Oh, yeah. Still. Very much so.
No sooner had the Penguins peeled themselves off the PPG Paints Arena ice on this Tuesday night, minutes removed from a maddening 4-3 overtime loss to the Capitals, than I'd asked Evgeni Malkin to share his expectations for this team. Not in the moment, within a four-game losing streak, but all the way at the finish line. Big scope 'n' at.
"You see, when we play our best game," began the flinch-free reply, "nobody, no team stopped us."
Exactly. That.
Before I share the rest of his response, that singular trait's the same one that leaps up at me at this All-Star break that's now formally underway.
Yeah, the 27-11-8 record and solidified standing in the Metro are impressive ...
DKPS
... especially in light of that 5-6-4 start, the endless run of injuries and illnesses and, lest anyone forget, the engulfing worries about Tristan Jarry alone entering the 2021-22 NHL season.
Well, here we are four months later, and the Penguins' 62 points rank sixth in the league, their 3.30 goals per game rank ninth, their 2.59 goals-against per game rank fourth, their power play's 22.1% success rate ranks 11th, their penalty-kill's 87.5% rate ranks second, the team's stars are back and blistering, the supporting cast's been better than most had anticipated ... and all anyone needs to know about Jarry is that he won't exactly be vacationing this week in Las Vegas.
So yeah, I'll reiterate it here with gusto, reprised from the Jan. 6 column that ran atop this site: Hey, Pittsburgh, you've got one hell of a hockey team here.
And don't let any noise distract from that. Because that's what this silly, stupid losing streak's become. It's the same type of small-sample-size noise that financial advisors warn investors against taking seriously.
Beyond that, they're tired.
As in T-I-R-E-D.
They can't cite that as some primary explanation because it comes across as making an excuse. I can and will: Coming out of that unscripted two-week COVID break at December's end, these guys just completed an absurd stretch of 16 games in 31 days spanning the entire continent. And the last eight of those games came in just 13 days, with never more than an idle day in between.
Just in case anyone's wondering how a hell of a hockey team can lose on back-to-back nights to the Kraken and Red Wings, then get uncharacteristically loose in losing to the Kings, then going completely bonkers against the Capitals only to get stoned by a sizzling goaltender.
To the players' credit, they've found ways to get the point across without sounding whiny.
"The break's much needed," Jake Guentzel said after this one.
"It'll be great," John Marino essentially echoed. "Everyone gets to recharge the batteries, get away from it, come back with kind of a fresh mind. I think everyone's looking forward to it."
Yep. End analysis. See everyone a week from now in Boston.
More on the game itself below.
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Kasperi Kapanen can't get a shot behind the Capitals' Ilya Samsonov in the second period.
• If anything, these Penguins earned all the praise Mike Sullivan heaped on them in the locker room, then in his media session.
Listen to how strongly he responded when I asked him to assess his team's performance.
"I thought it was the best game we played in a while," he began, enunciating those final few syllables for effect. "I thought our energy level was tremendous. I thought we were playing on our toes. I thought we controlled territory. We generated a number of scoring chances. Our power play was dynamic. For me, it had all of the ingredients, I think, that makes the identity of the Penguins what it is. It's unfortunate we didn't get the result. We had a few breakdowns. I thought Washington was opportunistic and they scored on them. But I thought for the most part, we really liked our team game. And that's what I told the players after the game."
Good luck arguing any of that: The Penguins outshot the Capitals, 47-32, and attempted 79 shots, including those that missed or were blocked. That's more than a shot attempt a minute. It's staggering.
"Everything that we can control, we did," Sullivan said. "We just didn't get the result. For me, that's hockey. We're going to have to live with it. My hope and what I said to the guys after the game is, if we put that game on the ice consistently, we're gonna win a lot of hockey games."
Good luck arguing that, either.
• The difference, of course, was Ilya Samsonov. Dave Molinari has that.
• With respect to Dmitry Orlov, who rushed up from the Washington defense to score twice, including the overtime goal, no player on either side stood out like Malkin. Dave has that, too.
• As promised, Malkin's full answer to my question about his expectations for this team:
And yes, he did single out Brian Boyle as being 'amazing.' Because that's so him.
• When he isn't busy killing the Penguins' chemistry, Malkin's run up five goals and eight assists in a nine-game points streak.
“I’m trying to do my best,” he'd say to that. “I know I can play better, and I will.”
• There's no rational discussion or debate to be had about extending Bryan Rust, a pending unrestricted free agent. It just flat-out has to happen.
Two more goals in this one ...
... and he's up to 14 for the season, all but one of those coming within the past 13 games. And that's to say nothing of the nine shots he pumped on Samsonov.
Cut Kasperi Kapanen. Trade a defenseman. Negotiate wisely with Malkin and/or Kris Letang. But Rust's got to stay.
Anytime it comes up in the context of a question, shoot it down with an elephant gun.
• I'm no longer certain I understand what the Penguins hope to achieve with Kapanen, though Sullivan did admirably reiterate after this that he's continuing to take Kapanen as a personal challenge and urging him, more than anything, to play "between the circles," as he did occasionally in this game.
Blips don't outweigh blown-up patterns, though, and the latter's long since been formed: He's aimless on the ice. All over the place.
Forcing Kapanen onto Malkin's line, as Sullivan did again, feels like a fool's errand.
• Forcing him into three-on-three overtime was that much worse:
Very obviously, Sidney Crosby could've done better to keep Orlov to the perimeter, and Mike Matheson could've been quicker to recognize the danger and, yeah, Jarry could've made a save. So the reason I'm bringing up Kapanen here isn't the goal itself but, rather, that he looked like he didn't belong in three-on-three at all. Just zero awareness of that specific setting.
To make matters worse, it was his giveaway in the Washington zone that handed the Capitals the decisive possession and, on top of that, he stayed on the ice for a full extra shift rather than returning to the bench for Guentzel.
Bad, bad, bad.
• I mentioned above that the Penguins' power play ranks 11th in the NHL, but that comes with a colossal asterisk: With the additional three power-play goals here, they've now got 17 in the 16 games since the calendar's flipped. That's a 33.3% success rate -- 17 for 51 -- that's No. 1 with a bullet.
• If only the suddenly miserable supporting cast would catch up. Don't over think how there've been two five-on-five goals through this four-game losing streak.
Heck, maybe the energy guys are spent while the stars missed too much time to feel the same.
Maybe Evan Rodrigues needs a week in the Aruba sun!
• Thanks for reading, as always!
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Dmitry Orlov, Capitals
2. Ilya Samsonov, Capitals
3. Bryan Rust, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Teddy Blueger, forward, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw Jan. 24. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks.
• Louis Domingue, goaltender, has been on IR since he was struck by a puck in the right foot at a morning skate Jan. 20. He's week-to-week.
• Drew O'Connor, forward, has been on LTIR since Jan. 15 with an upper-body injury. He's week-to-week.
• Jason Zucker, forward, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle Jan. 25. He's week-to-week.
• Danton Heinen, forward, sustained an upper-body injury Sunday in warmups.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McGinn-Malkin-Kapanen
Zohorna-Carter-Rodrigues
Aston-Reese-Boyle-Simon
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
And for Peter Laviolette's Capitals:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Sheary-Backstrom-Sprong
McMichael-Eller-Snively
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
van Riemsdyk-Schultz
THE SCHEDULE
That's it for a week. Taylor Haase has flown to Las Vegas to cover NHL All-Star festivities, and I'll fly to Boston to cover the Penguins' return game next Tuesday at TD Garden.
THE CONTENT
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