NEW YORK — Mike Sullivan issued a pretty clear challenge to his players after the Penguins’ 4-1 loss in Boston Thursday.
He said they had to be harder to play against.
That they had to play defense like they really mean it.
That, basically, they had to compete and work for the entire game as if they have a vested interest in the outcome.
Which, of course, they do.
Sullivan’s message couldn’t have been more clear.
But there were a few things he neglected to mention before their 5-4 overtime victory against the New York Rangers Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Like how the Penguins should avoid giving up two-on-zero breaks, especially when they're on the power play.
You know, like the one that led to the Rangers' second goal, which allowed New York to wipe out a Penguins lead for the second of three times.
And how totally unforced errors, such the minor penalty John Marino was assessed for not going directly to the bench after New York's Alexis Lafreniere ripped his helmet off, are discouraged. That point was underscored when New York capitalized on the ensuing power play to claim its only lead of the evening, 4-3, at 16:01 of the second period.
But for all the Penguins did wrong in this game -- and there were plenty of mistakes to discuss before they face the Rangers again Monday at 7:08 p.m. at the Garden -- they did enough right, especially in the latter stages of the game, to earn their first victory on the road in five tries this season.
"The first part of the game, there was a lot of special teams, so it was hard to get any flow, from a lines standpoint, rolling guys over the boards" Sullivan said. "But I thought, as the game went on and we were able to get four lines rolling, I thought we got to our game more consistently in that second half of the game. And in the third period, I thought we were at our best."
He liked what he saw in overtime, too. Especially when Sidney Crosby capped an extended possession for the Penguins by throwing a shot past Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev at 2:27.
It was enough to make Sullivan, who generally reacts to victories -- the ones that don't clinch a Stanley Cup, anyway -- with about as much emotion as a slab of granite, punctuate the outcome with a fist pump.
"I was happy for the players," he said. "I know how hard they work and I know they're competing out there, so I was happy for those guys. Their resilience and their resolve, through all the ebbs and flows of the game, through some of the adversities in this early part of the season ... I know how much they care. I know how hard they're competing out there. So when Sid scored in the overtime, I was certainly thrilled for them."
Mind you, there was a loss to somewhat temper the excitement of the victory.
And, as been the case so often this season, it involved a defenseman, as Kris Letang departed after taking just five shifts for a total of five minutes, 17 seconds during the first period.
Sullivan said only that he is being evaluated for an unspecified lower-body injury.
Letang's absence left the Penguins, already missing their top four left-handed shots on the blue line, without the guy who regularly plays the most minutes of anyone except the goaltender.
Despite Letang's wildly inconsistent play this season, being without him created a gaping void on the Penguins' blue line.
Good thing they had a 21-year-rookie who began the evening with all of four games of NHL experience on his resume to fill it.
P.O Joseph, though, doesn't act his age. Or like a guy who opened the season clinging to a spot on the taxi squad.
Remember the remarkable season Marino had when he broke into the NHL in 2019-20?
Joseph just might be raising the bar.
It's not just that he had three primary assists, including one on Crosby's game-winner, but that he plays with poise and instincts that some players with far more experience never develop.
"P.O had a great game," Sullivan said. "He was competing defensively. He has great offensive instincts; you can see how, some of the plays that he makes ... we used him on the power play. He made some real nice outlet passes under pressure. We believe this kid is going to get better and better. ... We can see him improving, right in front of our eyes, with every minute that he plays."
Joseph played nearly 26 of those Saturday night, logging 25:58 of ice time.
Sullivan characterized his workload as "an exorbitant amount of minutes," but added quickly that Joseph "handled it extremely well."
Perhaps that's because he hasn't stopped to consider how outrageous it is that a young guy who wasn't on the 23-man roster when the season started could be filling such a prominent role -- and doing it so effectively -- this quickly.
"Sometimes when you're thrown into scenarios like that, you don't think as much," Crosby said. "You can just see that with every game, he's gotten better and better."
Enough that he has been the Penguins' best defenseman since entering the lineup. A small sample size, to be sure, but also a most promising one.
To put Joseph's modest experience into perspective, consider this: He'll have to appear in 13 more games to have his total match the number of overtime game-winners Crosby has scored.
Coincidentally, Joseph capped his evening's efforts by sliding a short pass to Crosby for No. 18, which moved Crosby into third place on the league's all-time list for overtime goals
"I didn't get all of it," he said. "But I was glad to see it go in."
Crosby probably wasn't entirely surprised that the Penguins scored, though, because they knew that a couple of the Rangers, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, had been on the ice for nearly the entire overtime and had to be drained of the energy needed to defend vigorously
"We knew we were playing against tired guys," Crosby said. "We were just trying to find some openings to get good shots."
Crosby got one, and made it count.
For the Penguins, overtime and shootout victories have been a lot easier to come up with than healthy defensemen. Letang joins a group that includes Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Mike Matheson and Juuso Riikola.
If any more defensemen get hurt, they might start traveling to road games in a MedEvac helicopter. Or perhaps management can seek permission from the league to expand the taxi squad into a PAT bus squad so that enough replacements are always available.
"Unfortunately, we've had to deal with this right from the start of the season," Crosby said. "We've handled it the right way when we've been in those situations, tried to simplify things."
Actually, Sullivan wanted his team to distill a lot of things to their fundamental components.
They succeeded in some areas, failed in others. Most notably the power play, which failed to score on three tries and looked as if it -- especially the No. 1 unit -- wouldn't have scored if it had gotten 33 more.
"It's just execution," Crosby said. "We're well-prepared. We understand what we need to do. We just have to find a way to execute and make sure we have the same level of compete that the penalty-kill that we're playing against has."
Failing to score on power plays is bad enough. Allowing shorthanded goals the way the Penguins have been lately can be a fatal flaw.
"It's hard to win when you give those up," Crosby said. "A lot of times, those end up being the difference between winning and losing."
But sometimes, the difference is a 21-year-old defenseman who still doesn't have a half-dozen games on his resume.
• Three of the Penguins' five victories have come in games in which they trailed at the second intermission. "It's not necessarily the formula to have success, but if you look at the situations where we've been down, a lot of times it is with guys going down with injuries. But at the same time, we have to find a way to get leads, hold them and build momentum from them."
• Jason Zucker, Brandon Tanev, Kasperi Kapanen and Jake Guentzel scored the other Penguins goals.
• Malkin appeared in his 916th game with the Penguins, putting him second to Crosby, who has played in 993, on the franchise's all-time list.
• The Penguins finished with 31-23 edge on faceoffs, led by Crosby at 11-4.
• After the game, the Penguins announced that they have called off the practice scheduled for Sunday.
• The Penguins are heading into their first set of games on consecutive days -- after facing the Rangers Monday, they return home to play New Jersey Tuesday -- but getting to the second game could be interesting, because New York is expected to be battered by a snowstorm for much of Monday. The Penguins are scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh immediately after the Rangers game.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Madison Square Garden
1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
2. K'Andre Miller, Rangers
3. P.O Joseph, Penguins
THE INJURIES
• Forward Zach-Aston Reese is still recovering from surgery on his left shoulder in August and has been skating.
• Defenseman Zach Trotman underwent right knee surgery Jan. 14 to repair a torn meniscus and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.
• Defenseman Mike Matheson is out "longer term" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 15 and has been skating in a non-contact jersey.
• Defenseman Juuso Riikola is out "longer term" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 19.
• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson is out "week to week" with an unspecified upper-body injury sustained Jan. 19.
• Defenseman Brian Dumoulin is out "week to week" with an unspecified lower-body injury sustained on Jan. 27.
• Forward Evan Rodrigues is out "longer term" with a lower-body injury sustained on Jan. 25.
• Defenseman Kris Letang is being evaluated for an unspecified lower-body injury sustained Saturday.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Drew O'Connor-Mark Jankowski-Sam Lafferty
P.O Joseph-Kris Letang
John Marino-Cody Ceci
Chad Ruhwedel-Yannick Weber
And for David Quinn's Rangers:
Alexis Lafreniere-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin-Ryan Strome-Colin Blackwell
Chris Kreider-Brett Howden-Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Lemieux-Kevin Rooney-Phillip-Di Guiseppe
K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
Brendan Smith-Tony DeAngelo
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have called off the practice scheduled for Sunday and will face the Rangers again Monday at 7:08 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.
THE CONTENT
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