Picture the scene: Evgeni Malkin's churning through center ice with that awesome, authoritative stride, accompanied by that distinctly deep cutting sound, while defenders all around him are either blurring out or backing off. It's a between-the-blue-lines creation that only he and a handful of others in hockey are capable of carving out.
Know the one I'm referencing?
Wait, no need to visualize. Just watch:
Never, ever gets old.
That was Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, in the first period of the Penguins' eventual 1-0 shutout of the Sabres that ended their regular season at 37-16-3 and, coupled with the Capitals failing to beat the Flyers in regulation later in the night, clinched first place in the East Division.
And this, too:
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Man, that's impressive stuff in light of the NHL-high 258 man-games lost to injury, the round-the-clock COVID-19 challenges, the sluggish start that was compounded by Jim Rutherford walking out the door, and so much more.
It's also important stuff, this newest banner that'll be hung from the rafters, in light of maybe needing a jolt of validation after winning one whole game over their past two playoff years. It'd been a while since any of the standard achievements around here, relatively speaking, and it's felt at times like the foundational light might've been flickering.
"It's hard to win in this league unless it's a team effort, a collective effort," Mike Sullivan would say after this game, hours before the clinching, but with enough of a serious tone that he might well have been processing all of that. "You're not gonna win with one or two or three players scoring their way through a season. The league's just too hard. When you look at Stanley Cup championship teams, they're teams in the truest sense of the term. Part of that's the chemistry that takes place off the ice. Part of it's what you see on the ice."
He paused slightly.
"We think we've become a team."
What a story. What a franchise. And you bet, what a team.
Good for Sullivan, who should be a shoo-in for the Jack Adams Award, and his new staff. Good for Sidney Crosby, who captained this shaken ship through all those storms. Good for Ron Hextall, mostly for avoiding any selfish temptation to impose his imprint on an already clicking roster but also for acquiring the author of the afternoon's lone goal:
And sure, good for Rutherford, whose offseason moves multiplied the group's speed, altered that coaching staff and player chemistry, and addressed countless other flaws.
But I'm worried. And unless I'm suddenly awful at reading a room, so's this team's fan base.
Let's swing back to Geno, OK?
That sequence illustrated above wound up with Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson backpedaling almost out to Fifth Avenue before jamming a stick into Geno's front skate and earning a tripping penalty. Geno was about to inside-out this 20-year-old kid and make a hard drive back into the slot. And he's been that way, from a skating standpoint, for the better part of the four games since his return.
He's fine. And he'll be fine, meaning his health. He was held out of the final nine minutes after colliding leg-on-leg with the Sabres' Dylan Cozens and evidently fearing some recurrence of the knee injury that just had him out 23 games. But Sullivan was emphatic afterward that nothing meaningful was amiss.
"Geno thought he tweaked something on that collision," were Sullivan's exact words. "He got checked out afterward and felt fine. We don't anticipate any issues moving forward. We held him out for precautionary reasons."
Wonderful.
And I'm still worried. Not about Geno being 34, or being hurt, or needing a ton of time to get up to speed, as happened back at season's outset but, rather, about this:
This isn't a criticism. It can't be any picnic coming back from a layoff that long. But it is a fair observation in the context of Game 1 coming up this week. Because these types of misfires and turnovers have been every bit as common as the encouraging skating, and time's ticking.
So yeah, I'm worried about that.
I'm worried about the power play being the NHL's very best when Jared McCann took Malkin's place on the top unit and, since his return, looking like a whole lot less with McCann waiting for the second unit to collect crumbs.
I'm worried about the respective injury statuses of Brandon Tanev and Mike Matheson, particularly if the Islanders line up for the first round, since both bring precisely the raw, dangerous speed that's needed to poke holes in Barry Trotz's trap.
I'm worried that Tristan Jarry's entering his first playoff as a No. 1. It's impossible to know if we'll see the passive Jarry from this season's first and last months, or the aggressive, outstanding version from the middle two months.
I'm worried, as ever, about which Kris Letang will show.
I'm worried, even, about the potential weeklong layoff between now and Game 1, as Gary Bettman and his ace crew have yet to announce a schedule on the apparent eve of the actual event. Welcome as it'll be to buy healing time for Tanev, Matheson and maybe Malkin, not to mention a breather for Sid, the memory's too fresh of how the Penguins fared against the Canadiens following four months off.
Above all, though, I'm worried about the tightness.
This might seem unfair when assessing a team that recorded shutouts in three of its final nine games, but it hasn't been since the first of that stretch -- the fabulous 1-0 victory over the Bruins here April 25 -- that we've seen the Sullivan system deployed at full-blast. And by that, I'm referring principally to the multiple bodies, multiple stick blades, multiple everything he prefers to see roaming the rink in a tight pack, making smart, simple choices while supporting to the extreme.
That's not just defense. It's all 200x85. But since puck possession's the most effective -- and fun -- form of defense, it might as well be.
My hope for this finale against the sickly Sabres was that the Penguins would set aside the freewheeling that fed the 8-4 romp Thursday night and focus instead on defending, preferably through puck possession. And while the score might suggest they did that ... they didn't. Buffalo finished with a 29-23 edge in shots -- which was 23-9 at one stage -- as well as 44-38 in shot attempts and 10-8 in high-danger chances.
As Marcus Pettersson replied bluntly when I brought this up, "We don't want to be a team that goes back and forth, trading chances. We want to create offense from our defense, like we've been talking about all year. I don't think we were at our sharpest here."
Nope:
Hate to pick on Cody Ceci, as he's been exceptional. But this exchange in the first period conveniently collects so much badness I couldn't resist: Letang handcuffs Ceci with an awkward pass to his forehand, McCann's gliding off on a change, Sid and Bryan Rust bolt straight for the Buffalo zone off the bench, and there's just all kinds of looseness that leads to Max Lagace having to come up big on Jeff Skinner's redirect and too many more. quality attempts.
These games against these garbage opponents aren't any fun. The other guys are polishing golf clubs and forgoing all caution. It can be unsettling to any structure. But there's still been a little too much of it of late.
Look, the Penguins can get back to the level of that Boston game, but it's tough to see how that builds up through a week of even the most intensive practices. When this team's at its peak, it's commanding the puck with the ease of breathing, though that's historically not come with the snap of a finger. It's been a gradual ascent.
I asked Sullivan, if he could exempt this game, if he liked where his team stands in this regard.
"Well, we like how our game has grown over the course of the year," he replied. "I think, for the most part, if you look back over the past six weeks, we've gotten better at our team game. I think some of our newer guys are more familiar with how we're trying to play. We're trying to cast guys in certain roles, and just how we utilize the bench. We're playing certain guys in certain situations, and I think they're more aware of what their contribution is toward helping the team win."
His voice raised a bit there.
"You know, we really like the group we've assembled here. They're real good people. I think they're a tight group. They play hard for one another. And we think we have sufficient depth here."
Notice how he carried this discussion into the playoffs?
That's very much who he is. Eyes on the prize, always.
"We're excited about the opportunity that's in front of us. We know how difficult it is. We know we're going to have to go out and earn it each game. But we look forward to what's next. We've done the heavy lifting to this point to earn the privilege to compete for the Stanley Cup. Now the fun starts. And for me, the most rewarding part is the journey. I look forward to this next part of it."
Anyone else?
