No single slice of the Penguins' championship showing on the night of June 11 in Nashville stood out quite like their penalty-kill. The opponents were handed all five power plays, as many will painfully recall, and Matt Cullen and company were perfect in cutting off lanes, blocking shots, positioning properly and all else.
"It was an honor to be part of that," Cullen would tell me on the slush afterward. "Unbelievable PK by all the guys."
Soon after, of course, Cullen was gone. And Nick Bonino. And Chris Kunitz. And even once this current season was underway, Carter Rowney, another vital figure that night and all through those playoffs, was lost for a month to injury.
By all accounts, this whole process should have been undone. The Penguins should have remained a short-handed mess for months, if not all of 2017-18.
Funny thing, though ...
"Our PK's been awesome. Just awesome."
That's what Sidney Crosby told me over the weekend in St. Louis even though I'd asked him about something else entirely, which kind of caught my attention. My overdue attention, it turns out, since the PK on that day had just capped a 14-of-15 run that would be only slightly dented by the Senators scoring on 1 of 2 power plays here Tuesday night. And going back more broadly, it's been that much better, with the PK ranking third in the league in December at 92.3 percent, fourth in January at 86.8 percent and now third this month at 93.3 percent.
Full credit to all involved, including the defensemen who all too often get overlooked in such mentions. But allow me, please, to cite Riley Sheahan, the main external addition to the group, as his speed, strength, smarts and defensive-zone draws have occasionally wowed the coaches in this facet. And Carl Hagelin, another force on that night in Nashville, who's "used his speed to make a lot of things happen on the PK," as Mike Sullivan worded it this week. And Bryan Rust, who's matured as much as anyone on the unit. And Tom Kuhnhackl, who was a big part of this before getting hurt. And Patric Hornqvist just because. And Ian Cole for eating Roman Josi slap shots. And Kris Letang, who's so much better short-handed than most seem to realize, particularly on the clear. And Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta and Jamie Oleksiak, too.
"We take a lot of pride in our short-handed play, all of us," Cole was telling me. "But don't forget who the most important penalty-killer is."
Right. The goaltender. Always.
Well, Matt Murray's got an .876 save percentage when the Penguins are short-handed, the sixth-lowest figure among all NHL starters. But Tristan Jarry's at .920 when short-handed, and Murray's 6-0-1 and much sharper during this most recent PK surge.
Maybe there really shouldn't be a surprise here.
• The PK rate is that much more impressive in the context that the Penguins have been short-handed 197 times, fifth-most in the league. That's not a positive, that last part, but that, too, was mostly accumulated early in the season.
• Wrap your brain around this: Sidney Crosby has been the Penguins' third-best player this season. And he's sixth in the league in scoring.
• The primary reason Phil Kessel would never get serious consideration for the Hart Trophy is that the Toronto voting bloc -- and it's large -- will never stop being petty toward him. I'll predict right now that, even if Kessel finishes in the top three in scoring, he won't finish in the top five in Hart voting.
• I didn't even mention this guy ...
• OK, so the Rangers sending a letter to fans to let them know they're about to blow up their roster is now a full-on trend, given that the Canucks sent one of their own Wednesday:
Letter from Trevor Linden to #Canucks season ticket holders this morning: pic.twitter.com/udjBFqMbl9
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) February 14, 2018
I didn't mind the Rangers' letter. I find the Canucks' letter no more or less offensive. I saw for myself in Vancouver earlier this season that there's bona fide promise with that team, especially with the effortless young sniper Brock Boeser.
What's so much more compelling for me is if we'll ever see this extend beyond the NHL. You know, to Major League Baseball. You know, locally. You know, before the season.
• The Pirates' pitchers and catchers have reported to Bradenton. The front office has spent $0 on major-league free agents this offseason. The payroll has been cut by roughly $20 million since last season. The ownership will receive a $50 million check early this spring from MLB's sale of a tech arm to Disney.
Adjectives are just piling on.
• Clint Hurdle didn't say a thing wrong Wednesday, but he still needs to be more mindful of the world outside 115 Federal. Thought I'd put this one into heavily caffeinated spoken form:
• I'm witnessing it way, way too much: Olympic curling on TV sets inside and around Downtown eateries. It brings back brutal memories of my vain attempt at the sport inside Winnipeg's famed Granite Club a couple years back. I'd tell you it's so much harder than it looks, except that my wife Dali was an ace her first time out.
• There's nothing remotely alluring about non-NHL Olympic men's hockey, and I'm finding these many attempts to link this stuff to 1980 to be misguided, if only because that tournament was bizarre, too, and would have been completely bereft of meaning if not for the David vs. Goliath element. This one's got no Goliath. The Wheeling Nailers could fly over to PyeongChang and win that thing.
• To anyone who ever doubted that the Todd Haley-Ben Roethlisberger relationship was exactly as I'd described for years, behold Haley's singular response Wednesday in Cleveland when asked about their six years of working closely together: "I don't have a lot to say about it." And this on Valentine's Day!
• There's no conceivable way that Kevin Stallings can be brought back by Pitt for another season and that the school's administration can be taken seriously. Those two concepts cannot coexist.
It'll be expensive, that $10 million buyout, and those boosters who casually watched Jamie Dixon walk away will need to pony up their share. But the buyout pales next to the cost of all concerned losing credibility and watching another winter of the Pete sitting there cold and empty.
A mistake was made. Correct it. Move on.