Kovacevic: Even within Sid's scoring struggle, his top priority held firm

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- "I'm still learning, and this is a new scenario for me to go through."

This was Sidney Crosby, Nov. 18 in Montreal, when I'd asked how it felt to finally score his first goal of the season after wrist surgery and COVID had pretty much wrecked all his usual prep.

"I mean, I've come back from injury but never that long missing camp and going through stuff with the virus," he continued. "So it's hard to be patient. But you kind of have to be. And it's a lot easier when you get a win to kind of get through it."

That right there, my friends, is one infinitesimal slice of what makes this individual so extraordinary.

He knows who he is. He knows where his bar should be. He knows his broader priority.

He also knows reality. He wasn't about to get up to game speed in a figurative finger-snap and, in fact, he didn't. He also wasn't about to ping beer cans off crossbars with the first bucket of pucks dropped at his feet and, in fact, he didn't. That goal in Montreal would be his only one through eight games and, until a week ago, he'd have only a handful through nearly half the team's season. As in, five through 37 games.

Which, per his own projection a couple months ago, would require a whole lot of patience and a whole lot of winning 'to kind of get through it.'

Which, on this Friday night at Nationwide Arena, played out like this:

Sid's 12th career hat trick.

His third, fourth and fifth goals in the past three games, doubling the season total.

And oh, yeah, Penguins 5, Blue Jackets 2.

Four wins in a row, 15 wins amid the past 17 games, 25-10-5 overall and -- get this -- 20-4-1 since that same night in Montreal.

Small wonder that, for the first time all season, he smiled at least a little when I asked him after this game to acknowledge there's been some frustration, some scorer's pride that was wounded along the way:

"Yeah, it would've been nice to see more go in before that, but I wouldn't say I let it change the way I played or affect me too much," he'd reply. "I think you understand that you keep getting chances and looks, and you've got to trust it'll go in. Easier said than done sometimes, but I think, for the most part, I just tried to kind of play the right way, play through it, take whatever play was there, you know?"

I definitely know.

Watch this, from the first period and before any of his goals:

That up there represents playing the right way, playing through it, taking whatever play was there, etc.

But there's more to it.

See, earlier in the day here, I'd asked Mike Sullivan what, if any, emphasis his coaching staff would put upon the Penguins' sagging defensive net-front work over the past five games, beginning in Los Angeles and probably peaking Thursday night in that putrid 6-4 win over the Senators, who might as well have been paying rent toward Tristan Jarry's crease.

Sullivan's answer: "I think we had a pretty substantive discussion this morning at our team meetings. With respect to that, I think we're a team that, when we play collectively as a group on both sides of the puck, I think we're very competitive. And we can be as stingy as any team in the league defensively, when we're connected with respect to what everybody's job is and the commitment to playing the game a certain way. And when we get away from it, I think like most teams, we can be very ordinary, and I thought that was the case yesterday."

Digging into details, he'd add, "In the defensive zone, our defensemen are drifting away from the net, maybe chasing sticks into the high ice when they don't need to, I think our sort-outs when we track back into our coverage and cutting our skating down and stopping and defending inside out and protecting the good ice ... I don't think we've been as diligent there."

Simple translation for newcomers to this beautiful game: Protect the house. Keep all intruders -- and their puck -- to the perimeter.

"So a lot of it boils down to just attention to detail, understanding what your job is, and then a commitment to do it consistently. As I said to the players this morning, the good news about that is for me, we know we're capable. It's about a mindset and attitude and a conscious effort to play the game the right way. As long as those are there, I think I think those are very solvable quickly."

What Sullivan didn't say was that the best way to press fast-forward on that process is to have the resident generational talent become Exhibit A. Even though he's who he is. Even though he's a forward. Even though his own game -- and pride and ego -- would benefit far more from hanging up ice and hoping for a few golden chances.

I told Sid I'd noticed that shift that's shown above and asked if Sullivan's emphasis might've influenced that.

"Sometimes the D aren't going to be there, and the center, the wingers end up coming down and helping out," he'd reply casually. "It's all five guys trying to help and either get stick on puck or get bodies and make sure that you box guys out. It's totally a team thing. We've got to be good in front of our net."

And how'd that meet the coach's satisfaction?

"I thought it was night and day," Sullivan would come right back. "I definitely think we made progress there. I still think there's areas where we can get better, but I thought the commitment standpoint, in playing defense and defending our net front, was much better."

The same, I'll bet, will be spoken of the Penguins' next sagging area. Because the same solution will be applied at the outset.

