Welcome to DK Sports Radio and a new Daily Shot of Penguins, my every-weekday, half-hour program on the local hockey franchise. Today's episode: For all the oddities this team's encountered of late, there's been real progress of late in there.
Also, hey, just below, you'll find a full transcript of the opening segment:
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TRANSCRIPT
Man the Penguins have been hit with a lot of weirdness lately, haven’t they?
Like real weirdness. Like your Hall of Fame general manager just walking out the door an eighth of the way into the season. Like losing five of your six opening-night defensemen to injuries. Like the New Jersey Devils coming down with half their team having coronavirus and then your whole schedule gets blown up.
But I actually kind of like where they are … with one or two significant exceptions.
The Penguins would have faced the Devils last night at PPG Paints Arena and then again tomorrow night except that both of those games, of course, were canceled because of the Devils having 10 players on the COVID list. So the Penguins' next game will be out on Long Island Saturday night. They still came home to Pittsburgh, presumably just to get a change of laundry and whatever else before they head back into the New York metro area for another week. But they also got some needed, I think, time down here. Not that it's exhausting to this point of the season, in that they've only played 10 games. But more so that you can ideally get some of these defenseman to start getting back into the lineup. They did practice yesterday at Madison Square Garden, which again was unscheduled and unexpected. But they were already in New York and they got hit by 18 inches of snow or whatever it was up there. And so they stayed and did a few twirls around the rink.
Sidney Crosby was asked about all of this strangeness.
Crosby: "Yeah, I mean, I think you go through different things, not specifically these things kind of all bunched together, but different experiences and I think, you know, you just got to focus on on games and preparation walkway, one everything else. So I think we've done a pretty good job of that. You know, we've played some some pretty good hockey, you know, it just comes down to executing and a few mistakes and small margin for error in this league. But I think for the most part, we've done a pretty good job and on that."
Yeah, I'm with him. This might not be the most popular thing to say, especially since they're coming off a loss in which they scored only one goal, 3-1, Monday night to the Rangers. But I kind of like where they are. I thought that their five-on-five play — and the metrics will support me on this — was really good. It was among their better efforts of the young season. And the best part is that is was a cumulative effect. It carried over from the third period of the previous game. It looked like they started to find their wheels, they really started clicking, they made crisp, sharp passes, they were moving for each other, creating in the offensive zone, getting through the neutral zone in a big hurry. And I think in large part because of all these lost defensemen that there's a greater attention to detail in the defensive zone, as well. I think those are good things for this hockey team to be picking up right about now. At five on five, they're getting stronger, they're making more of a statement. They're having penalties called against the opposition for the first time all year. There's been a lot of good things at even-strength.
But I did mention those couple other things, right?
You can put up all the wonderful five-on-five analytics and impress everyone, and it won't matter at all if you don't produce anything on the power play. The Penguins are currently in an 0-for-18 slide, and that doesn't even begin to tell how bad they've been. They are at least setting up. I'll give them that much. But once they set up, they're stuck on the perimeter. They find themselves open for shots that they refuse to take. And then they'll start trying to do these soft little saucers into the slot area that get picked off and the puck goes right out again. Yes, it could be worse. They could be so bad that they don't even set up but there's too much skill for them to not set up, they gain the zone. And they find a way they just do. But once they do, there's virtually no direction.
And if you want to talk about coaching, you can. But look at who's out there and tell me who's listening to Todd Reirden? If he’s telling these guys to shoot, which one do you think is going to do that?
To me? The only answer for this is to try something just completely draconian. You know, and we've seen penguins coaches do this in the past, you can try splitting up Sid and Geno. You can try using more of a grinder type to send it in front of the net since you don't have Patric Hornqvist anymore. Is it an automatic that you have to have Jake Guentzel out there on the first power-play unit? I know it took him forever to work his way up that rank. But this isn't really about that. This isn't about trying to honor somebody, you know, or ascension up the chain. And it’s not just that they aren't scoring goals. They aren't even shooting the puck. You as the head coach have every right to make whatever changes you need. This really shouldn't be all that complicated. You can take a Jason Zucker, who has three goals in his last four games and say listen, he's at least going to the net, so we're gonna put him out there. We're gonna sit Jake, and we're gonna put a couple of defenseman out there, and Geno can be with power play two, since he's not shooting the puck either. Because then Geno's on the point not shooting the puck, and John Marino's on the other point seeing that Geno's not shooting the puck, so why should he shoot the puck? What’s he, the gunner?
No, it's just it's just so bad. Everything about it is so bad. I don't even want to talk about the power play anymore. They need to score two or three of the ugliest power-play goals you have ever seen. Goals that are so ugly that you will be convinced that they mean nothing toward pulling this team out of its power-play funk and yet they'll actually mean everything.
The other thing is goaltending. This is a whole lot simpler: Tristan Jarry needs to get … mad?
I don't know what it takes for him mentally. He's always been a hard read for me on and off the ice. If it takes getting angry, get angry. If it takes feeling like your job has been threatened, like you finally finally worked your way into a position where you're a No. 1 goalie in the league and all of a sudden Casey DeSmith’s getting all the work and all the wins … then go ahead and get mad. Do whatever it takes. But don't don't just sit with your heels in the back of the crease and let them fling 40-foot wristers by you on the short side. Make a difference. Tell yourself when you're going out on the rink Saturday night on Long Island, 'You know what? I don't care how the rest of the team plays tonight. I really don't. I don't care what quality of chances we give up, I don't care if it's a three-on-none or whatever, I’m going to win this game. When you hear Mike Sullivan say things about DeSmith — it's actually one of the funny patterns about his answers — you’ll always hear him say something about Casey’s competitiveness. Now, with all due respect, if the first thing your coach thinks about you, as a skilled player at the highest level of the game, is about how hard you're trying … chances are excellent you're not all that gifted, OK? He did the same thing last year when Jarry would take Matt Murray's place. Remember this? He’d say it again and again. “We really like his battle out there. He's fighting for the puck. He's fighting to see the puck.” He’d say these things about Jarry partly because they were accurate, but also partly to send a message to Murray that he wasn't doing any of that. He's now doing the same thing to Jarry.
It's plain as day the goaltending needs to get infinitely better. You put these two things into the plus column for the Penguins, you're gonna see a pretty good hockey team.