The Penguins' identity has been built around offense for more than three decades.
That's what happens when a team has all-time talents like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the payroll.
Oh, and Paul Coffey and Ron Francis and Jake Guentzel and Joe Mullen and Kris Letang and Kevin Stevens and ... well, you get the idea.
But even the Penguins have not been immune to the simple reality that defense wins championships, that a team can't simply score its way to a Stanley Cup.
Consider the Penguins' goals-against (per game) average and league rankings during their five title runs:
1991 -- 2.83 (2nd)
1992 -- 3.00 (6th)
2009 -- 2.67 (5th)
2016 -- 2.29 (3rd)
2017 -- 2.28 (5th)
It's not that the Penguins have had to mimic, say, the 1995 New Jersey Devils, who played as if any score higher than 1-0 reflected a Wild West shootout, to win during the postseason; superior skill has worked in their favor a lot.
But teams that survive in the playoffs have to be responsible defensively, and while the Penguins have shown that they effectively can shut down opponents, they also have been guilty of some shaggy defensive work, including a few recent games.
Giving 29 shots -- and quite a few quality scoring chances -- to Buffalo on Saturday couldn't have pleased Mike Sullivan and his staff. Giving the Sabres four goals last Thursday and Philadelphia seven three days earlier couldn't have been well-received, either.
The Penguins allowed an average of 2.77 goals per game during the regular season, which puts them 12th in the league rankings, at least for the moment.
Their Round 1 opponent -- be it the New York Islanders or Boston -- has been considerably more stingy; the Islanders currently place first (2.22) and Boston is fourth (2.41).
The Penguins figure to test those team defenses; they averaged 3.45 goals per game during the regular season, more than any team except Colorado, which is averaging 3.47. The Avalanche must score 10 goals in its final three games to overtake the Penguins' total of 193, and Vegas could do it, too, if the Golden Nights generate 10 goals in their final two games.
But although the Penguins' offense is deeper and more balanced than that of either Boston or the Islanders, which is a significant advantage, defensive discipline and judgment and attention to detail will have more of an impact on their success in the playoffs than anything except goaltending.
That's a lesson from history that can't be ignored.
• Washington made one of the most significant deals at the trade deadline when it acquired Anthony Mantha from Detroit, and it looked like a shrewd move when Mantha scored in each of his first four games. Trouble is, Mantha doesn't have a goal in the nine that have followed his hot start and Jakub Vrana -- who was quite productive against the Penguins during his days in Washington -- thrived after being sent to the Red Wings, putting up eight goals (three of them game-winners) in 11 games. And Vrana wasn't all the Capitals gave up to get Mantha; Detroit GM Steve Yzerman also got forward Richard Panik, a first-round draft choice this year and a second-rounder in 2022. While a strong playoff by Mantha still could validate the trade for Washington, the early results skew heavily in Detroit's favor.
• This is the ninth time the Penguins have earned a division championship, but they have gone on to win the Stanley Cup after only one of the previous eight. That was in 1991, when they claimed the franchise's first in both categories. They won the Cup after finishing second in their division three times (2009, 2016 and 2017) and third once (1992). Their division titles: Patrick (1991, 1993), Northeast (1994, 1996 and 1998), Atlantic (2008), Atlantic (2013), Metropolitan (2014) and East (2021).
• It remains to be seen whether the New York Rangers' stunning decision to fire team president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton a few days ago will set back the team's efforts to construct a contender, but there's plenty of reason to believe it will not. Chris Drury, a potential replacement for Jim Rutherford this winter before withdrawing his name from consideration, has replaced Gorton and is highly regarded. More important, the Rangers already have collected an impressive group of talent, much of it young. If Drury can add some grit to complement the skills of guys like Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich, among others, the Rangers will be legitimate Cup contenders in the near future. And grit is a whole lot easier to obtain than elite-level talent.
• It might seem obvious, but that was a smart move by Sullivan to get Chad Ruhwedel some work during the regular-season finale Saturday. Ruhwedel wouldn't be the first option to work on the left side -- Mike Matheson, if healthy, will be there when the playoffs begin and Mark Friedman is the favorite to step in if/when someone on the left gets hurt -- but Ruhwedel hadn't been in a game since March 16 and almost certainly will be needed if the Penguins make more than a cursory appearance in the postseason. Although Ruhwedel is accustomed to being out of the lineup for extended stretches, giving him the opportunity to refresh his muscle memory in game situations could pay off the next time he's in uniform.
• Buffalo goalie Michael Houser, the Youngstown native who spent his formative years in Wexford, never faced an NHL shot until last week, when he was 28 and injuries forced the Sabres to reach deep into their depth chart; he responded by going 2-2, including a stellar showing in a 1-0 loss to the Penguins Saturday. Maxime Lagace got into his first game with the Penguins Saturday, only because Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith were injured, and posted a 29-save shutout. There's no way of knowing now whether Houser or Lagace has steady NHL work in his future, but based on what they did when given the opportunity during the past week, both deserve an opportunity to prove they can handle it.
• Don't look for Boston coach Bruce Cassidy to act on it, but he could go a long way toward choosing the team his Bruins will face in Round 1 of the playoffs by virtue of the personnel and tactical decisions he makes in the final two regular-season games. If Cassidy had a preference for meeting Washington in the first round, Boston could guarantee that matchup by beating the Islanders at TD Garden Monday, and Cassidy could enhance the chances of that by dressing his best possible lineup and deploying his top players aggressively. If, however, he would rather face the Penguins, he could cut back the workload of guys like Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak in the Islanders game and one in Washington Tuesday, and perhaps do a little experimenting with personnel. Coaches can't tell their players to lose a game -- it's hard to imagine that one would even try -- but they can make winning more difficult for their team. The chances of Cassidy actually doing the latter? A bit worse than those of Marchand being elected mayor of Wilmerding.
• Every season generates some stunning statistics, and this is one of the most eye-catching to come out of 2020-21: Despite having excellent offensive players like Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander, among others, Toronto did not score a power-play goal in its final 14 home games, going 0-for-30 since a 1-for-2 performance in a 4-3 loss to Winnipeg at Scotiabank Arena March 9. That drought includes no fewer than three games in which the Maple Leafs had four chances with the man-advantage.
• Give non-playoff clubs such as Buffalo, Philadelphia and the Rangers credit for producing quality efforts in the waning days of the regular season, even though there was nothing of consequence for them to accomplish. The Sabres beat the Islanders twice, the Flyers defeated the Penguins and Capitals and the Rangers pulled out of a five-game tailspin that included the most recent incident involving Tom Wilson by recording a 5-4 victory in Boston Saturday. Those performances speak well of the professional integrity of the players involved.
• Forget Jared McCann recording a team-high seven power-play goals despite playing primarily on the No. 2 unit or Letang putting up as many assists as Crosby (38) or Teddy Blueger's three shorthanded goals. This is the most impressive number the Penguins put up this season: Zero. That's how many man-games they lost because of players contracting COVID-19. Good luck has something to do with that -- after all, a player could easily get the virus from a spouse or child who picked it up in a store or school -- but so does a commitment to abide by health guidelines established by the league and health officials. The discipline needed for young men with a lot of money to stay out of social settings that could have exposed them to the virus can only work in the Penguins' favor for however long their playoff run lasts.
