls crumbled around everyone else.

"I know I can play at this level," he replied when I asked about the confidence. "I know I can have an impact. I've got to be consistent night after night and try to bring what I bring, which is moving the puck and getting up ice and trying to create chances."

OK, so Dumoulin rose above, as he has all season. We've got that out of the way.

But what about the rest?

Rutherford has strongly suggested of late that, with the NHL trade deadline fast approaching in five days, he'd rather pursue another winger than a defenseman, even though the latter had been atop his shopping list for months. The GM's explanation -- and this was both before and after the long-term injury to Ben Lovejoy -- was that he's liked what he's seen of his defense corps' mobility and efficiency with the puck.

That's a fair assessment, for the most part, with the hideous exception of this game.

And oh, my, where to start with rewinding this one?

Here's Derrick Pouliot allowing the Bruins' David Pastrnak to slip behind him, then senselessly slashing at his stick:



Debate the call all day, but don't debate that it's almost always smarter to allow the goaltender to make the save and that, if you do want to prevent an attempt, whack something that's worth your while.

Pastrnak undressed Fleury on the penalty shot, and it was 1-0.

Here's Pastrnak scoring the next goal, this one a game-winner gift-wrapped by Olli Maatta:



Nothing I could say would be harsher than the assessment Maatta shared with me.

"I fanned on it," he said, barely audible. "I was going up the boards, and I fanned on it. But even still, it was too risky a play. I shouldn't have done it. I don't think we played that bad overall. We had our chance to be in that game, but we beat ourselves."

He paused and looked down at his still-untied skate laces.

"I blame myself."

If only it were that simple. The Penguins pulled within 2-1 and entered the third period with a 28-18 edge in shots and every reason to expect they could rally again.

But then this fiasco between Kris Letang and Pouliot happened:



And this:



Do you really need to see the fifth one?

Rutherford's assessment of the defense isn't set in stone, from what I've gathered in talking with him. That's doubly true with Lovejoy out and with the team being forced to recall journeyman Steve Oleksy from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before this game, a move that doesn't exactly exemplify depth.

So perhaps the more pertinent issue when looking at this game and beyond, with the Penguins at 30-21-8 and clutching the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot, is where this team needs to upgrade the most. Because it can't be both forward and defense, at least not meaningfully.

For one, the forward situation is about to get a huge jolt when Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bonino return Saturday against Winnipeg. The AHL guys have given noble efforts, and they were strong again here, but noble efforts don't win championships. Talent does. Oskar Sundqvist is sure to go back, and that's fine. Kevin Porter ... I still don't know what to say about the roster spot he's held all winter, but he can share the ride.

For another, the prices on rental players of trades already executed this month have been excruciating. Top prospects have been sent out. First-round picks. Collections of second-round picks. To repeat from a column earlier this week, enough is enough on that front.

Ask me, and I'll take the defenseman, thanks.

Not because of this one game, certainly. But because the Penguins' corps, as presently constituted, is one serious injury away from essentially tossing away any hope of a playoff run. Also because, if everyone's being candid about it, this team's top four is really a top three at best, maybe a top 2 1/2.

Letang has been brilliant of late, though this game would be filed in a separate folder.

Maatta, his partner, has been ... I don't know. I'm not sure what's up with him. I spoke to him extensively Wednesday morning, and his spirits were high. He assured that all was well. But there's something missing from his game, and it's tough to pinpoint.

He might have come closest to a theory by offering, "Tanger's been so great that sometimes I'm just out there watching him. It's easy to get caught up."

But when I came back that he's always been at his best when doing many of the same things Letang is doing, he replied, "I know. That's right."

We'll see. Maatta's a worry, but not a major one.

Trevor Daley has provided a borderline historic trade windfall in having been acquired for Rob Scuderi, but he's also a borderline top-four performer. He moves with the puck, he's quick, and that's about it. No knock there. He is who he is, and he's never been a top-four.

Ian Cole was awful in the first half, then was shunned, probably unfairly, by Sullivan upon the coaching change. He deserves a chance to show what he can do. But he, like Daley, doesn't have top-four pedigree even when at his best.

And don't get me started on Pouliot. He has zero business being in the NHL right now.

So who will be the cavalry in this equation?

Because a night like this shines one heck of a harsh light on the fact that it can't just be Dumoulin, Letang and a not-half-bad Maatta. There's got to be more, and it's got to be both personnel and performance.

I asked Sullivan how, when the Penguins are playing at their peak, he wants to see his defensemen make decisions, including against passive 1-2-2 schemes like Boston's.

His answer, as ever, didn't disappoint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Artnhq89jUI

When I turned off the camera, Sullivan further clarified the Xs and Os: His defensemen need to move the puck with speed and move it behind the other team's front line. If they don't see a lane or if the opponent is collapsing the way Claude Julien always has the Bruins doing, then they've got to skate into that lane themselves.

"Take what's there," Sullivan said. "Don't force things."

If that doesn't sound spectacular, it shouldn't. But it also could serve as a perfect description for what Dumoulin has done from the moment the first puck dropped in Dallas.