MONTREAL -- It would have been so easy to let it slide. The Penguins had done so much winning over the past 2 1/2 months, and they'd built up a fine 4-1 run before that debacle in New York. It was an aberration. A hiccup.
So when I asked Mike Sullivan, a couple hours before faceoff Thursday night at the Bell Centre if he'd felt the need to address the matter anew with the rank and file upon arrival here, I'd been certain the answer would be no. I even phrased the question that way.
Not even close, as you'll hear:
As it turned out, the overnight charter flight north was followed by a wakeup, both figurative and literal, Thursday morning with a meeting at the team hotel in which Sullivan, by all accounts, challenged his players to not allow another such lapse at any stage of the remainder of the regular season, and he went so far as to challenge -- and that's the right term because it wasn't criticism -- the group's leadership to ensure that.
Given the exceptional general effort in the 5-3 comeback over the Canadiens that came next, it's safe to say the message was received.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO"We responded the right way," Patric Hornqvist would say, though his effort's never in question. "We were disciplined, we played the right way, and we got the result. This was a really good bounceback game from our side. And from all the players. We can't just have a few guys going some nights, then the other guys the next night. No, it's got to be a team effort. That's what's going to be key here going into the playoffs."
"We understand that we have not played right lately," Evgeni Malkin said. "After 10 minutes, we just started playing so much better. Every line worked hard. I think we deserved to win."
I asked Jamie Oleksiak about this, too, specifically as it related to Sullivan's style.
"I think he's good at finding what buttons to push," he replied. "He's definitely not afraid to get on guys when he thinks you need it. But I think he's fair about it overall. And right now, I think as a team, we've all got to take care of things. The coach can only do so much. We've got to do the job in the locker room and on the ice, and I think you saw that tonight."
The French term for head coach is entraineur-chef. That somehow sounds a lot more appropriate for Sullivan.
• All told, as Oleksiak worded it, the Penguins "dominated five of six periods" on this trip. And the one period -- and point -- they squandered might end up serving them quite well for the lesson learned.
A few spoken words on that:
• Dominance isn't an exaggeration. Check this out: In the game's first 10 minutes, the Canadiens had a 2-0 edge on the scoreboard and 7-2 in shots. The rest of the way, the Penguins had a 5-1 edge on the scoreboard and 37-13 in shots.
• Outstanding as Malkin's line was, the first one's still ... eh. Sidney Crosby's performing so far and above either Jake Guentzel, who's now gone 10 games without a goal, and Conor Sheary, who's being knocked off the puck by a soft breeze, that I'm really starting to wonder if Bryan Rust shouldn't head back up there.
The problem with that, of course, is that Rust's helped Derick Brassard and Phil Kessel look more compatible. And there's ample value to be had in that being successful.
• Rust made a beautiful backhand pass to set up Kessel's icebreaker in the first period ...
... but he also hit an empty net! Meaning not the posts, but the 24 square feet within that.
"There's a reason for that," Rust would joke with me. "I already hit a post earlier in the game."
Oh, right. A clang off the left pipe on a two-on-one with Kessel just before the Kessel goal.
• Malkin's 40th goal, the third time in his career he's reached it, also hit a post behind Antti Niemi, but it zinged the right way:
That clang was so loud it probably could have been heard over in Ottawa.
• He just might have scored his 41st, too. Replays of Hornqvist's winning deflection were inconclusive, but at least one angle strongly suggested that both Hornqvist and Malkin might have gotten a piece of the puck. Malkin sounded almost sure he'd gotten some, but Hornqvist wasn't.
Malkin's two points behind Nikita Kucherov for the NHL lead, two goals behind Alexander Ovechkin for that lead. He cares about both, trust me.
• Carter Rowney's injury that caused him to leave for good during the second period -- no information was offered afterward -- should prompt Jim Rutherford to bring back Josh Jooris. Never should have been sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the first place after a highly encouraging start.
• Not to be that guy, but the Canadiens' only power play resulted in a Paul Byron goal, meaning the Penguins' penalty-killers have failed on three consecutive kills including the final two in New York. Rowney was on the ice for all three.
• My imagination or were the Penguins falling back into a 1-2-2 more often than the norm?
These occurrences are far more visible live, but it happened several times, even with the top lines, that one forward stayed high and two dropped in triangle formation. It was only when the Canadiens had clear possession, and Sullivan's used it before, but I can't recall the most recent time it was this pronounced.
I asked two veteran players about it, and they insisted no change had been made, whether because of New York or for any other reason. Their explanation was that the Penguins are instructed to do that when they come onto the ice and the opponent has, again, clear possession. It's a safer way to start the shift.
Definitely worth watching further.
• Everyone here has an opinion on hockey. I don't mean at the rink. I mean in every walk of life. There's nowhere like it, at least not from my experience. Not back home in any sport. Not Toronto. Nowhere. It's not a sport here. It's the foundation of who they are.
• Back home now. Day off for the team. Actually, they'll get four days off now, their longest break between now and ... mid-June?