Daniel Sprong outraces Ryan Reaves in a drill Monday. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

Penguins

Kovacevic: Why can't Sprong get a shot? It's complicated

By Dejan Kovacevic

Jan 23, 2018 • 12:00 am

11.4K

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The puck no sooner arrived onto Daniel Sprong's waiting blade, just above the left circle, than it was buried behind poor Casey DeSmith, who never had a shot.

It wasn't a one-timer as much as it was a no-timer.

"Oh, I liked that one," Sprong would tell me later, well after the Penguins' practice at the Lemieux Sports Complex. "I actually did a little celebration for that one."

He did? I missed that.

"It was in my head."

At which point he acted it out for me. Sorry, this gesture was impossible to describe in written form, but let's just say he was left grinning earlobe to earlobe.

Hey, the kid's 20 years old. Let's not forget that. He's two months shy of his first legal beer.

And as such, he's entitled to more patience, more understanding than most. Which is why I spent the day trying to figure out why Sprong is now officially the odd-man-out, having been sent back across I-80 to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a couple hours after practice.

The obvious answer is his defense, partly because it couldn't possibly be his offense, partly because that's what everyone says.

But what's it mean?

Sprong doesn't have a lazy strand of DNA in his body, so it's not about his will. He's also not exactly the egotistical type, so it's not like defense is beneath him. I've felt that way about him from his first development camp. The heart and the desire are there to be a 200-foot player.

So what's missing?

Does he just ... blank out or zone out?

That's how it occasionally looks to me, but real experts were at hand. So, before asking Sprong, I turned to a couple other forwards who entered the NHL as offensive guys only to have to learn defense on the fly.

Tom Kuhnhackl was once a teenage scoring terror for the excellently named Landshut Cannibals in Germany. It wasn't until he entered the Penguins' system in 2012 that he had a nasty reality check. He was assigned to Wheeling of the ECHL, the lowest rung of professional hockey, and told in no uncertain terms by Bill Guerin, then the director of player development, that "I've got to get my (stuff) together."

That was Billy's not-so-gentle way of informing Kuhnhackl, with his speed, he wasn't going to score in the NHL. And if he didn't defend, he wasn't going to get anywhere near an NHL game without a ticket.

"Clark put me to work. He did it all," Kuhnhackl told me, referring to Clark Donatelli, then the head coach of the Nailers, now in the same role in Wilkes-Barre. "He taught me every trick, every detail."

And there's plenty to absorb. Think of Chris Kunitz, the classic 200-foot winger while in Pittsburgh. He'd mastered every type of play in every zone, large or small, from the routine chip up the boards to how to rub his point man out of commission.

"I think the hardest part is to understand how hard it is, how hard you've got to apply yourself," Kuhnhackl continued. "I used to just float around in the neutral zone waiting for a pass. But when I came here, it was, like, 'Yeah, this isn't how you're going to play hockey in this organization.' So I had to learn all those little things. In a hurry, too."

And what happens when you don't?

"Your brain just freezes up. And you feel like you run out of energy. It's hard to explain, but that's what happens."

Riley Sheahan's got size, speed and a wicked shot, but resigned himself long ago to being a defense-first center. A lot of the same lessons applied.

"Always be aware of who's around you, where you're supposed to be, where to go once you get possession and it's time to break out the puck," Sheahan began with his list. "Some of those things might look easy on TV, but when you're out there and you have to think about it ... it definitely adds another element to the game. You look at those great two-way forwards around the league, and there's a reason they got that way."

Sprong's missing that element. Yeah, he scored only twice in this eight-game stint, his second in the NHL. And yeah, both came in that uplifting game earlier this month in Brooklyn:

And yeah, maybe most pertinent here, his Corsi For rating -- measuring his percentage of time on the ice when a shot has been registered rather than allowed -- is a terrific 67.5.

He knows all this, and I'm not guessing since he brought it up unsolicited as part of our one-on-one Monday.

"It's a lot of work, a lot of video, a lot of work with Mark Recchi," Sprong would say after stripping off his helmet and sweater. He'd already known he was headed back to Wilkes-Barre, which might explain why he and his assistant coach stayed on the ice an extra 20 minutes. "But I feel like I've gotten better. I've been out there for more chances for than against. That's always good. I've been a plus player, too."

Yep. A plus-2.

"I've just to get better every day. I got better today. I can tell you that. Rex showed me a lot of things out there just now. I played four games with Sidney Crosby. I kept asking him questions. I've talked to Carl Hagelin about working in the corners. I've talked to guys even when we go out to dinner."

There was that smile again.

"When I do have an opportunity to get back in the lineup, I'll be more ready."

• What's gotten into Hagelin of late?

He's got half of his season's scoring output -- a goal and five assists -- in the past six games and, on top of that, he's a forechecking force every time on the ice.

I'm guessing his answer to my question on that count Monday will surprise you as much as it did me:

• The most heinous aspect of the NHL's lame-even-for-it $10,000 fine for Dustin Brown's crosscheck of Justin Schultz the other night in L.A. is, as several players told me after practice Monday, he was on his knees when hit.

To be clear, the emphasis here isn't just that he was in a prone position. Rather, because he was on his knees, he couldn't have been held accountable in any way, shape or form for having put himself in harm's way.

I honestly hadn't thought of that, but it's pretty damning stuff toward the league, since the only way a crosscheck that rams a face into the boards could conceivably be dismissed or even downplayed would be if Schultz helped make the scenario possible. He didn't. He couldn't have. As great a skater as Schultz is, he's as immobile as the rest of us on his knees.

• Sorry, but the Jaguars hanging with the Patriots to the end of the AFC Championship Game, even carrying a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, does precious little to vindicate the Steelers. If anything, all I could think through all three-plus hours was how the Steelers had better talent than both teams.

• I'm not into any Le'Veon Bell drama at any point. He shows up for work, he runs as hard as any back I've seen, and he offers an additional receiving dimension unmatched in the NFL.

All the relentless talk about the Steelers' discipline and distractions only serves to ... well, distract from the real issue at hand: They got manhandled by Jacksonville in the trenches. Especially on defense.

Sometimes it really is about the actual football.

• The Pirates just traded their top player and their top pitcher for six prospects.

Baseball America's top 100 prospect list, covering all 30 systems, had the Pirates with two: Mitch Keller at No. 12 and Austin Meadows dropping 38 spots to No. 44.

Sixteen teams had more prospects on the list than the Pirates' two.

None of the acquisitions in the Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole trades made the list.

Adjectives aren't needed.

• Midseason attendance spikes are rare in any sport. That's because season tickets and group sales occur out of season, and they build up the base necessary to create sellouts. And when a team hasn't been competitive in a decade, those elements are that much more necessary.

Still, I've got to say I'm a little surprised Duquesne's crowd Saturday at Palumbo was 2,543, or a little more than half the capacity of 4,406. The game itself, a 95-89 victory over George Mason, was yet another thriller:

It also was the Dukes' 10th straight win at home, the second-longest such streak in Palumbo's 30-year history. And they're 14-6 overall, 5-2 in the Atlantic 10.

I went to school there. I heard for years how people would pack Palumbo if the Dukes were even competitive. They're more than that now. They're exciting.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Chris Bradford was with me at practice, and he's got stuff on Matt Murray's emotional return, plus more.

• Love Rob Ullman's cartoon for the week: Troy Polamalu.

• Do you follow us on social media? If not, we're available on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, among others.

VIDEO

Matt Gajtka and Chris Bradford talk hockey and football: