In the Penguins' pantheon that's now a half-century and a handful of Stanley Cups deep, putting away the Metro's last-place team in early March probably shouldn't rank as all that prominent an event.
Funny how the world's changed, though, huh?
Because here we are, with the calendar now flipping into April, and no fooling: That 5-2 victory over the Devils 22 days ago in Newark figures to be the last one we'll witness for quite some time. And in this setting, even with infinitely more serious concerns all around us, I'd say it's a pretty positive thing from a purely hockey standpoint that the visitors performed as impressively as they did.
I mean, imagine if they hadn't. A six-game losing streak shortly before that and the general malaise that'd accompanied it, all that would've lingered, as well.
I brought this up with Mike Sullivan yesterday on his conference call with Pittsburgh reporters and, clearly having some time on his hands, he seemed to seize the chance to broaden the subject.
"I think there were a lot of circumstances surrounding the bit of adversity our team went through there, before the suspension of play," he began. "We had a number of players returning off the injured list, coming back to our lineup. The trade deadline was right at the same time, and we were trying to assimilate new players into our lineup. There were certain other players I think we probably overtaxed and put them in tough scenarios from that standpoint, out of necessity from all the injuries we had to endure."
All of this is fair. No one brought this up at the time, as that could've come off as excuse-making. But Jim Rutherford and now Sullivan have both cited it within the past week. They haven't named names, but I will: Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Kris Letang, even the perpetually energetic Brandon Tanev all seemed to be skating near 'E.' Only Evgeni Malkin's motor remained fully revved up. Moreover, Jason Zucker, Patrick Marleau and other trade acquisitions were feeling their way. And Brian Dumoulin, John Marino and Nick Bjugstad were doing likewise in returning from injury.
Sullivan kept going.
"But I believe -- and we believe as a coaching staff -- that we were starting to turn the corner, that we were starting to come together and find that chemistry again and figuring out how to utilize the new guys. We really liked the direction we were headed. The Jersey game, that was a real good indication. It was a hard game, and it was a real good win for us in facing a team that had been playing really well over their previous 10 games and had beaten a lot of really good teams in the league."
Also fair. The Devils are 28-29-12, but they'd just gone 6-1-2 before this and were fresh off back-to-back beatings of the defending champion Blues and the equally streaking Rangers.
"We felt good about that win," Sullivan concluded. "We felt it was an important one for us and for our self-confidence, building some traction moving forward. So yeah, it's a good feeling to hang onto in the event that there's a return to play here."
In the event. Always the qualifier.
But suppose there is that event, whenever it might be, since all concerned seemed determined to somehow complete the 2019-20 NHL season. If that comes, I'll posit right here that this particular outcome mattered a ton.
On March 11, the following day, I was out in Columbus for the practice that'd soon mark the last time the team was together. And I gathered a bunch of material that afternoon at Nationwide Arena that, for obvious reasons, I've never had a chance to use.
Let's remedy that, first with the full highlights:
Feels like months ago, doesn't it?
There really was a lot of good in there, too: Malkin's two goals, one of them outstanding. Justin Schultz's first goal in forever. Evan Rodrigues' first goal and point for his new team. The penalty-killing was superb. Matt Murray stuffing Jack Hughes on a clean break.
But the real tale was told with far more mundane matter, at least per the way Brian Dumoulin described it for me in Columbus.
"I thought we worked really well as a unit," he began. "We changed right away. We were really helping each other out. We were talking, communicating a lot, and you could see we were all really invested."
OK, so that explained nothing. I pressed for something more specific, and he came back without hesitation.
"Everybody wanted the puck coming out."
I knew what he meant but asked anyway what he meant.
"Everyone was making themselves available for a pass on the way out of our zone. And you, as the player with the puck, know that. You trust that. Sometimes, you might be just running around or facing the wrong direction. But you can really tell when when everyone's invested because they're showing you a target, making themselves presentable. It makes it a lot easier for everyone."
Yep. And that's what I was going to write about that day.
Take a look at three such sequences:
This is a textbook defensive-zone draw, and not just Sam Lafferty cleaning Jesper Bratt at the right dot. John Marino pounces to complete the win, Marcus Pettersson's right there, Marino keeps his feet moving to present Pettersson with another outlet, Tanev goes low to show his own blade, and Pettersson moves up the right side to reciprocate.
Seven total touches in a couple ticks. Out they go, and there's the puck deep in the New Jersey zone.
Same shift:
The Devils whip the puck deep again, and this time it's Lafferty winding way back for support that, as it turns out, is welcome because of Marino and Pettersson being a bit spread out. Lafferty sees Tanev presenting his blade, pushes to him. Tanev sees Pettersson presenting his blade, pushes back to him. Pettersson sees Tanev ... one gets the idea.
Look again up there at how close the Penguins stay. Three or four white sweaters in every tight quadrant around the puck.
One more, and it's remarkably still from the same shift:
Well, it's the same shift for the D-pair. The forwards have changed. But the approach doesn't. Marino has to backpedal a bit on the right boards, but he sees Pettersson presenting and, rather than risk a toss across the middle, banks a billiards pass off the end boards. Pettersson sees Patric Hornqvist whirling his way, presenting his blade, so he gets the next pass.
