CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Brief and to the Point ...
• The Penguins have kept scoring, which has masked a lot of shortcomings.
They've kept winning, which has masked that much more.
But what they aren't doing, and what they haven't done consistently all winter long, is defending. And we're soon reaching the point where, as everyone doubtless recalls from last season, a team's collective identity starts getting forged toward the games that really matter.
Translation: "Now. It's got to happen now."
That was Olli Maatta after practice Monday at the Lemieux Sports Complex, and he wasn't telling me anything I wasn't hearing all around that locker room.
"We have the people here to score. We know that," Ian Cole would add from his nearby stall. "But when we're at our best, we've got all five skaters covering all 200 feet, pressuring the puck, possessing the puck, defending as hard as we attack. And we know we can do that. We did it last season. We've done it, at times, this season."
Cole cited a 4-1 victory three weeks ago in Montreal as being "just a complete performance," and he was right. I mentioned back another victory by the same score 10 days ago in St. Louis, and he nodded, emphatically.
"Those kinds of games are what we need. And I'll say it again: We know we can do that. We've done it."
Of course, they have. As much as the talent on this roster skews to the front, the indisputable fact about the run to the Stanley Cup is that it was defined by defense. The Penguins didn't just outskate their opponents. They smothered them. They slowed them down. They pursued the puck passionately to get it back.
Think Game 6 in San Jose. Third period.
"Two shots," Maatta said. "We didn't give them an inch."
It was one shot, really, that the Sharks put on Matt Murray until a cheapie after Patric Hornqvist's empty-netter. And it was because the Penguins used their speed and aggressiveness to cut off lanes, to backtrack and prevent odd-man breaks and, yeah, to block shots.
Same group of players. Same pedigree. Same character. Same coach, only he's now preaching that in practice more than ever.
So why hasn't it happened yet, other than a couple of outliers?
This question's probably best answered by my summing up a good bit of what I was told without attribution Monday, and it boils down to this: The Penguins just haven't turned up the volume yet. It's not fatigue, they'll insist. It's not a lack of outward want-to, they'll also insist. But they're human, they know where the schedule is, and they know better than any team in the NHL which games matter and which essentially don't.
That's not an excuse, and no one was describing it as such. And they aren't happy about it. They just know it's the truth.
Well, it's time for the truth to change.
It's convenient to focus on the six actual defensemen, since they're all healthy and a quarter of the forwards have been shelved to injury. But for every Maatta and Trevor Daley who have taken a step back since last season, there's been a Cole and Justin Schultz who have taken a step forward. It's the same group with which a championship was won through defense.
So maybe this really is the best time to rev that back up. The Canucks, the opponent Tuesday night, are a .500 bore, but they've got Henrik and Daniel Sedin, as well as a rising young All-Star up front in Bo Horvat. Make shutting them down the goal. Then do the same Thursday against the Jets' 10th-ranked offense highlighted by Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and the tremendous teen Patrik Laine. Friday brings a Blue Jackets rematch in Columbus with one of the league's deepest group of forwards, and Sunday has the faster-than-most Red Wings coming to town.
Make those mean something.
• Should the depleted corps affect Mike Sullivan's strategy, especially considering Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust and Carl Hagelin are all speed guys?
I asked the man himself Tuesday:
Having surgery on your pelvis suck!
— Sammie Coates (@sammiecoates11) February 14, 2017
