CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- "Just defend."
Those were the two words Mike Sullivan spoke to Kris Letang on the morning of June 12, 2016, in San Jose, and they probably ought to be etched above the Penguins' runway for each player to touch on the way to the ice.
The singular goal that day, of course, was to have the team's most mercurial talent focus on what mattered most against those high-powered Sharks, and that was to suppress scoring chances. And Letang followed through with maybe the most compelling performance by a defenseman in franchise history, lifting his team all night, lifting a certain prize later that night, then celebrating with the most precious prize of all afterward:
That's little Alexander. He was 3 when I shot that scene, and he's 5 now.
The Penguins as a whole have matured plenty since then, as well, and not just through the two Stanley Cup championships. When they struggle, they know why it's happening. When they succeed, they know how to sustain it. As Sullivan often explains it, "We push these guys out of their comfort zone in a lot of ways." And when he says that, he's invariably referring to defending.
He knows they'll eat the steak. But he knows they'll be better if they bite into the broccoli, too.
We've seen enough of this edition to know that everything through December was a waste, meaning there was so much inconsistency it was impossible to discern what was real and what wasn't. But for this January that concludes tonight in the hockey sense, the Penguins are 8-3, tied for second-best in the NHL, they've outscored opponents, 40-25, the power play's converted at an insane 36.4 percent, and the penalty-killing's been a sound 90.9 percent.
Oh, and they're getting goals again from all the usual guys:
And yet, when I canvassed the Lemieux Sports Complex locker room Monday at the Penguins' first practice following the All-Star break, this collective, to a man, pointed first and foremost to defense. Which makes sense, particularly in the coach's context.
So, in turn, I asked several players to get specific, to cite what one trait would be paramount toward improving their defense, and I'll convert that into a five-point list for you, in ascending order.
5. Clear the zone.
Ryan Reaves brought this one up, and it's legit: The Penguins have had this maddening tendency to cough up short-range odd-man breaks or even breakaways. And that's happened usually as the result of abandoning the defensive zone as individuals rather than together.
Watch this goal by the Islanders' wonderful rookie, Mathew Barzal, from Dec. 7:
The entire second line has basically headed up ice before the puck has. So when New York steals it on the far boards, one pass and one shot is all it takes.
"Sometimes we all just take off too quickly, and the puck stays behind and, all of a sudden, we're outmanned in our zone for a couple seconds," Reaves told me. "And those couple seconds can be deadly. I'd say that's my No. 1."
Well, we won't fight over it, but that was only my No. 5.
4. Make saves.
The Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith stories have made for cute fillers, but there will be no three-peat -- maybe no playoffs -- without a resurgent Matt Murray. He's been hurt. He's lost his father. He's also not played to his peak, really, since Nashville, with a 2.93 goals-against and a .903 save percentage.
That's got to change, and he sure sounded like a guy Monday who's ready to get moving on a makeup second half.
"Always. Always," he repeated. "Not just as an athlete but as a person, you want to improve. That never stops. Even when you're Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world, he still works to get better every day. That's life as a professional, I think."
Murray hasn't played since Jan. 7. It's time for that to end.
Sullivan wouldn't commit to that Monday -- “We want to get him back in net, but we want to do it the right way,” he said -- but here's betting he'll come around.
3. Better track-backs.
Meaning, oh, Dear God, not anything like this:
The above took place 13 days ago in Anaheim. The Penguins are on the power play, which partially explains why they're spread all over Southern California. But there's still no excuse for the two lapses at hand: First, Letang has no business trying to finish a neutral-zone check there on Jakub Silfverberg, and never mind that Silfverberg is crafty enough to make him pay. At the first sign of danger, Letang needs to backpedal.
And Malkin ... uh ... yeah.
The Penguins' defensive system has barely changed over Sullivan's three years, as I was reminded Monday. And that's largely because it's so simple: When you don't have the puck, wow, go get it back! The Penguins' forwards are tasked with little more than coming back and taking away the first body they find. The faster they do that, the faster their defensemen can pick lanes and close gaps.
2. Play Ian Cole, for crying out loud.
"I'm not happy when I'm not playing," Cole was telling me Monday. "Big news, right? I mean, who's happy when they're not playing?"
Not Cole, for sure. Nor should he be. His incessant benching -- he played against the Wild only because Matt Hunwick was hurt -- is becoming one of the few truly confounding episodes of Sullivan's tenure. Cole's a two-time champion, a heart-and-soul, defensive stalwart who eats Roman Josi slap shots for breakfast and licks his lips afterward. And never mind that Hunwick's been terribly ineffective for several weeks now.
Whatever it is, Coach, let it go, man.
And if this is somehow about preserving Cole for a trade, given that he's one of the few players whose selloff would bring real cap space, then all concerned should take a look at the standings. Every point's a must.
1. Don't.
Meaning don't play defense at all. Render it moot.
"Want to hear an absolutely amazing stat from the other night?" Cole asked me, referring back to the 6-3 win over the Wild. "I didn't have a single blocked shot."
Whoa.
"Can you believe it? And that should tell you something."
It does. That the Penguins dominated possession so thoroughly -- 39 shots and 59 attempted shots to Minnesota's 26 shots and 48 attempted shots -- that even the NHL's Bruise King could emerge unscathed.
"Honestly, I feel like we're at our best defensively when we're playing with the puck," Justin Schultz told me. And it wasn't a copout. "When we have it, we're skating, we're doing all the things we're comfortable doing, we don't have to defend as much. And that's really just managing the puck, knowing the situation, knowing when to put it deep or chip it or make a play if it's there, changing at the right time ... it's just being smart."
Cole kept it going.
"It's not just one thing," he said. "Defense is a five-man unit. You've got to start there. It's always easy to blame one person for a situation, but it's very rarely one person. It's reloads ... tracking back ... keeping a tight gap ... all of that's so much better when the forwards are back limiting the options we've got to face. One thing rolls into the next. If we have tighter gaps, we force more turnovers at the blue line. Or if they dump it in, the better we break out. That's all ideal."
Sounds smart.
The smart kid at the next stall had even more:
Yep. The script starts there.
I've heard it can end well, too.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins practice, UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, Jan. 29, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS