Kovacevic: This lineup and any lack of discipline just can't coexist

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Kris Letang could've skated away, should've skated away.

Jean Hebert could've called the first penalty, should've called coincidentals.

Instead, when Letang crunched Carolina's Vince Trocheck with a completely legal check in overtime Friday night at PNC Arena, and the pride of Upper St. Clair came back with a punch to the side of Letang's face, this was what ensued:

1. Cross-check
2. Hook
3. High stick

And that's not even counting Letang's final shove, all of which were dutifully ignored by Trocheck as he waited and waited for Hebert, an 11th-year NHL referee, to raise his right arm. Which Hebert did ... in pointing only Letang toward the penalty box.

To which, 27 ticks later ...

Hurricanes 3, Penguins 2.

Andrei Svechnikov banged a rebound behind Casey DeSmith on the four-on-three power play 3:14 into overtime, and the tale was told exactly as one might expect: Trocheck and his teammates celebrated right outside the crease, Letang bolted out of the box to begin screaming at Hebert -- linesman Brad Kovachik intercepted him to spare him from further possible trouble -- and one of the NHL's top teams was undone by another of the NHL's top teams by virtue of a bad decision and an equally bad call.

And yes, I'll maintain, both are possible.

So did Mike Sullivan, for that matter, when asked afterward if he'd point more to Letang losing his cool or Hebert's call: "I think the answer to the question is both. Kris has to keep his cool."

I followed up by asking why the call couldn't have been matching minors, considering Trocheck's punch: ‘Well, you know, they’re going to call it the way they see it."

Then, after a pause: "I saw it differently."

He sure did. TV replays, combined with some amateur lip-reading, will record that he shouted toward Hebert as the door closed on Letang, "You f---ing blew it!"

Hebert did f---ing blow it. Replays show he was looking right at the entire sequence, no more than 15 feet away at any stage of it, including at Trocheck's punch. His arm never flinched at that. What's more, Hebert and his partner, Kyle Rehman, were an erratic mess all night long, slow and late and off the mark more often than not.

Again, Letang f---ing blew it, too. Obviously. And the clear separation between this brain cramp and that of any on-ice official here or anywhere is that there isn't a blessed thing the Penguins can do about the latter. 

I'm not about to make a big deal out of this. It's one lousy lapse amid a season in which this team's still the league's least penalized, averaging 6:52 per game -- no one else is below seven minutes, and only six others are below eight minutes -- and the season happens to be a huge success to date.

And yet, this also feels like a fine time for such a lesson.

Remember when we were all lauding Sidney Crosby and the entire cast for all their ruggedness in shutting out the Rangers a week ago?

Nothing wrong with that, of course. It was an "emotional" game, as Sullivan and others conceded, and the home team performed with as much passion as precision. Playoff hockey 'n' at. Besides, it was a sight to behold, arguably the winter's most entertaining game at PPG Paints Arena.

How about every time Mark Friedman annoyed someone?

Or Letang engaging in his first fight in four years in Tampa?

Nothing wrong with those, either. In isolation.

But the cold splash of water that'll come for any group that's got its game founded on discipline is that it's hard to pick and choose when to apply the principle. It's either set in place, or it isn't.

Think about it: The Penguins are the league's least penalized team because their head coach insists they focus their energy -- including emotional energy -- on winning the game rather than exacting revenge. It's anything but a coincidence. They'll seldom run around chasing trouble, regardless of the score, and they're far more likely to behave as Trocheck doing following Letang's first whack than ... well, the way Letang behaved.

"This stinks," Marcus Pettersson told me after this one, glaring through the response:

I believe him. It was easy to see, easy to feel throughout all of the postgame interview sessions that the Penguins took this one exceptionally hard.

Presumably because they realized why they wound up on the wrong side of it.

• Letang wasn't made available to reporters afterward. The players who spoke were Pettersson, DeSmith and Jake Guentzel.

Reporters having locker room access makes a massive difference toward coverage. Here's hoping it returns, particularly now that everyone associated with the Penguins is now working without a mask in all settings.

• Trocheck did speak, saying of the Letang incident, "Yeah, it's definitely nice to get a power play. Especially in overtime." 

And really, not much more. No bragging or boasting, even though he was asked about it twice by Raleigh reporters.

But it sure was appreciated by Rod Brind'Amour and Trocheck's teammates in the locker room, with the coach saying in his direction, "Troch ... huge, baby:"

• DeSmith kept this one from going to Carolina in regulation, for sure, stopping 37 of 39 shots, including 15 of 16 high-danger chances.

"I feel like I'm playing like I know how," he'd say afterward. "I mean, this isn't going to take away from my confidence. I'll continue to build off this."

That's fair.

Whereas, it's likely unfair that I could point out any number of things that Tristan Jarry does that would've prevented the Hurricanes' second and third goals. So nope, I won't do that.

Here's Guentzel's assessment of DeSmith instead: "Phenomenal. I mean, he played an outstanding game. He kept us in the game the whole time. I'm really happy to see him play that well. Just wish we could've gotten two points for him."

