There was next to nothing the Penguins could cull from their mega-blah 3-0 loss to the Blues on this Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. Their hearts and minds might have made it out to the ice, but their legs never left the locker room.
I asked Mike Sullivan afterward what, if anything, a coach can do when this occurs, and even the local icon of intensity conceded a small smile at the futility involved:
Did you catch the smile there?
Spoke volumes, I'd say.
Well, here's something, maybe the one thing, that took place involving real possible consequences now and deep into the spring time: The HBK Line was barely visible.
No, to stress anew, I'm not singling them out in this game. Everyone was flat. Nothing worked. The outcome of this one was clear mere minutes after the puck dropped.
But it's definitely worth stressing, if not outright fretting, over the fact that Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel, the undisputed wild card of the Stanley Cup run by providing unrivaled playoff production for a third line, are falling miles short of championship caliber these days. And if that doesn't change by, say, next month at the latest, there's a good chance Sullivan's patience will expire, and they'll blow the chance at a sequel.
On the surface, all would seem mostly well: Kessel's 45 points trail only Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Hagelin and Bonino are both at 19 points. Pretty much career norms across the board.
On five-on-five, though, where HBK made its biggest impact, there isn't much going on: Twenty of Kessel's 45 points have come on the power play, as have five of his 14 goals. That's a huge fizzle right there, as he's got to be the most productive member of the line, or it's not worth keeping together. And right now, he's got two even-strength goals in his past 18 games, Bonino's got two, and Hagelin's got three.
Think it's because they haven't played much together, having been split up by Sullivan several times this season?
Nope. According to the analytical tank LeftWingLock.com, HBK has been the Penguins' second-most frequently used line, taking up 8.28 percent of their five-on-five ice time. Only the No. 1 unit of Conor Sheary, Crosby and Bryan Rust have been together more, at 8.37 percent.
They're clearly getting the chance, so why isn't it clicking?
"Honestly, I really don't know," Kessel told me after this latest game in which Bonino accounted for six of the line's seven shots and didn't come close to converting any. "We just have to keep working, I guess."
Well, in the interim, let's examine how, at least from this perspective, the problem might be one of these three really good friends having a falling out.
This was five minutes and change after the opening faceoff Tuesday:
Kessel collects an errant pass from Hagelin at the left boards and, eschewing anything more ambitious, softly touches it behind the net. Carter Hutton, St. Louis' goaltender who loves to use the stick, mishandles this one right to Bonino. But Bonino is quickly rubbed out by the Blues' defenseman, Colton Parayko, and the Penguins' support is too far away to pounce on the puck popping loose.
Look at the above as if there's no one and nothing else on the ice beyond the HBK guys. Notice how far apart they are.
Now watch this, from five minutes later:
Bonino takes the long outlet at center red and never looks up at Hagelin on the far wing of the St. Louis blue line. He's confronted by both of the Blues' defensemen, Kevin Shattenkirk and Robert Bortuzzo, and he simply puts his head down and shoves the puck behind the net. Hutton, again with the active stick, sends it right back out before Kessel can even enter the picture. Hagelin and all his speed also go to waste.
And did you notice how far apart they were?
Wait, it gets worse:
That's in the third, and it's a zone entry in which each player is occupying his own area code. Hagelin winds up firing the puck into the far corner. It misfires so badly that even the Blues take a while to get to it.
There was positive stuff, as well.
This came late in the first period, and it was much closer to what we came to expect in the playoffs, especially in the Washington series, when they pretty much branded the puck with their initials:
Here, they're using their speed to beat the slow-footed Blues to the puck and sticking close together so that if passes or shots don't connect, they're first on the scene to retrieve. All three players touch the puck in a span of 2.5 seconds and, ultimately, Kessel sets up Bonino for a quality shot on Hutton.
That's the HBK Line. That's what hasn't been seen nearly enough.
Same goes for this sequence early in the second:
They're tight, they're supporting and ... they're not getting much from Bonino.
Not here, either:
Or getting smoked off the puck here by David Perron for the Blues' third goal:
Or skating with blinders here:
My goodness, that one above ... that's a player who's struggling with confidence. The head's down again. He's got no inkling that Hagelin and Kessel are coming late, thanks to Trevor Daley's center drive. There's just no creativity there, none of the brains-in-the-middle role Bonino filled between the two speedsters last season. And it's no mirage. I've had a couple of talks with Bonino this winter, including when things have gone well, and he's squeezing that stick to sawdust at times.
That might be insurmountable. Sullivan might have to look for an answer other than Bonino in a key offensive role.
But in the shorter term, we'll surely see more HBK. And as long as we do, it would be best to see them really together rather than just together.
“I think that’s an area where Bones’ line can improve, cooperative effort, collective effort, sustaining possession time in the offensive zone," Sullivan said. "The details of the breakout haven’t been good enough. It needs to be collective effort, not isolated effort. When they do that, they hang onto pucks in the offensive zone. That’s where they need to improve. The three of them are really good players. They’ve shown the ability to be a very good line for us. We believe they can be a very good line moving forward.”
I asked Kessel about that, too.
"I don't know if it's just a matter of staying tighter," he came back with something of a cringe. "We know what kind of players we are and how we do things. It'll happen. You just keep playing."
Hagelin, predictably, zeroed in on speed.
"If you think about it, back then, we were skating better," he said, referring to the playoffs. "I think that's where it starts. If we're skating better, then we're closer and we're winning more battles. It's that simple. Once we get that cycle going, especially down low, we're dangerous. But we've got to do more. We've got to move our legs more."
I wanted to speak with Bonino, too, but he left the room before reporters were allowed to enter.
That's fine. He's got two infinitely more important guys to be catching up with.
The Penguins' loss to the Blues on Tuesday. — MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
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