Now watch Rodrigues. Specifically his body angle. Dude never stops facing the puck, even when way out at center red. That's because he's prioritizing puck support over putting himself into position to ... um, do something he can't do? I'm trying to find a nice way to say that, but he's not about to catch some missile and go all Teemu Selanne on anyone. He's being who he is.
And once he realizes he's under pressure after taking the puck from Hornqvist, maybe aware that his D could use a change, he simply flings a backhander deep in the New Jersey zone in hopes of a forecheck.
Reminder: That's one shift. And this went on all night.
I often write that fans tend to focus on the wrong things when criticizing the Penguins. This is primarily why. Because this is almost always where things go wrong.
They're a good forechecking team, a good offensive team, and they're efficient enough in the neutral zone. What they aren't is a team that can afford to spend any disproportionate amount of time in their own zone. They just can't. They just aren't that sound defensively. And if Sullivan were wrapped up in Wonder Woman's lasso, trust me, he'd acknowledge exactly that.
Thus, the simple, logical solution is to get the hell out. The sooner the better. And the smartest way to achieve that is to pile up as many invested bodies -- and blades -- in the same small area, all working toward the same objective.
"When we're struggling, it feels like the effort is there, but maybe all five guys aren't working together," was how Jack Johnson worded it when I brought this up with him that day. "We all want to make a difference individually, but that can work against you because then you get all spread out. We just have to simplify everything we do."
Schultz responded much the same when I asked:
Whether hockey returns in May, June, July, whatever, it'll hold wholly true that the Penguins will contend to the same degree they'll defend. And having this singular example as the last, best thing they've done can't hurt.
• Sullivan's a coach in real life, too. It's how he talks, how he acts. So this magnificent conclusion to his call yesterday couldn't have surprised anyone.
"If there's any silver lining in this," he spoke on his own, "it's real impressive from my standpoint and, quite honestly, it's inspiring to watch our country come together and overcome a crisis situation. I think the doctors, the nurses, the first responders, law enforcement and the fire department, the people that are on the front lines of this ... those guys are our true heroes. We should be all be grateful for what they do on a daily basis. Sometimes we take that stuff for granted. For me, those are the important takeaways of this. We will get through this and we will get through this together. And I hope we all gain an appreciation for one another and have a little bit more tolerance for one another when we do get on the other side of this."
• If and when Sullivan gets another chance to coach this team, there's a very real chance that these could be his healthy scratches for Game 1 of the playoffs: Rodrigues, Lafferty, Conor Sheary, Dominik Simon, Anthony Angello, Chad Ruhwedel and Juuso Riikola. That's a damned good hockey team that's sending those seven guys up to the press box.
• Much as we seem to be looking to the various leagues for guidance as to when games will come back, the cold fact is that most of this, like the crisis itself, will be navigated at the local level.
When Toronto's mayor briefly freaked everyone out yesterday by declaring that all events in his city are off through the end of June -- he'd quickly clarify that he wasn't including professional sports -- it forced a lot of folks to grasp that all it takes is one city to throw off a league's potential schedule. If there's no Toronto, it affects the NHL, Major League Baseball and the NBA. Not to mention any carryover effect across Canada.
In Virginia, where the governor just declared no activity through June 10, his did include sports. And while that wouldn't affect pro sports beyond where the Capitals practice -- in Arlington -- more such decrees can be expected all over the country.
What any commissioner wants won't matter.
• Loved this from Kevin Colbert on his conference call last night with reporters, regarding the Steelers giving up their 2020 first-round draft pick for Minkah Fitzpatrick: "Under the current circumstances, the uncertainty of the player you might be taking, not having all of the information you would have had in the past, I’m a lot more comfortable knowing we got an All-Pro player with that pick."
Wow. Hadn't thought of that. Neat that he did.
• Running back in the draft. Yes.
• More playoff teams. Yes. Nothing wrong with 14 out of 32. It's still a lower percentage than the NHL or NBA. Now, Major League Baseball, which desperately needs to revive interest in countless markets in part because of its gross economic imbalance, needs to follow suit.
• I'm not into all this rerun/classic TV on the various sports networks, but one exception was going to be made all along as soon as I heard AT&T SportsNet was going to re-air Game 7 of the 1960 World Series last night.
It was breathtaking. The final two innings, all the twists and turns, are unlike anything in Major League Baseball history, and that's not the slightest of exaggerations.
And yeah, even though I knew what was coming, now having had the pleasure to meet all of the excellent gentlemen who were being interviewed through this ... the goosebumps were engulfing by the time Ralph Terry fired that final up-and-over fastball:
There's only one greatest home run of all time.
Only one Maz, among the world's most beautiful humans
We've been blessed with both. https://t.co/fCa2TuQbbj
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 1, 2020
That happened six years before I was born. I'd give anything to have been able to cover it.
• There's a message on the site today from the generous reader who sparked the program to get free one-year subscriptions to those on the coronavirus front line.
• We'll get there. We will.
