UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Apparently, Mike Sullivan's plan for Game 2 of the Penguins' Stanley Cup playoff series against the Islanders will be to push something close to the Game 1 plan right through the wringer.
Oh, there were no clues in that regard this morning at Nassau Coliseum, but that's how practice played out Thursday afternoon, with the same four healthy scratches staying out extra: Teddy Blueger, Chad Ruhwedel, Tristan Jarry and, yeah, Jack Johnson. So, barring some big-time break from precedent, it'll be the same forwards and same defensemen back out again tonight. Lines and pairings weren't shown in either session -- only 16 participants in today's skate, and all came off at roughly the same time -- but we might also see no difference there.
From this perspective, that feels more like hope than a plan.
Sullivan will hope he gets something more tonight from his No. 1 line than to get out-chanced, 20-4, as Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust did in the 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1.
He'll hope he gets more than a goal tonight from his Nos. 2 and 3 lines, dominant as they were. Evgeni Malkin, Jared McCann and Patric Hornqvist out-chanced the Islanders, 19-4, and Nick Bjugstad, Dominik Simon and Phil Kessel out-chanced them, 19-7, including that lone five-on-five goal on a sharp rush by all three:
Sullivan will hope his fourth line can achieve something more tonight than being dramatically upstaged by their New York counterparts. On one head-to-head shift in the second period, the Islanders' locally dubbed 'best fourth line in hockey' of Casey Cizikas, Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck kept Matt Cullen, Zach Aston-Reese and Garrett Wilson pinned in the Pittsburgh zone for nearly 90 seconds. That isn't a matchup either coach covets, but it was still striking.
Sullivan will hope he doesn't need to mess with his second and third lines to get the first one going but, as I've been assured, he'll always prioritize who plays alongside Crosby. So we'll see in warmups.
Sullivan will hope, maybe above all, that his defensemen aren't the disaster they were in Game 1. With Johnson out and with Brian Dumoulin and Erik Gudbranson both evidently fine at practice, that'll leave the same six and, because of the right-left alignment, the same duos, as well: Dumoulin with Kris Letang, Olli Maatta with Justin Schultz, Marcus Pettersson with Gudbranson.
Sullivan will hope Maatta, his worst performer at any position in Game 1, will return to previous playoff form.
Oh, and he might do more than hope that Letang will be a whole lot smarter than that toe-drag turnover in overtime, evidenced by this visibly spirited, one-way conversation between the two Thursday:
I'm not wild about this. Any of it. Just want it on the record somewhere, even as I'd be fine with being wrong once Game 2's finished.
No one will care -- nor should anyone care -- what I'd do for Game 2, but hey, it's my keyboard, and it's supported off to the side by several cups of hard caffeine, so here are three changes I'd make:
1. McCann would jump to the top line. I'd qualify that the line wouldn't be as defensively responsible without Rust, except that Rust was the team's lowest-graded five-on-five forward in Game 1 -- 28.57 Corsi For percentage, almost inconceivable alongside Crosby -- and committed the short-handed giveaway that led to New York's power-play goal.
2. Malkin and Kessel would be reunited, paired with Rust. That would put Bjugstad with Simon and Hornqvist. This almost certainly would result in a slide from the outrageous numbers from the second and third lines in Game 1, but, to keep repeating, Crosby's the priority. Besides, when Malkin and Kessel are both flying as they were, I want them together. Let Rust rediscover his defensive conscience in that setting.
3. I'd dress seven defensemen.
And here's where it goes a little off the rails.
Think of Game 2 as a must-win, even though it mathematically isn't. No team would want to face a scenario of taking four of five from any opponent, and that's what the Penguins will have with a loss, couple with that bizarre noon faceoff at home for Game 3, in which anything can happen. This one's huge.
Next, think of the worst-case likely lineup wrench for Game 2.
Right. An injury to another defenseman.
Dumoulin and Gudbranson already are on edge. Letang's neck has already had him in and out. And any worst-case scenario in a playoff is embarking into overtime with fewer than six defensemen, as the Penguins nearly did for Game 1 and as the Islanders' tight style always makes possible.
Dress seven.
Get Johnson back in there. Not to make him happy. Not to fend off any drama. But because he deserves it and because he's exactly what the Penguins could use to better withstand what Sullivan's now acknowledged is "a heavy forecheck" from the Islanders. Rotate him through to keep him rolling. Send him out on the PK. Have him in reserve, if needed. Being able to play either side is a bonus.
To achieve that, scratch Aston-Reese. He's always taken several games to regain peak form after an extended injury, and nothing about his showing Wednesday dissuaded that. He can watch a couple more. And if Wilson doesn't remember that he's on this roster not to Corsi the boys to a Cup, but to keep clowns like Clutterbuck from wreaking havoc all over the rink, he can be bumped for Blueger. Better yet, rotate one star each through a makeshift fourth line
The fourth line isn't that important. Not at even-strength. Not this one. Definitely not in this matchup. It's a loss. So discard it.
