Amid all the limping, these Penguins might be aligning

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Wearing a walking boot on his left foot, Carl Hagelin limped into Rogers Arena early Saturday evening.

Wearing long faces, chins dragging, shoulders slumping, the Penguins limped into the place collectively with seven -- seven! -- significant contributors to their 2016 Stanley Cup championship unable to suit up: Kris Letang, Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust, Trevor Daley, Olli Maatta, then Matt Cullen and now Hagelin, lost for a minimum four weeks.

A third of the roster!

And yet, somehow, they emerged not only with a 3-0 throttling of the awful, overmatched Canucks, but also -- and much more important -- a legitimate sense that things could get so much better in the very near future.

Once they stop getting worse, of course.



"It's not easy right now," Ian Cole, the only defenseman to have logged every game this season, acknowledged after scoring the icebreaking goal in the second period. "We've got some guys out, a lot of travel, some people tired ... but we're going out there and getting the job done."

Yep. They embarrassed the big, bad Jets in Winnipeg. They deflated the premature-superstar-comparisons party in Edmonton. And then they came here the very next night against the old-school Buffalo version of Ryan Miller and had to work, work, work to get anything by him.

That's three for three on the trip, with only the red-hot Flames left Monday in Calgary.

Oh, and after the Capitals' coinciding 4-2 loss down the coast in Los Angeles, the Penguins are now one -- one! -- point out of the NHL's overall lead.

But there's also more going on ...

DK'S THREE THOUGHTS

1. So this new No. 1 line looks like a thing, huh?

It's been together for barely five games, give or take a couple early shakeups, but Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary are doing stupendous stuff within that sample size: In this one, Crosby registered a career-high nine shots, Sheary eight, Guentzel four, and Guentzel might have been the best of the three.

They cycled through the Vancouver zone all night along, on some shifts seemingly at will. And if not for Miller's 45-save brilliance, there's no telling how many of their 21 total shots could have counted, as this one finally did with 3:06 left in regulation:



Sheary swings wide as well as anyone on the team, and he fairly drags half the Canucks on the ice around with him -- Miller included -- before setting up Guentzel's breezy deposit.

Having fun yet?

"Wow, yeah," Sheary would say. Until I approached, he'd been seated at his stall with a look that suggested he'd just ridden the Thunderbolt for the first time. "I mean, there were so many chances, so many shots we took. Imagine if we'd put a couple more of those away. But their guy was unreal."

Miller, he meant.

And what makes it click?

"We all like to play quick down low, give-and-gos. When we get on their defensemen and make it tough for them to make plays, that’s when we’re at our best."

"Sunny’s a good player, an NHL-caliber player," the coach said. "There’s a little bit of an adjustment when a player comes up from the American League with the pace, but I think he’s adjusting quickly. He’s shown that he can play at this level. We trust him. We played him on the penalty-kill and in defensive situations. His biggest strength might be his defensive capability."

But there's more, and the Penguins were wise to pursue it.

3. They played 'the game the right way.'

Sullivan really likes when his players do that. A lot.

As long as we're harkening back to a year ago, when Evgeni Malkin went down with a major injury, Marc-Andre Fleury was concussed and pretty much everything was crumbling, that also happened to be when the team got its act together. It began playing what really ought to be called Sully Hockey.

If anyone needs a reminder of what that is, I asked yet again.

"Obviously, we're playing back-to-back, we're a little depleted ... we've got to make sure we play a smart, efficient game," he began. We couldn’t chase the game by forcing things that aren’t there. That’s usually our challenge with our group, making sure that we make good decisions."

He grinned as he spoke that, knowingly so. He's no doubt found much more colorful terms than 'challenge' in private.

"We have guys that instinctively want to make plays. We’re a staff that believes in not taking the sticks out of their hands. We want them to make plays when plays are there. But we have to make smart plays, and I think we did a terrific job of that tonight."

The shot clock read Penguins 48, Canucks 27, and that came despite playing with only 11 forwards. Cameron Gaunce dressed as a seventh defenseman, and Sullivan rotated his top three centers through a makeshift fourth ... duo of Sundqvist and Carter Rowney.

"We did it by committee a lot," Sullivan said. "A lot of times, quite honestly, we’re trying to make sure we do our best to spread minutes. We look for certain matchups, but we’re not looking to tax anyone. Fortunately, Rowney and Sunny can play center and wing." 

"Guys are double-shifting, guys have to step up," Guentzel said. "That’s what it takes to win."