Never forget that, for all of Sidney Patrick Crosby's voluminous statistical achievements, that he himself legitimately sees his legacy as one of winning. For Pittsburgh. For Canada. For Rimouski. For the span of his spectacular career.

No solo slump supersedes that.

• Tristan Jarry was awesome in relief, Casey DeSmith awful again as starter. Taylor Haase has that.

It's professional and probably fair that Sullivan absolved DeSmith because he's freshly back from a symptomatic COVID bout, but I can't be convinced that this coach hasn't given up on this goaltender. And I further can't be convinced that he shouldn't give up on him.

DeSmith's shown us all what he is often enough that, eventually, we'll all believe him.

• Even if Louis Domingue emerges as a capable backup -- and bear in mind, Sullivan still had no update on his injury status after being hurt in the morning skate Thursday back home -- Ron Hextall needs, now more than ever, to scour the NHL's trade market for goaltending depth.

Hextall was here, by the way. He watched this. He witnessed firsthand whatever message Sullivan might've been sending with that hook.

• This performance wasn't perfect, as Sullivan pointed out. But the Blue Jackets' 25 shots on goal were the fewest by any opponent since Jan. 6 in Philadelphia, and their nine high-danger scoring chances were one more than the Senators had the previous night in the first period alone.

• Additionally noteworthy within Sid's showing is that he carved out all kinds of time and space for himself to set up Brian Dumoulin's icebreaking goal 32 seconds after the puck dropped and, not to be overlooked, the HT was achieved with this striking empty-netter:

No way he called the bank shot there, right?

"I was just trying to throw it over there so Rusty could skate into it," Sid explained, referring to Bryan Rust's rush up the right side. "I didn't even expect it to go in. I expected that he was gonna go straight, and he ended up coming to the middle, and I missed him. So I was more upset that I was going to get an icing out of it. For it to go in was a big bonus."

Show of hands: Who believes him?

• For the record, respectfully, I don't believe Sid when he downplays his frustration with the lack of goals until recently. It was too obvious at times, even in some of his words.

Dumoulin's thoughts on the matter: "He's always been there, so it's tough for him when things aren't going in. He's hit a lot of posts, he's had a lot of chances and they just haven't gone in. And now you can see this building confidence for him. He's creating a lot of offensive zone time, wearing teams down. I mean, he's getting tough matchups every night, so he's playing a great game right now. And even before that, when pucks weren't going in, he was driving play for us. It's good to see him get rewarded with a hat trick tonight."

• Mike Matheson's morphing into a cheat code before our very eyes.

And his teammates' eyes:

• I'd highlight that the Penguins' 14-5-3 road record now accounts for 31 points, second-most in the NHL, except that this felt like anything but a road game. This wasn't a #ColumbusInvasion, if anyone remembers those, as much as it was a #ColumbusOccupation. At least half the place was pulling for Pittsburgh, to the extreme that the Blue Jackets' in-game entertainment host at one point jokingly thanked the capacity crowd of 18,477 "for contributing to our local economy."

• By the way, the overall record's now 5-1 since the return of noted chemistry-killer Evgeni Malkin. And all he put to paper on this night was a team-high 71.74 Corsi For percentage, on the ice for 33 Pittsburgh shot attempts and 13 for Columbus.

• Sid and Geno now are tied for second place in franchise history with their 12 hat tricks. Mario Lemieux had ... 40.

• Spinning back one final time to that game in Montreal: The Penguins walked into Bell Centre at 5-6-4 and 25th in the NHL's overall standings. They're now one point out of first place in the Metro and sixth in the NHL, six points behind the No. 1 Panthers.

• Kris Letang's assist on Dumoulin's goal extended his career-high points streak to 10 games, just in time for his 900th career game Sunday at PPG Paints Arena against the Jets:

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Nationwide Arena:

1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
2. Brian Dumoulin, Penguins
3. Boone Jenner, Blue Jackets

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Louis Domingue, goaltender, was put on IR after he was struck in the foot by a puck at the morning skate Thursday. Sullivan did not have an update on Domingue's status here Saturday.

• Drew O'Connor, forward, was put on LTIR retroactive to Jan. 15. He's week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

• Jason Zucker, forward, was put on IR on Thursday and is considered week-to-week. It's the same nagging lower-body injury that had him out before his return in Las Vegas.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Kapanen
Simon-Carter-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel

And for Brad Larsen's Blue Jackets:

Laine-Jenner-Voracek
Nyquist-Kuraly-Bjorkstrand
Chinakhov-Texier-Bemstrom
Robinson-Roslovic-Domi

Werenski-Peke
Bayreuthier-Bean
Carlsson-Christiansen

THE SCHEDULE

Next up: Winnipeg!

THE CONTENT

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