• These are the updated Metro standings after this meeting of the top two residents:

DKPS

Don't be weeping over that. Remember, instead, everyone's dire forecasts from a few months ago, and count the comparative blessings.

Also, bear in mind that this team just claimed five of six points from the Rangers, Lightning and Hurricanes, with the first two of those delivering two of the season's finest performances.

Sullivan mustered a kind word for the point, even if it came across like he was self-extracting a molar.

"It's a hard-fought point tonight," he'd say. "I thought we played one of our more complete games last night in Tampa, we get three out of four points on the trip, we would've liked to have gotten four, but we're playing good teams. We're gonna keep fighting. We're gonna try to get better every day. We'll see what we can learn from this one."

Next up: The Panthers, back home Tuesday night. And they might be better than anyone.

"We'll get ready for the next one. You know, we've got a tough schedule coming up, and I think it's a good thing. I said this to our to our players. I think it's good because it's going to help us be at our best and make us a better hockey team."

• For what it's worth, the Penguins erupted in the opening period of this game as if it were a carryover from Tampa, outscoring the Hurricanes, 2-0, and owning nine of the 10 high-danger chances.

Two sweet setups for the goals, to boot:

That Sid goal ... dropping to one knee, surrounded by four dark sweaters ... just keep filing stuff away for the statue.

Still, the star between those two is the Pettersson pass, which he described, "I was gonna shoot it at first, but then I saw Jake kind of behind the net. I figured he's gonna be alone, so try just put it there and the goalie bit on it, fortunately."

He's so solid. And slicker offensively than most realize. Remember, it was his sharp feed that set up Dominik Simon's slam dunk a couple weeks ago. No small feat coaxing a goal from Simon.

• That play aside, Sid's line was smoked most of the evening, on the ice for six shot attempts at five-on-five to the Hurricanes' 23. The reason: Brind'Amour made sure they were matched mostly against his top line of Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, who were on the ice for 25 shot attempts for the Hurricanes and ... uh, four for the Penguins.

They aren't the best line in hockey, but they're entering the chat.

• Teddy Blueger's so sorely missed. When he's in the lineup, Sullivan's using him against the Aho line and freeing Sid's line to score. Without him, Sullivan flat-out doesn't trust other lines in these roles and simply hopes Sid's line can win on possession.

• I've picked on Kasperi Kapanen enough that I'm comfortable praising his approach over the past four games, particularly the part where he’s attacked the game in a linear way.

That said, he's now at zero goals in his past 16 games, one in his past 23 games.

I asked Sullivan after this one his impressions of late, and he didn't exactly leap up with excitement: "Yeah, he shows moments when he's playing the game that he's capable of playing. And he has the ability to have an impact on the game. You know, his speed is noticeable. I thought last night in Tampa he was really good,  very noticeable. And I thought he had moments tonight. But we'd like to see it be a little more consistent."

• Anyone who comes from Pittsburgh comes from a real place. A place of character, of culture, of rooted identity.

That's how scenes like this occur:

I snapped up my iPhone to shoot that immediately after Sid's goal. Took my breath away. Does that every time I'm here. Or Sunrise. Or Glendale. Or most anywhere that our city's teams visit, but especially those that don't/can't have what we have because they're too new, too transient, too lame, whatever.

We've got the Cheese Lady. We've got Mr. Rogers. We've got the birth of unionism, the mass construction of the world's buildings and bridges, the eradication of polio, a broader tale of resilience and revival that can't be rivaled anywhere.

We've got ...

DAVE DICELLO

The Fred Rogers statue watches over Downtown on a February morning.

... that. We've got that right up there. We've got the planet's most beautiful urban landscape.

We've got all of that. They don't.

Never forget that there's exactly one American city that sees the above phenomenon on a regular, recurring basis. And never forget why that is.

• Thanks for reading, as always!

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PNC Arena:

1. Jordan Staal, Hurricanes C
2. Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes LW
3. Nino Niederreiter, Hurricanes LW

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Mike Matheson, defenseman, was placed on IR an hour before faceoff of this game. He sustained an upper-body injury Feb. 24. He's week-to-week.

• Teddy Blueger, center, has been on IR since undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw Jan. 24. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks. He's practicing.

• 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 skating.

• Jason Zucker, left winger, has been on IR since undergoing core muscle surgery Jan. 25. He's week-to-week.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

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

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel

And for Brind'Amour's Hurricanes:

Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen
Martinook-Trocheck-Necas
Niederreiter-Staal-Fast
Lorentz-Kotkaniemi-Jarvis 

Slavin-Bear
Skjei-Pesci
Cole-Chatfield

THE SCHEDULE

The team's off Saturday, then practices the next two days, both at 11 a.m. in Cranberry, before taking on the Panthers, Tuesday at 7:08 p.m., at PPG Paints Arena. Taylor Haase and Dave Molinari will cover that one.

THE CONTENT

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