In Game 1, including the 4:39 of free hockey, Crosby logged 22:38 of ice time, Kessel 20:56 and Malkin 18:53. Guentzel, their 40-goal child, logged 21:11. The fourth line, as a collective, logged 6:51. Don't tell me that, with a smooth rotational usage of Cullen and Wilson/Blueger, Sullivan couldn't squeeze out a couple minutes more from each of the stars.
Anyway, forget I wrote any of this. Just sharing.
• Sullivan, asked what he's got to do to keep everyone happy with the lineup, had this answer: "Well, you know, I think it's just the reality of the world we all live in. It's not so much about keeping people happy. It's about making the best decisions that we think help our team win. And everybody has to be on board with that. That's the nature of the business we're in. Our coaching staff tries to communicate as honestly and straightforward with all our players on the decisions we make and why we make them. And as we say to our players all the time, we don't expect them to agree with the decisions, but our hope is that they'll respect the decisions. We'll re-evaluate from game to game, and our hope is that, each night, we put out the lineup that gives us the best chance to win."
He's good like that, huh?
• I asked McCann this morning what needs to be better:
• Asked the same of Gudranson:
• Here's another one: Crosby needs to be better. Can't believe I'm typing that, but he seemed out of sorts through most of Game 1, and I'd hate to come across as blaming that on the coach or Rust. He churned the skates, as always, but made decisions he never makes.
To achieve that, as he acknowledged after practice, he and Guentzel and whoever's alongside them will need to contribute to smoother breakouts.
"I just think we didn't do a good job of getting out of our zone," Crosby said. "If you're spending half your shift there, you don't have a lot of energy to go the other way and do things there. So we've got to execute coming out of our zone and give ourselves a chance to create things offensively."
The New York line pinning them was Cizikas' fourth line.
"They did a good job, getting the cycling going. That's their game. Like I said, we need to be better there."
This was Crosby's event map from Game 1, courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com:
It's as sparse as the Sahara by his standards. That's because he didn't have the puck. That'll change.
• High marks to Sullivan and the coaches for this slice of creativity Thursday:
Today in Uniondale, the Penguins went through a... unique... drill.
So of course, DK had to ask Matt Cullen and Mike Sullivan about it.
Watch the drill then hear their thoughts: #dkps #Penguins pic.twitter.com/gFIblwz2kz
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPghSports) April 11, 2019
Part of what made Sullivan successful in his two Cup runs was that he monitored the team's mood and factored it into his daily approach.
I'm not sure it took, though. That scene and room Friday morning were tightly wound. I mean really tightly wound. Maybe that's good, but maybe it isn't.
• I mentioned that Sullivan/Letang talk earlier, the one accompanied by the Matt Sunday photo. It's impossible to know what they discussed, so I won't take that further.
I can, however, confidently share that the only thing Letang might have hated almost as much as his overtime mess in Game 1 was my question upon finally getting to ask him about it Thursday:
Like Crosby and Guentzel, he'll be so much better in Game 2.
• Not as sure about Dumoulin, but only because no one knows how badly he might still be hurt.
"It was kind of a weird first period for me, personally," he said after practice, possibly referring to a nasty knockdown by the Islanders' Brock Nelson that should have been called interference but wasn't. He was bloodied in the mouth and briefly left the bench area but soon returned. "I'm going to have to bring it a little more in Game 2."
His focus, as with the team as a whole, was on the breakout. He's obviously a massive component to that.
"We need to be better. We know they have a heavy forecheck and look to hit us and stuff like that. Sometimes you're going to have to take a hit to move the puck. And sometimes when there's a clean play to be made, we have to hit those passes."
• There are positives in play, too, and the most prominent, I'll repeat, is that the Islanders aren't the Islanders if they're conceding 70 shot attempts, as they did in Game 1. Taylor Haase had to dig all the way back to New York's opening game to find the previous occasion they'd conceded that many.
That might explain why Barry Trotz has tried to temper any questions about the Islanders' level of confidence.
Asked how much he believes in momentum, Troty replied this morning, "Zero point zero. If there's a number less than zero, I'll take that."
And about his team's defending: "It’s a group effort. But they had some looks. The Penguins are always going to get their looks. They’re so highly skilled. They’re going to make plays."
They will again tonight.
"I think we can definitely take from that aspect of it," Bjugstad told me. "We know the way they play, and we know they don't like to give up that many chances. We need to clean up some things, but I think we know we can make things happen offensively, too."
• Penguins in six.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY