Jordan Eberle scores the Islanders' first goal Thursday night. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Penguins

Kovacevic: Plenty more passengers on the Metro

By Dejan Kovacevic

Dec 8, 2017 • 1:33 am

6.8K

It's exceedingly rare for the Mike Sullivan-era Penguins to stagger through the final few minutes of regulation with a lead, but that's exactly what happened Thursday night when the Islanders scored twice to tie. They sat back, lost battles, had their heads spinning and made a couple of the most egregious giveaways seen in PPG Paints Arena all season.

That's what I'm betting was primarily noticed. We all watch the home team closer than the visitors. It's only human.

But the opponent on this night had a whole lot to do with it, too, and very much earned that loser point even after Matt Hunwick's overtime putback won it, 4-3.

"That," as Sullivan would say afterward as only he can, "is a good hockey team."

It really is. A small smorgasboard:

• The Islanders are fast, skilled and deep, deep, deep up front, to the extent that they've got the NHL's third-most productive first line -- John Tavares, Anders Lee and Josh Bailey -- 38 combined goals -- and yet Doug Weight was able to juggle lines and send out No. 4 center Casey Cizikas with two minutes left and needing another goal. On merit.

• The tying goals came from their wonderful rookie second-line center, Mathew Barzal ...

... and third-line center Brock Nelson, part of a young forward group that includes three players 21 or younger:

• Beginning with Barzal's snipe, the Islanders cycled the Penguins' zone smartly and relentlessly, generating eight of the nine shot attempts over the final five minutes.

• The mobile defensemen, primarily Nick Leddy, the league's second-leading scorer at his position with 23 points, owned the Pittsburgh blue line in keeping the puck inside.

• It's not just that the Islanders are 16-9-3. It's that, since Weight took over last season for Jack Capuano, who didn't have a clue how to coach team defense, they're 40-21-7.

And all of that's probably instructive for a bunch of reasons, not least of which is that, man, the Penguins could be in for a fight all winter long just within their own neighborhood:

Insane, right?

All eight teams are .500 or better in regulation, since the Flyers won in Vancouver, 4-1, late last night. The top six teams are separated by all of four points. From first to worst, it's nine points. If the Stanley Cup playoffs began now, both wild card teams would be from the Metro -- Capitals and Penguins -- as would three of the first four teams on the periphery.

And looking at those top six individually, it's that much more impressive: The first-place Devils are the surprise of the NHL, thanks mostly to Ray Shero's criminal heist of Taylor Hall from -- of course -- the Oilers. The Blue Jackets and Capitals are known commodities, though Alexander Ovechkin has ensured Washington hasn't had the fallback so many -- myself included -- had anticipated after heavy free-agent losses. The Rangers started flat, but they've won 7 of 10, they just won here Tuesday night, they've got a revitalized Henrik Lundqvist, and their plus-10 goal differential matches Columbus for the division's best.

Even at the bottom, it's not so bad: The Flyers' 10-game losing streak, maybe the most bizarre occurrence in the league this season, has now been followed by a three-game winning streak, and all of it way out in Western Canada, to boot. And the Hurricanes, as anyone inside the industry will attest, have some of the sharpest young talent around, which really should -- as I wrote before the season -- be breaking out right about now.

I asked Nelson, he of New York's tying goal, if he feels the division is more competitive overall than last season, and he didn't hesitate:

The perspective was no different down the hall.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody. Lots of good teams," Chad Ruhwedel said. "We’re going to have to play our best every night to stay up in the standings. You kind of always know what’s going on in the division. I wouldn’t say we have it posted all over the locker room or anything like that, but we know what’s going on and where we stand. But at the end of the day, it’s about how we play and our expectations.”

He might be right. The Penguins are now 12-2-1 in their past 15 home games inside the Metro dating to last season, which offers at least a hint that their divisional opponents still come here shaking a bit.

But there can't be much question, a third of the way through this season, that the neighbors are getting restless.

• Also, and entirely because it's fun: It's not too early to begin complaining about the Toronto media, generally the most self-important and self-absorbed in hockey, heading into town this weekend to ask all the same tired questions about Phil Kessel. You know, like how he magically morphed into a great player and champion in Pittsburgh when he magically wasn't one with a franchise that hasn't won a thing since 1967, when the NHL was still a six-member private club.

So, to start that process, here's a three-step hockey lesson:

1. This is Kessel scoring Thursday night:

That's a goal, which counts as one point for the team. Kessel scored lots of those in Toronto, too. Only none of them mattered. Which wasn't his fault.

2. This is Kessel backchecking:

That happened in the first period, right after he nearly set up a goal behind the New York net. He swung back, revved up the engines, found a white sweater and outskated all of his teammates to make sure the Islanders didn't have an odd-man rush. And he was able to do that because he showed up in superior shape this past training camp, even though he had only a three-month break since raising the Cup in Nashville.

3. Kessel's even better in a Cup Final.

Which Toronto hasn't seen in half a century. There's a common denominator here, and it isn't the athlete.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Penguins vs. Islanders, PPG Paints Arena, Dec. 7, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

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