CRANBERRY, Pa. -- "Nothing's changed. Not a thing."
That's what Brian Dumoulin was telling me Wednesday morning at the Lemieux Sports Complex, this after I'd asked what, if anything, the Penguins might be changing up schematically to compensate for their dismal defense in the very early going of this season.
And no, I wasn't being remotely serious, which he soon figured out, then smiled.
"Ha! No, you won't see the system changing here. No chance."
Good. That's as it should be. Mike Sullivan's Xs and Os were plenty good enough to claim the Stanley Cup twice, and all that's occurred since is that other NHL head coaches have copied and pasted. There's a reason for that. It's smart, it's skill-based, it's fast, and it's focused on the No. 1 modern hockey principle: Having the puck is good and not having it is bad.
What's more, it's conveyed to the players in a way that a few simple catch-phrases suffice.
"It's a really, really good system," Dominik Simon was telling me, both eyebrows raised. "And what I like best is that, even though you always have a lot of things to think about out there and we always want to be playing fast, you can always keep in your head that one idea that keeps you doing the right thing."
Sullivan alternates those, but there can't be any doubt what this week's winner has been.
"Right side of the puck," Simon came back without hesitation.
"Play on the right side of the puck," Riley Sheahan later echoed.
"We want everyone on the right side of the puck," Jack Johnson would say.
On its face, the phrase means nothing. I mean, possession is possession. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin could merry-go-round a puck for a full shift, and it'd still be optimal.
But defensively, in the wake of giving up 11 goals to the Capitals and Canadiens, and in taking on the in-your-face Golden Knights tonight at PPG Paints Arena, it basically represents a realignment of priority. A renewed realization that body position alone can improve the choices made all over the rink.
I asked the athletes to cite some specific examples:
"A lot of it's just limiting guys' time and space with the puck, and you always want to do that from the inside of the rink, with that guy in front of you," Sheahan started out. "There's little things that go with that, like good stick position, whichever your toes are pointing, trying to angle them to the outer parts of the rink ... if you give a skilled opponent space in the middle of the rink, that's when they excel."
So, stay on the right side of the puck and the opponent.
"It's really the same thing, right?" Sheahan came back. "Do your pressuring toward the outside of the rink."
"Make sure you're in a good spot," Simon came next. "If you're in a good spot, you're in a better place to block shots, to turn a guy away, to force him to make a pass he doesn't want to make. And it's good for support, too."
Exactly. And this is what makes the Sullivan system so fluid, at least when it's not executed as sloppily/passively as it's been through these two games: The defense flows right into offense, thanks to that support.
That's why Sullivan's drills through the week, but especially yesterday, essentially shoved that aspect down everyone's throats all over again: The rink was cut into half, even thirds, to emphasize working together in tight quarters. And when those didn't go the way he wanted, he'd blow a whistle, halt all activity and bark to be heard all through Butler County. Then they'd do it again. And tighter.
It might not lead to victory against Vegas, which plays a strikingly similar style under Gerard Gallant and did so even better than the Penguins all through 2017-18, but it'll bring benefits before long.
• My faith in the backup goaltending is severely limited ...
... but it's also entirely possible that Casey DeSmith will be the beneficiary of the recommitment to defense.
• It's equally possible that, if and when that recommitment takes effect, the scapegoating of Olli Maatta will go on and on.
He didn't play well in the first two games. But almost no one did consistently, shy of maybe Kris Letang , and yet, because it's seldom sufficient to cite an entire group as underachieving, Maatta's been the public's top target for the past couple days, at least based on my ability to discern such things.
Well, mark this down: He'll come back and again be one of the Penguins' best defenseman, as he indisputably was over the full two rounds of playoffs this past spring, and as he was in earning two rings. He's off to a sluggish start, maybe even more than the rest of his teammates, but that's ... I was going to say it's easily overcome except that he's never about the easy route:
That's a quick video I captured -- on my way out of the building, actually -- of Maatta staying on the ice for an extra 45 minutes after practice. Letang had tried to hang with him for about 20, but not even he could last that long. Maatta was working with a skills instructor on pretty much everything, including his skating stops and starts.
Bury this kid prematurely at your own peril.
• The Golden Knights will show up here today both banged up -- Paul Stastny was ruled out of the next three games with a lower-body injury -- and beaten down with a 1-3 record, eight total goals and a power play that's now 0 for 13 after their 5-2 loss last night in a Stanley Cup Final rematch in Washington:
To boot, as we reported yesterday from D.C., Marc-Andre Fleury won't play tonight, and Malcolm Subban will.
Never bet against the house.
• Didn't understand the Derek Grant signing when it was made. Understood it even less upon watching him through camp and seeing he's miles shy of having the speed to be a Sullivan guy. And now, he's been waived without having taken a shift in Pittsburgh.
I know Sullivan and Jim Rutherford communicate constantly. I'd never question that, in part because I witness it almost daily. But there are times, like this and like the Ryan Reaves acquisition, where I wonder to what extent there's a mutual signing-off on such transactions.
• Speaking of enforcers, if the Steelers aren't having Rosie Nix spend half his Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati hammering Vontaze Burfict into submission -- as he famously did last October at Heinz Field -- then they're doing it all wrong. Football's not what it was, but it remains a game of intimidation, especially between these two teams, and Nix will out-tough anyone in the NFL, let alone someone as spineless as a cheap-shot artist.
Let's see 45 vs. 55 all day long.
• That matchup would be a blast, as will Joe Haden vs. A.J. Green, which absolutely will occur no matter how much both head coaches so far have downplayed it. But over both of those, I'll take the Steelers vs. Andy Dalton.
One former member of the Steelers, a defensive lineman of significant repute, once told me that his guys long ago saw something in Dalton's eyes when they faced him, and that they loved it. They felt they had him beaten before the first snap. They felt they saw fear.
Now, that might just be football chatter, except that the results overwhelmingly support it. Get this: Dalton is now 3-12 against the Steelers, by far his worst mark against any opponent, including losses in the past six games and being held to 20 or fewer points in five of those six games. He's averaged 209 yards and totaled 17 touchdowns against 13 interceptions.
And now the Steelers are coming off by far the best showing by their current defensive line?
No need to over-analyze.
• The Reds are interviewing Tom Prince, the Pirates' bench coach, for their managerial opening. If they can get more than a one-word answer out of him in that interview, it'll be stunning. I'm certain I've never seen someone in professional coaching look more petrified when asked a question.
But hey, give it up for Prince, because at least he's getting a call. Really, you can look this up: Not one assistant GM has been hired away -- or even interviewed, to my knowledge -- after a full decade now under Neal Huntington.
• My League Championship Series picks: Crew uber alles.
Just because it'd be justice to show a team in a market two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh can do it right, primarily by caring enough to do it right.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins practice, Cranberry Township, Pa., Oct. 10, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS