Matt Murray skates toward the celebration of Phil Kessel's overtime goal. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Penguins

Kovacevic: Road to Cup evidently hasn't changed at all

By Dejan Kovacevic

Feb 4, 2017 • 1:31 am

12.4K

It's 22-3-2.

That's the Penguins' record now at PPG Paints Arena after beating the Blue Jackets, 4-3, Friday night on this Phil Kessel layup in overtime:

Impressive, huh?

No, not the goal. With all due respect, Ethel Lewis, the fan celebrating her centennial birthday with a tribute on the big board, could have buried that one.

I'm talking about that home record. Honestly, it's just ridiculous, even for a defending Stanley Cup champion, to play 27 home games and lose in regulation only three times.

"Really? Wow," Kessel replied when I mentioned 22-3-2 after his two goals added to that first column. "I had no idea. But that's pretty good, right?"

Sure is, right?

"I don't really follow numbers much," Matt Murray replied after 28 saves, including a clean breakaway and a two-on-none. "That's got to be up there, doesn't it?"

Oh, it's up there, as all the supporting data illustrates:

If these guys keep it up, actually, they'll challenge the best home record in the franchise's half-century history, the 32-6-4 at the Civic Arena of the almost-great 1992-93 team.

And get this: Mike Sullivan lost his first three home games as head coach, the last remnant of sorting out Mike Johnston's mess. But since then, he's gone 40-6-4 at PPG Paints Arena, plus 9-4 in playoffs.

That's 49-13-4 altogether!

Look, I'm not big on breaking down home-road splits in any sport. It's long since been proven that professional athletes perform better on their home ice, grass, dirt, whatever. They feed off the positivity, the familiarity, all that stuff. Nothing new to see there, beyond the extreme.

Which is why my favorite reply came from Nick Bonino, author of the Penguins' third goal on this night.

“Yeah, the home record is great," he said, looking up from his stall after overhearing the question for Kessel. "But you know what I ask myself when I hear that? Why are we so mediocre on the road?”

Hm. Yeah, there's that.

The Penguins will lug a 10-10-3 road record into their faceoff Saturday night in St. Louis, and calling it mediocre is too kind. The point total ranks 22nd in the league, and they've been outscored, 76-70.

And yet, on this night that some in Ohio again were overblowing into something more than a post-Groundhog Day hockey game -- or, as one of the home team's players hilariously worded it for me, "It sure seemed like a big game for those guys" -- I find myself focused more on that home record. For three simple reasons:

1. They'll find a way to win on the road. It's not like they feared some bogeyman in New York, Washington, Tampa and San Jose last summer.

2. They're the champs, always worth repeating.

3. They lose here about as often as we maintain speed through tunnels.

For as mighty as the Metropolitan Division has become -- I'd take any of the four bottom teams over any of the Nos. 2-5 teams in the Atlantic in a best-of-seven -- those three factors won't be easily overcome.

The Penguins are still the team, and Pittsburgh is still the place.

The Capitals are first in the Metro at 34-11-6, the best record in the league. Fat lot of good that did them last spring. Or any spring. When Washington goes into a postseason, it's got to face an NHL opponent and decades worth of doubts and demons. That's playing short-handed. And it's not like the roster is terribly different.

And the Blue Jackets?

Well, from the long-term perspective, there are no doubts or demons because there's basically no precedent. They've taken up space in central Ohio for 17 years, with two playoff series and zero playoff victories to show for it. Their playoff ghosts are like real ghosts: They don't exist.

The current team, of course, is setting a new standard. After this OT loss, the Blue Jackets are 33-12-6, a couple points ahead of the Penguins at 33-13-5. Couple that with their crazy 16-game winning streak earlier this winter, and there just might be something real there.

For sure, rallying from a two-goal deficit in the third period to secure a point in Pittsburgh is no small thing, as John Tortorella was right to stress afterward:

I won't lie: I like what John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen have done in Columbus. And judging by multiple talks with NHL evaluators in the press box, that's no isolated view. The smart, concentrated assembly of burly but fairly quick wingers, the addition of some mobility on the blue line and the continued presence of Sergei Bobrovsky performing at his Vezina-level peak, all of that's added up.

Brandon Dubinsky remains a dirtbag, as he displayed first by spearing the dirtbag's perpetual punching bag in the privates in the second period, then by shoving him while down, another dirtbag trademark:

But neither Dubinsky nor Scott Hartnell, reprehensible as both remain, define the Blue Jackets anymore. They're more about speed, skill, a furious forecheck and Tortorella-style, eat-a-puck defense. They're about Bob, too.

They'll be there at the end. The way the standings are aligning, there might even an I-70 first-round rematch.

The players sure think so.

"Absolutely," Bonino said. "These guys. Washington. New York. You have to go through the best teams in the league to get to the conference final because our division is so stacked. We need to get to the playoffs first. If it keeps going the way we’re hoping it’s going to go, we’ll have to meet them early."

Patric Hornqvist, as ever, was more blunt, when asked if his side would welcome a shot at Columbus in the playoffs.

"We will," he said.

If so, if the teams stay pretty much as presently constituted, the Penguins will be favored.

Because how could they not be?

The Blue Jackets have "really come together to do a lot of good things," as one of those NHL evaluators told me, but we're still talking about a team that, even with history set to the side, has one strong center -- 22-year-old Alexander Wennberg, who scored in this game -- then Dubinsky and a whole lot of nothing. A lack of strength down the middle will cripple any team in the East. That hasn't changed for decades. And while the defensive top four have solidified, there's almost nothing past that, and ask the Capitals how readily that can be exposed.

The Penguins, I don't need to tell you, played this one without Evgeni Malkin and the suddenly important Conor Sheary. They did wear down and, curiously, looked fatigued in the third period. But here's guessing that, with Malkin and Sheary, they'd have found more energy and maybe more than one power play.

I throw in the maybe because it's literally incomprehensible that, in overtime, referee Brian Pochmara could rule this a two-minute minor rather than a penalty shot when Crosby was hooked from behind by Cam Atkinson:

A player fouled after he's in the clear is a penalty shot precisely 100 times out of 100.

Except in a game where the referees, Pochmara and Justin St-Pierre, could work all evening with arms folded and not call another power play for either side despite late, often dangerous hits every other shift.

I digress.

Bottom line: Dubinsky is this team's second-line center. He was visible on this night, as he always is against Crosby because, much in the way the Flyers' similarly ordinary-when-not-being-matched Sean Couturier has been when he isn't shadowing Malkin. Crosby is Dubinsky's raison-d-etre, but he's precious little beyond that.

Whereas the way Crosby embarrassed Dubinsky to draw that overtime breakaway ...

... that's something he does to routine nuisances night after night.

Crosby wasn't available to reporters after the game, but Dubinsky was, and he seemed compelled to keep embarrassing himself when asked if Crosby tried to sell a call: "I'm sure everybody else can make up their own decision on that one."

Dude.

The Blue Jackets do have $12 million in cap space and, again, Davidson and Kekalainen are smart men. They also have to realize opportunities like this, to build upon a growing fan base, can be golden. So there's a very good chance they'll upgrade at center, maybe add depth on defense.

But for now, it's the Penguins, then the Capitals, then whoever. And it shouldn't be ruled out that the champs will rediscover this road thing before long, not to mention add a piece of their own at the deadline.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY