CRANBERRY, Pa. -- There's 'Good Tanger' and 'Bad Tanger.'
People inside the Penguins' world know those terms a little too well, and I'm betting the full fanbase does, as well, after a decade of celebrating the best and cringing at the worst of Kris Letang. He's a high-risk, high-reward, high-value, high-cost performer, and it seems there's seldom much between the extremes.
Oh, and there's also 'Mad Tanger.'
This one's not commonly expressed -- I just made it up, to be honest -- but Mad has always been my Tanger of choice. And that's in large part because Mad has almost always led to Good.
So keep that in mind upon watching the video below when Letang was asked, after the players' informal skate/scrimmage Tuesday at the Lemieux Sports Complex, about Jim Rutherford's remark to our site earlier this summer that he'd be more effective if his ice time were cut by a handful of minutes:
"I mean, I don't have an opinion on that."
"If I play well, I play well. He'll put me on the ice."
"That's just how it's going to go, I guess."
Yeah, that's Mad. Couldn't even look up from under the bill of that dark ballcap.
Good. Let him be ticked off. He should be.
Not so much at Rutherford or Mike Sullivan or Jacques Martin or the thought process Rutherford revealed. The GM's responsible for the roster and salary cap, and he's got to maximize value from a 31-year-old defenseman who's endured a ton of physical trauma and makes $7.25 million a year through 2022. Sullivan's responsible for the bench, of course, and Martin for rolling out the pairings. If they decide to cut Letang's ice time or, as Rutherford told our Cody Tucker over the weekend in Buffalo, they no longer match up Letang and Brian Dumoulin with every opponent's top line, they're well within their lanes.
Really, who could blame anyone involved if, say, the Letang/Dumoulin pair split duties more evenly with Olli Maatta and Justin Schultz, both proven champions in their own right?
The cold fact is that Letang wasn't at his best in 2017-18. Yes, he was coming off neck surgery. Yes, he grew visibly stronger, more confident as the season progressed. But he only sporadically achieved peak form, and the body of work wasn't sufficient.
Fine, then. Be better. Beginning Friday, when training camp formally opens.
For sure, he seems off to a healthier start.
“Like a million times better,” Letang replied with a slight laugh when asked how he's feeling now compared to the same stage last summer. "It’s not even close. It feels good to have that good session all through the summer and be able to skate out there. I had a little bit of time to rest and I was able to maintain a workload all summer.”
Meaning he didn't have to mix his trademark madman-level training with the various daily rituals related to the neck surgery.
“I had never had surgery before. It was a little different. It was a first for me. But, now I feel good and that’s most important.”
Mentally, too, he added.
“You’re more sharp, so you can keep a high pace all game and be able to process everything the same way. If you don’t train, yes, you can have a good shift, but when the fatigue starts creeping on you, you start making bad decisions. To have the whole summer to train ... my body feels good, my cardio is good, the conditioning is good.”
Daniel Sprong could testify. He spent part of his summer in combined workouts with Letang in Quebec.
“He was a fun guy to watch in the gym,” Sprong would say. “He really pushes guys."
Derick Brassard was up there for a spell, too.
"I heard about how hard Tanger works, but it's something to see," Brassard said. "It's nonstop for him."
Dumoulin suggested that his partner's motivation might actually be higher than the norm.
“He does everything so well and is his own worst critic,” Dumoulin said. “When he messes up or has a good game, he shoulders the responsibility. I love him as a player and a guy. He is great in the locker room and on and off the ice. You have no idea how bad he wants to be out there.”
All of that sounded encouraging. Same for his upbeat family news, as he and wife Catherine Laflamme had their second child, daughter Victoria, on July 5. Childbirth can make for a stressful collective experience, and Letang is an intensely passionate family man.
“It’s good,” he said of the newest addition along with son Alex. “It’s a different vibe, obviously. But it’s fun to have some action at home.”
He laughed at that, too. But the head went right back under the dark ballcap with the next question, about his performance last season.
“I think we talked about it,” he said with a slight shake. “It’s not like I went home and was satisfied. So I don’t really need to add anything about it. I just have to move on and look ahead.”
Mad again.
You know, Eddie Johnston, the Penguins' 82-year-old hockey sage, not so long ago described Letang as "one mean son of a bitch when he wants to be," and it really resonated. I started to observe on that facet of his game a little more ever since, and E.J. was right per usual. He'll chop guys down like a 5-hour-Energy-fueled lumberjack, especially in front.
It serves him well, I think. The angry Letang locks in, finds his focus, stays sharper. When he's a mess in a given game, it's almost always because he's overthinking. When he's at his best -- when Sullivan urges him to 'just defend,' as he did on that special night in San Jose two Junes ago -- he's playing with ... a flying-blind passion, if you will.
Even in the silly scrimmage on this day, one that not even the rookiest of rookies took too seriously, some of that could be seen. No. 58 was in so many places one could have wondered if there was someone else sharing the same sweater. Except that, as ever, he was among the last to leave the rink.
Jack Johnson, Letang's newest teammate, couldn't help but notice.
"That guy," Johnson would observe, "is something else."
Sounds like that's the goal.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins scrimmage, Cranberry, Pa., Sept. 11, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS