"If you have the open ice, obviously, you're going to take it."
This was but a slice of John Marino's answer when I asked about his coast-to-coast assists on both of the Penguins' goals in besting the Islanders yet again, 2-1, Monday night at PPG Paints Arena. And yet, it was maybe a more representative slice than he might've realized, as applied to what wound up a laughably lopsided season series between these teams.
As in, Pittsburgh six wins, New York two.
As in, Pittsburgh with the wraparound weekend series sweep for the capper.
As in, Barry Trotz really, really hated it.
"I didn't think they had anything after the first period," he curiously spoke of the Penguins after this one, as if the opening 20 minutes were warmups. "They had 10 or 11 chances, by my count, and they had seven of those in the first period. I thought we did a pretty good job. But we fell short. That’s the bottom line."
Yeah, so's this:
Wild, huh?
I called the Islanders the class of the East entering the winter, and that wasn't exactly a reach. They'd just reached the conference final last summer in the Canadian bubble-hockey tournament, losing to the eventual champion Lightning. And into this season, they're the NHL's No. 1 defensive team with one of the league's most electric talents in Mat Barzal, a deep, gifted and gutty supporting cast, and they've used that to take down ... well, everyone else.
Record vs. Everyone Else: 20-5-2
Record vs. Pittsburgh: See above
Record vs. Everyone Else in March: 11-2
Record vs. Pittsburgh in March: Have a nice flight home
Vaunted defense vs. Everyone Else: 2.07 GAA
Vaunted defense vs. Pittsburgh: 3.13 GAA
Hey, glance up at those standings again and tell me this won't be the first-round matchup in the playoffs this summer. Presuming the Capitals keep going as they are, anyway, though it's worth dropping here that the Penguins aren't exactly struggling against them, either, at 4-2.
Trotz, more than anyone, should hope to heck he can avoid it.
Let's revisit Marino's answer and rewind some footage to see why. And because the Penguins were proficient only in the first period, per Trotz -- as opposed to all season long when they see his club -- I'll limit the scope of this study to just that:
That's Marino covering nearly the entire 200 feet of ice. And he achieves this, in large part, because the Penguins' scouting on the Islanders shows -- as does the naked eye in the above video -- that they'll give up anything so long as it isn't the vertical middle of the rink. They'll skate back, back, back, and never commit to the outside.
Watch the Islanders' Brock Nelson, then Scott Mayfield, both having chances to cut off Marino, but neither daring to venture out of Trotz territory.
Reprising Marino himself, "If you have the open ice, obviously, you're going to take it."
He did. He just kept going, pulling a Paul Coffey by ringing around the net and finding the forward out front in big Anthony Angello.
This was a few minutes later, and this was my favorite:
That, my friends, isn't happenstance. That's as choreographed as hockey gets. And it's gorgeous.
Kris Letang does some dipsy-doodling in his own zone, dishes across to Brian Dumoulin to buy another tick or two, gets it back and ... lo and behold, there's Bryan Rust winding all the way back into the Pittsburgh zone to rev up his motor for a solo tour through the neutral zone. The Penguins' fastest skater -- with Kasperi Kapanen out, anyway -- approaches the Islanders' standard Stonehenge formation with enough speed that he's easily able to excuse-me past a flat-footed Ross Johnston, then back off the New York defense for a commanding zone entry and setup.
That's right, I said Stonehenge:
ENGLISH HERITAGE SOCIETY
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England.
The trap's got no counter for a puck-carrier with raw speed. Mario Lemieux used to talk about this all the time back when Jacques Lemaire was busy ruining hockey in the Meadowlands. The trap's aim is to create triangles around the initial puck-carrier and cut off the most likely passing lanes: One defender goes at the puck-carrier, the other two support from either flank. Hence, the triangle.
Watch, for instance, what the Islanders did to Evan Rodrigues later in the period:
He had no palatable options. Couldn't skate through it. Couldn't pass through it. But, rather than try something stupid -- the trap's ultimate prey -- he softly slid the puck behind the New York defense and forced both to bust tail to go back and get it.
That scene played out multiple times in these two games, including later in the same period on a Sidney Crosby rush that brought a shot off the bar.
Put bluntly, this is a bad matchup for the Islanders. As it tends to be for anyone comfortable handing the Penguins sizable swaths of ice. They're the mongoose to the trap's snake. Sullivan's aware of this, and he's preached to his players about it for years and, thanks to Jim Rutherford adding so much speed over the offseason, he's once again weaponized to make it work.
I couldn't help but bring this up with the coach afterward, while, of course, not pressing him to disrespectfully dump on the Islanders. Can't recommend watching this strongly enough:
"It's something we'd like to do to everybody. We think that's one of the strengths of our team," he began, referencing speed through the neutral zone. "We're trying to implement tactics that allow us to generate that type of speed through the neutral zone."
Confirmed, then.
"That's when the players have got to execute and make the right decision to make sure we're not making a high-risk decision with the puck."
Meaning the stupid thing Rodrigues smartly avoided.
"I think our players are doing a terrific job of making decisions through that neutral zone right now. The Islanders make it hard on you to come through that zone with speed. They have numbers back a lot."
Stonehenge.
"And it's important for us to recognize where the opportunity is to create offense. Is it keeping the puck across the blue line and making a play? Or, if they've got numbers back, is it playing the puck behind the defense and creating your offense by forcing a turnover? We want to utilize our speed with the puck, but it's got to be the right way. I think when we play like this between the blue lines, it makes our team a whole lot more difficult to play against."
The guy's good.
The Penguins are about to embark for Boston and a six-game, 11-day trip against the Bruins, Rangers and Devils.
Next up for the Islanders: Everyone Else. Bet on Barry's boys.
