Brandon Tanev doesn't make much sense to me.
Didn't in Winnipeg. Doesn't in Pittsburgh.
And yeah, after the dude had just dived nose-first into all 63 minutes and two seconds of the Penguins' 1-0 overtime victory over the Blue Jackets on this Thursday night, I had the audacity to raise precisely that point with him.
Because for as often as I'd just witnessed him bashing someone, getting bashed right back, basically bouncing all about the rink ... it couldn't have been clearer that there wasn't a single chaotic element to any of it. Every time the situation dictated, he'd pump the brakes as hard as he'd just pushed the pedal. A hard forecheck would be followed, within a millisecond, by a backward-gliding, head-on-a-swivel passive positioning to cut off Columbus' next potential breakout lane.
That, my friends, is rare in this sport. Because generally speaking, the super-fast headless chickens tend to be little more than super-fast headless chickens.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Tanev would reply with a soft smile. "With my personality, you always want to make the play, to do everything you can to make the play. But it isn't always there, and you've got to recognize the situations. I think our coaching staff does a good job of instilling in all of us how we're supposed to play within our system."
And in this one, with a quarter of the roster missing to injury or illness, with goose-eggs on the board all night until Bryan Rust finally broke through and Tristan Jarry had his 17-save shutout, any mistake was bound to be magnified, one would think.
"Absolutely. We know they play a sticky game, and we kind of thought it'd be a one-goal game in that sense. So you go out there and play your game, but you also trust your linemates and trust your system, and be smart in all three zones. That's the best way to contribute."
No doubt. But what he's describing isn't easily quantified. His counting-stats contribution to this one, for instance, consisted of zero goals, zero assists, one shot on goal, one penalty drawn, two giveaways, zero takeaways and a game-high eight hits. Which, while noteworthy with the latter, hardly would get him summoned out to twirl with the evening's three stars.
No, this requires a closer look, and I've spliced up a few scenarios in an attempt to illustrate:
OK, this is boring. And I'll warn right now that most of these will be boring. But then, so was this game, and boring games tend to be won by winning the little boring things like these. I'll go further here and state that these remarkably resilient Penguins being 18-10-4 is primarily due to being diligent with the dull.
As Rust would tell me afterward, "It's all about taking care of the details."
Up there, Tanev's No. 13 hovering between the hashes. He's responsible defensively for nothing more than the left point man and yet, befitting who he is, he can't help himself from straying well over to the right dot in the event that Columbus can pop a pass out to Josh Anderson, the big winger wearing No. 77. Even then, though, as soon as the puck swings behind the Pittsburgh goal and the possibility reopens that his left point man could get a shot, Tanev makes a beeline across, in ample time to stick away Vladislav Garvrikov's shot.
He wanted to do so much more than he did, but he still did plenty enough.
Oh, just wait, it gets more boring than that:
Maybe Tanev's most unusual talent is that he defends in full motion. That creates real problems for the other team in that, when he causes a turnover, he doesn't need to go zero-to-60 to make something of it.
Up there, he goes flying right at Columbus' Seth Jones to block a shot attempt with the back of his blade, casually gloves it back to the ice, then rushes authoritatively to set up a prime scoring chance for Alex Galchenyuk. It's instant conversion of defense to offense, basketball fast-break style, and this was only one of several such instances in this game alone.
And did you notice how he charged through the circle to carve out a path for Galchenyuk?
Well, watch this:
It's another rush. On this one, Dominik Simon's letting loose with a heady shot-pass off Joonas Korpisalo's pads, one that pops right out to Teddy Blueger, who'd be beaten point-blank by Korpisalo's blocker. But never mind all that and watch Tanev. He plows right through the slot and lugs along with him not one but two Columbus players, Boone Jenner and Dean Kukan. And he does so with one hand on his shaft, strongly indicating he's doing nothing more than what you see there.
Trust me: If Blueger scores there, barely a soul -- beyond the Penguins' bench, of course -- would've credited it to Tanev's effort. It was only everything.
The most boring one yet:
Faceoffs should be a team stat, as any player would attest, as wingers, in particular, can have a lot to do with winning them.
Blueger beats Jenner up there -- cheats a little, too, but I won't tell if you don't -- though it isn't enough for Justin Schultz to feel comfortable bolting forward. But that doesn't matter since he's got Tanev out there with him. Tanev abandons his initial stride toward the net to go back for the puck, and Schultz, with excellent instincts of his own, slides forward up the right boards to seek the pass from Tanev once he knows Tanev will cover back for him at the right point.
Remember Tanev's line about trusting teammates and the system?
That's it right there. But it takes the right players and the right buy-in to function that way.
I sense you're really yawning now, so just a couple more, I promise:
It was noted that Tanev committed two giveaways in this game. What's above followed one of those, when he was double-teamed just inside the Columbus blue line. And his response, as one can plainly see, was to pursue Pierre-Luc Dubois back through the neutral zone.
It's a commendable effort, sure, but what's neat here is the route Tanev takes. Rather than simply hightail it after his opponent, as a headless chicken might, he correctly reads that Jack Johnson's about to step up at the blue line to cut off Dubois and, instead, skates directly behind Johnson to take the now-loose puck.
Everyone benefits here. Johnson sees he's getting help, so he can step up, and Tanev, of course, gets possession.
Saved my favorite for last:
Quintessential Tanev right there.
Now, I'm not going to be that guy who suggests Tanev is one to assist the referees in all the penalties he draws -- he ranks ninth in the NHL with his 15th in this game -- but neither will I deny it. Up there, he gets hit from behind by Columbus' Nick Foligno, with the captain's stick raised to boot, but rather than searching around for a ref's raised right arm, Tanev leaps back up onto this skates, smoothly stickhandles through two Blue Jackets at center red, gains the blue line and opens another wave of attack.
I had to ask about this one.
"It's a 50/50 play there for the ref, kind of a touch call for him to make," Tanev elaborated. "What you don't want to do in that situation is lose sight of the puck. Because the other team might take their foot off the gas there, thinking there'll be a penalty. So I tried to take advantage of that."
Seem too good to be true?
Yeah, a lot about this player does. Which makes it feel funny that anyone anywhere questioned Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan for signing him to that six-year, $21 million contract out of free agency this past summer. Because the same thing I'm hearing now from fans and media in Manitoba -- missing Tanev's throbbing heartbeat within the Jets' lineup -- is essentially the same praise being lavished here.
I asked Sullivan about Tanev after this game and, tellingly, he brought up the contract on his own:
"He's a great player," the coach began, strikingly using an adjective he doesn't toss around lightly. "He's hard to play against, and he only plays the game at one speed, and it's, like, Mach 10. I just think he's one of those guys who ... when we talked about wanting to become a harder team to play against, he checked all the boxes. He can skate, he's physical, he's competitive, he's good on the PK and, because of all that, he helps us win."
Seems like a fine fit.
"Yeah, it's the right fit, the right group for me," Tanev responded when I raised that. "I'm glad I made the decision that I did."
Anyone else?
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, PPG Paints Arena, Dec. 12, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS