An extra handful of minutes had elapsed between the final horn of the Penguins' latest embarrassment, a 6-2 loss to the Hurricanes on this Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, and when the locker room was opened to reporters.
That likely meant, I thought in the moment, there was some sort of meeting among the players, which I'd later confirm to be the case.
That also likely meant, I further thought in the moment, that it'd be harder for the usual suspects to make a clean escape.
Uh, nope.
Even as the overwhelming majority of the day's lineup sat at their stalls in full equipment, from helmet to skates, Kris Letang was nowhere to be found, clearly having bolted for the exit with a rush that could reasonably be compared to ... well, the same dash he'd made the day before.
He wasn't alone, either. On a day that demanded answers for an increasingly -- and rightly -- irritated fan base, Evgeni Malkin followed up his impassioned self-reflection over the Saturday loss to the Capitals by being a no-show both during and after this one.
Sidney Crosby did speak, as always, but his showing was even worse than Malkin's on the ice and only marginally better off it.
This was the captain's assessment of his team on this day: "I think we just had a period of time there in the second where, you know, we didn't capitalize on our power plays and then, when we hit a post, they come in and score. That's gonna happen sometimes but we had to find a way to get ourselves back in the game. We've got to find a way to be on the right side of those."
Wow, no. Just no.
Hate to be repetitive, much less 24 hours later, but look no further than the core. For all that's befallen this team, and for any potential solutions beyond it.
Because here's the coldest of all truths behind what's occurring here: When this team's lineup was being populated by a whole lot of Joe Blandisi, it was pouncing on opponents with a relentless north-south approach. And now that it's been repopulated by infinitely more talented players, it looks like this:
That's Malkin with the blind giveaway, Crosby with the backward giveaway and Letang with the utterly boneheaded giveaway.
Watch that last one again and again. It's something. Letang's got a wide-open Conor Sheary up the right boards, and he never once glances in that direction because, hey, that's what simpletons do. He instead locks onto his target on the far boards, like a rookie NFL quarterback, to light a beacon for Jordan Staal to swoop in.
And never mind Crosby's Herculean effort once possession changed.
Or Malkin's earlier penalty for whacking a stick out of an opponent's hands while the puck was half a rink away.
I could whip up so many more examples, too, since, in one of the most stunning single statistical sequences I've seen in this building, the Penguins were charged with the first 16 official giveaways of the game.
The first 16.
For real.
For further context, an NHL team on average commits five official giveaways per game, and those usually wind up fairly even. For further-er context, half of those 16 giveaways were committed by the core: Crosby four, Malkin three, Letang with that doozy up there. And for further-er-er context, 11 of the 16 giveaways, including three of Crosby's, came via backward passes.
That, my friends, isn't lousy luck, or whatever else Crosby was trying to convey. That's an epidemic of unforced errors. That's insanely idiotic, irresponsible hockey. And whether the Penguins' players are experiencing a failure to recognize or acknowledge it, what matters most, ultimately, is their failure to act on it.
The same applies, actually, to everything that's gone awry in losing eight of 10 and, within that, having lost any connection to that energetic, cohesive collective that'd somehow overcome all those injuries and Blandisi'd their way to the top of the Metro. They're nowhere near that now. If anything, they've nosedived right back to the loose, careless level that got them swept by Islanders.
And that, with all due respect to most everyone being bad, still falls squarely on three sets of shoulders. Because if they don't lead by example -- or worse, if they do precisely the opposite of what even they'll admit is right -- then the whole process is shot.
Look, we don't have to wonder if Mike Sullivan's a smart coach. Or if his system works. We've witnessed both, not just in the back-to-back Cups, but also this very winter. Opponents had no answer when the system was applied appropriately, only praise for the passion and worth ethic behind it.
Only thing that's changed?
More talented players claimed the places of those who'd been applying it appropriately.
I hadn't asked Sullivan a question this hard the whole season, but this game, at least for me, felt like the low point. So here it came: If the team listened to you when a bunch of AHL replacements were being sent over the boards, why won't it listen to you now?
Happen to spot that small smile as I was asking the question?
He knows. He absolutely knows.
Sure, I believe him when he continues to espouse, "... my faith in this group and the leadership we have in there." He has every reason to, not least of which are a couple rings. But I also have ample cause to believe he's never been more exasperated by it. Partly because, though he'd never discuss any such thing, this was the season where he and his system made a roaring comeback. But much more so because the team itself had forged a crystal-clear path toward contention. And then abandoned it, rooted in the three-man core remaining too set in their ways to see that.
It's a shame. A lot's been invested into this season, by the front office, by the coaches and, of course, by the players themselves. Through Jim Rutherford's recent trades, even more of the future's been mortgaged toward propping up the present. And then there's the age bracket of the core itself, which would appear to come in perfect harmony with all this but now feels more like a ticking bomb.
It's not too late. The nearest threat to knocking the Penguins out of the Eastern playoff picture are the Islanders at five points back. Those teams will meet next weekend, but only after the Penguins visit Columbus, where the Blue Jackets are now just three points back. It's part of a 10-game, all-Metro stretch in which real control can be reclaimed.
What'll it take?
I put that to Brian Dumoulin, one of the leaders who didn't rush out.
"We need to play for each other a little bit more," he answered. "We've got to become a team here and embrace the little things, and get back to our playing the game ... where we're supporting each other all over the ice and getting excited when one of us makes those plays."
In other words, applauding the simple north-south chip or dump or clear.
Next game is Tuesday night in Newark. With the first blind, backward or utterly boneheaded pass by any of the core guys, it'll be obvious whether they're serious in any sense.
The Hurricanes' Morgan Geekie celebrates his first NHL goal in his NHL debut. - GETTY• In the interest of fairness, Bryan Rust, the Penguins' leading goal-scorer, also had a team-worst minus-4 rating and two giveaways. He's left out of what's above solely because he couldn't be considered part of the decade-long core.
• This isn't about the trades. That's way too convenient, as well as demonstrably incorrect. Jason Zucker's been the team's top scorer since his arrival. Patrick Marleau's fit in well enough and he scored a beauty on this day, to boot. Sheary's been what he always was. And Evan Rodrigues was the best player on the home side ... by a disturbing margin, actually.
To keep repeating myself, this isn't about the trades, or Jack Johnson, or the goaltending. It's about the top, meaning both performance and leadership. They're literally the only ones who can get this team together again.
• Remember all those references to Tristan Jarry not having had a single bad game all season?
That's now over.
He hardly lost the game, but the tying long-range wrister by Jaccob Slavin needed to be a save 35 times out of 35, and it wasn't. He'd concede six goals on 36 shots, an obvious ratio of 1 of every six pucks he saw.
"I just need to get back to basics, get to my game," he'd say afterward.
It'll be right back to Matt Murray in Newark, and that's as it should be. If Murray beats the Devils, he'll be ridden like a horse, and that's also as it should be. It's getting dark outside.
• Easy to see why Nick Bjugstad needed so much more time than Crosby to return from core surgery. Watching him closely here, I saw an excruciatingly slow/uncomfortable backcheck, I saw a much smaller Carolina player easily muscle him off a puck, and I saw him beaten on six of seven faceoffs. This isn't a criticism. He just doesn't look remotely close to contributing.
• How and why most of that crowd sat there till the end and didn't boo ... that's a mystery to me. Not judging. Just sharing my surprise. Kept expecting it and it never came.
• There are few experiences more unsettling on this job than sharing a postgame elevator with Rutherford after a loss, if only because the smoke coming from his ears could set off fire alarms. This time, though, he left his press box suite with several minutes remaining in regulation, as our Taylor Haase reports, and that's not the norm.
• The postgame meeting will achieve nothing. One player told me it was about focusing more on defending and playing closer together, all the standard stuff.
If anyone's seeking a productive meeting, I'd summon the core with Sullivan, the coaches, maybe the GM, maybe even higher up the ladder. Let them explain why it's worth preserving this particular status quo.
PHOTO GALLERY
Penguins vs. Hurricanes, March 8, 2020, PPG Paints Arena. - GETTY