There isn't a single matchup I like for the Penguins in the East.
But hey, that's only because, as is becoming increasingly, impressively evident, it won't much matter which team they'll face in the imminent Stanley Cup playoffs.
Not if they keep performing like this:
The final: Penguins 1, Bruins 0.
But please, trust me and probably anyone else among the 4,672 inside PPG Paints Arena on this Sunday afternoon, it wasn't that close.
"Our mindset is that we have to defend hard and the offense will come," Jake Guentzel would say afterward, "and I think we did a good job of that."
"There wasn't a lot of space out there," Mike Sullivan spoke. "You had to fight for every inch, on both sides. From that standpoint, it had a playoff feel to it. I don't think there was a ton of scoring chances on either side. That's just an indication of how hard both teams were trying to defend."
They couldn't be more right.
Forget the score.
Forget the shots, where the visitors had a 30-29 edge.
Forget, even, the high-danger scoring chances, where the home team dominated, 11-2.
Forget all of it, and focus instead on something infinitely more intangible that might've been best evident within the day's defining sequence:
No, not just that. Not just Sidney Crosby's feed or Guentzel's finish that'd account for the lone goal at 4:03 of the third period, though both were sharp.
I'm talking about the whole thing. All 21 terrific ticks of the clock that led up to that. Because it might demonstrate, as much as anything I've witnessed from this fascinating group, how together they've become.
As in, together.
Start with the faceoff at 3:42, following a Boston icing. That afforded Sullivan a chance to smartly deploy his top forward line and top defensive pair against against the Bruins' fourth forward line and second defensive pair, since the latter are forced by rule to stay on the rink.
That advantage should have been neutralized when Crosby lost the draw to Chris Wagner ...
... except that Bryan Rust rushed over to keep Boston defenseman Kevan Miller from clearing, and Crosby did likewise on Sean Kuraly, creating a golden chance for Rust ... that he shot over the bar.
Whatever. Live to fight another day.
The puck comes back around the right wall, and this is where it gets fun:
Brian Dumoulin beats the Bruins' Nick Ritchie to that 50/50 puck. That might seem odd since it's on the right wall and Dumoulin's a left-side defenseman, but Dumoulin and Kris Letang had been switched up on the faceoff, standard practice under Sullivan in hopes of a one-time point shot. So, no big deal there.
But Letang's part was. Because he rightly reads that his partner's gong to get possession, so he positions himself as support right behind Dumoulin.
Both D on the same side?
Doesn't matter in Sullivan's world. Only winning/keeping the puck does. If it's there, which it was, and Letang whipped it right back down the wall behind the goal line.
Wait, this next part's actually everything:
Dumoulin's dutifully hustled back to his left side -- also standard once the faceoff try's off -- and gains body position on Kuraly. And he doesn't try to play the puck as much as preventing Kuraly from getting to it so it can keep going behind him.
A defenseman allowing the puck to get behind him on purpose?
Oh, sure. Because forward support for a pinching defenseman is priority No. 1 in the system, and it's not option. There has to be complete confidence that support will be there. And in this event, it's justified, as Rust, like Letang seconds earlier, rightly reads that Dumoulin's the winner of another race.
Rust beats Wagner to that puck and chips it back down to Dumoulin.
With that, let's toss the narrator's mic to the latter ...
"Tanger had rimmed the puck around, and I saw Guentzy in front of the net coming toward the wall when I pinched," Dumoulin explained. "I got a great reload from Rusty to help keep the puck in, and Guentzy did a great job of presenting himself and being an option there, especially getting into my vision there, where I could see him.:
Whoa. Pause there for a false-modesty alarm. Thumb back up there. Dumoulin's still got Kuraly all over his back. He does extraordinarily well to dish softly and lead Guentzel:
OK, back to No. 8.
"And then Jake and Sid made a great play. You see the chemistry they have, how patient they are together. Most guys would just drive to the net there, but Guentzy did a great job pulling up there to create a lane to get the shot off."
Again, it took 21 seconds, and it took 13 total touches by the Penguins to three by the Bruins.
Not surprisingly, Sullivan loved it. The finish, too.
"It was a goal-scorer's goal and a great setup by Sid," he said. "That's what Jake has the ability to do for us."
Also, not surprisingly, Sullivan's counterpart on the Boston bench hated it, with Bruce Cassidy uncharacteristically ripping both his third and fourth lines afterward.
"If you’re not gonna score, you need to keep the puck outta your net," Cassidy fumed. "Tight games like this, you gotta manage your shift. One one play makes a difference, and you could almost sense it was that type of game. They made it, and we didn’t. We didn’t defend it. There you have it."
Yep. There you have it.
Meaning there you have, followers of the local franchise, what it'll take to win well into the coming summer. Because it isn't just about defending under Sullivan, contrary to some public misperception. It's about pursuing the puck and keeping it. All over the rink. Using as many bodies and sticks as necessary. And understanding, within that, where everyone's supposed to be and why they should be trusted.
That, my friends, more than anything, is why this team's in for-real first place:
No Evgeni Malkin. No Brandon Tanev and a bunch of other forwards the past few weeks. No left-handed defensemen in the opening month. No passable goaltending in that month. No signs of speed or even life for much of that.
But now, first place.
What changed?
Easy. It's what's above.
Everything about the Sullivan way involves fast. As he'd told me earlier in the week, when he speaks of his team being "as fast as any in the league," he's not just referring to skating speed. He's referring to how they think, how they move the puck, how they support.
Count the ticks, count the touches, and it makes sense.
"We're trying to bring this team together, to challenge one another to grow as a group," Sullivan observed. "That's been our approach all along."
As in, together.
So no, I'm not going to suggest the Penguins have some intimidating matchup they need to avoid in the playoffs. Better their opponents should study that sequence up there and ask themselves the same.